Small Laundry Room Layout Ideas: Where the Washer, Dryer and Counter Go

The short answer: The best small laundry room layout puts the washer and dryer side by side on one clear wall long enough for both machines, with room in front for the open doors. Add one counter across both machine tops and storage above, and laundry moves one way: sort, wash, dry, fold, put away. OfficeSimpli sells a counter for side-by-side front-load pairs; it rests on the machine tops, stops at or just behind the control panel and needs no drilling. Wall too short for two machines? Stack two front-loaders and fold elsewhere. A top-load washer can hold nothing on top, since its lid opens upward: fold on the dryer or a fold-down or rolling table.

What is the best layout for a small laundry room?

A small room works best when it follows the order you do laundry in. Put each step right next to the one before it, so a basket never crosses the room twice.

Step 3 is where a small room usually runs out of space, because a folding table needs floor. Our Washer Dryer Countertop sits on the machines instead. It rests on rubber pads with no bolts, brackets or wall mounting, and as our sizing guide explains, its front edge stops at or just behind the control panel. The buttons and doors stay clear, and nothing reaches past the front of the machines.

One more check: if your washer's detergent drawer slides out of the top of its front panel, pull it open once with the counter in place. If it catches, slide the counter back toward the wall.

One reviewer's fix

“I had to push it towards the rear because it was interfering with the slide out detergent drawer.”

Small laundry room layout ideas, wall by wall

Start with the walls you have. Here are four ways to place the washer, dryer and counter, from one wall to an L. Long, narrow rooms and galleys, where the machines face a counter or a wall across a tight aisle, have their own guide, and so do laundry closets behind doors.

1

One wall: the machines, one counter, cabinets above

Good for: a room with one clear wallWall cabinets? Measure first

The simplest layout puts everything on one wall: the washer and dryer side by side, a counter across both, and cabinets or shelves above. Every step happens in one spot, and the rest of the room stays open for walking and baskets.

Cabinets above need one check. The counter's rail, the raised edge along its back and sides, stands 3.5 inches above the machine tops with the board included. So the gap under the cabinets has to be at least 3.5 inches, plus enough room for your hands to slide a basket on and off.

Try this: measure from the top of the taller machine to the underside of the cabinets before you order. Our sizing guide shows the check step by step.

From a laundry room with limited space

“My laundry room has limited space and this device enables me to fold clothes and maintain a nice, clean flat surface over the washer and dryer.”

2

Push the pair to one end of the wall

Fixes: wasted slivers of wallRoom for tall, slim things

If the wall is longer than the pair, do not center the machines. Two thin gaps, one on each side, hold almost nothing. Push the pair to one end and the leftover wall becomes one usable strip. On a 6-foot wall, a 54-inch counter leaves 18 inches: one 18-inch strip is far easier to use than two 9-inch strips.

Give that strip to the tall, slim things that would otherwise stand in the walkway, like the step stool and the stick vacuum in the photo.

Try this: before the machines go in, tape their outline on the floor and slide the tape to each end of the wall to see which leftover strip you would rather have.

3

An L: machines on one wall, a second job on the next

Good for: two free walls that meetCheck the room door's swing

When two walls meet with no door between them, use both. The washer, dryer and counter take the longer wall. The shorter wall takes one job the counter cannot do: a utility sink, a hanging rod near the dryer so shirts go straight onto hangers, or a tall cabinet for the vacuum and the ironing board.

Try this: open the room's door all the way before you choose the second wall. It should not hit the sink, the cabinet or the open washer door.

4

A wall too short for the pair: stack two front-loaders

Good for: walls under 54 inchesNo counter on top

Two front-loaders side by side usually take up 54 inches of wall, because 27 inches is the standard front-load width (GE and GE Profile pairs take 56). If your wall is shorter, stack two front-loaders, once their manual confirms they can stack. A counter across the tops is out then, because ours needs the two machines next to each other.

Fold on a table that folds down from the wall or on a rolling cart instead; our laundry folding station guide shows both. Our small laundry room storage guide weighs stacking against side by side.

Try this: measure the wall at the height of the machine tops, from trim to trim, since door trim and baseboard eat into the space.

What is a good layout for a 6x9 laundry room?

A 6x9 room, 6 feet by 9 feet, is 72 by 108 inches, and a side-by-side pair with a counter fits on either wall. First find the water hookups, the drain and the dryer vent: they usually decide which wall the machines go on, and moving them is a plumber's job. If you do have a choice, it comes down to floor to stand on, or wall beside the machines. The table runs the numbers for both walls, and for a 10x10 room.

Your own room: the wall left beside the counter is the wall's length minus the counter's width. The floor in front is the room's depth, minus your machine's depth with the door open (its spec sheet lists it), minus any gap behind the machine.

On a 9-foot wall, the pair leaves 54 inches of wall for a utility sink, a cabinet or a hanging rod. But with the washer door open, only about 17 inches of floor are left in front of it, so you load from the side. On a 6-foot wall, you keep about 53 inches in front of the open door, plus a strip of wall 18 inches wide (see idea 2).

Pick the 9-foot wall to keep a sink, a cabinet or a rod on the same wall as the machines. Pick the 6-foot wall for room to stand and sort in front of them; either 9-foot wall can still take the sink or the rod, which makes an L (see idea 3).

What are some good layouts for a 10x10 laundry room?

A 10x10 room is 120 inches each way. The pair and a Standard counter use 54 inches of one wall and leave 66, with about 65 inches of floor in front of the open washer door. So the question is not whether it fits but what the other walls do.

In all three, the counter over the machines is where you fold, and the walls around it hold the rest. Our storage guide covers shelves and cabinets on the wall above the machines.

Will a counter over the machines work in your layout?

Check your machines and your wall against this list before you plan the room around a counter. Ours needs a side-by-side front-load pair.

Have a top-load washer? Nothing can sit on it, because its lid opens upward, so the counter is out whatever the room. Fold on the dryer, or on a fold-down or rolling table: our laundry folding station guide covers both.

Worth knowing: a counter makes a small room work better, not bigger. It covers the two machine tops and nothing else, and under wall cabinets it takes 3.5 inches plus room for your hands. Shelves, cabinets, a rod or a sink around it are separate projects, and the counter itself goes together with seven screws.

From a reviewer on cabinets and small appliances

“It fits well except for raising the base by an Inch or so, so if you have Cabinets above it and have small Appliances - Coffee maker and Coffee Grinder in our instance, you may need to adjust the location.”

Small laundry room layout questions, answered