Laundry Room Makeover Ideas From Real Customer Laundry Rooms

Fixes: nowhere to foldFixes: socks lost behindRenter-friendly

Two machine tops with a gap between them are hard to use. A countertop across both makes one flat surface for folding and sorting. Raised edges on the back and both sides stop socks and dryer sheets from dropping behind the machines, and the front stays open, so nothing gets in the way of folding and loading.

Designers agree. The interior design firm Studio McGee writes: "If your layout allows, we always recommend installing a countertop over front-loading machines." The room at the top of this page shows the same idea in white.

Try this: measure across both machines, side to side and front to back, then find your size in our sizing guide.

Good for: black steel machinesRenter-friendly

If your washer and dryer are black steel, a black top makes the pair look like one built-in unit instead of two machines. In this laundry room, a black top runs across a black steel LG pair next to a granite counter, and the counter holds a water distiller and two glass drink dispensers.

Slate Grey, a flat charcoal, is the softer choice: one customer picked it for black steel machines instead.

Try this: hold your phone's photo of the machines next to the color swatches below before you choose.

Good for: white machinesRenter-friendly

White machines under white cabinets can read as one big wall of white. A walnut-tone woodgrain top breaks it up and makes the counter look like a piece of furniture. It is a woodgrain laminate, not real wood, so there is nothing to seal.

Try this: if your cabinets are wood, match the top to them instead (more on that below).

Fixes: a plain roomRenting? Ask first

A can of paint changes the whole room. Deep navy walls make white machines and a white top stand out, and the white wire shelf above ties in with them. Keep the top the same color as the machines and let the wall do the talking.

Try this: paint only the wall behind the machines first. If you love it, keep going.

Fixes: a plain roomGood for: machines on pedestals

This room goes the other way: sunny yellow walls, slate-blue cabinets and a patterned floor, with a black top that frames the machines and a pair of WASH and DRY signs on top. The machines sit on pedestals, which raise them off the floor.

A countertop still fits on pedestals, because pedestals change the height, not the width.

Try this: before you add pedestals, check the space from the machine tops up to any cabinets; our sizing guide shows how.

Fixes: nowhere to hang clothes

Clothes that should not go in the dryer need a place to hang. A rod above the machines holds shirts on hangers as they come out of the washer, and a shelf above the rod keeps baskets of supplies up and out of the way. With a countertop below, the wall over the machines does three jobs: hang, store and fold.

Try this: hang the rod high enough that long shirts clear the countertop.

Fixes: clutterRenter-friendly

Loose bottles and boxes make a laundry room look messy. Put the small things in a lidded glass jar and the odds and ends in a couple of baskets, and the counter looks tidy even on a busy laundry day. The jar in this photo holds detergent pods; if you have small children, keep pods out of reach in a cabinet instead.

Try this: stop at two or three containers, so there is still room to fold.

Fixes: clutterRenter-friendly

Two matching canisters look calm and planned, where a jumble of boxes does not. The top in this photo is a honey-tone woodgrain color we no longer make; the colors we sell today are shown below.

Try this: pick containers in a color that already shows up in the room, such as white to match the machines.

Fixes: a plain roomRenting? Ask first

The strip of wall between the counter and the cabinets is small, so a bold pattern there does not take over the room. A black and white geometric backsplash behind a walnut-tone top gives this room one strong focal point, and the white cabinets and machines keep the rest quiet.

Try this: keep the pattern to that one strip of wall between the counter and the cabinets.