5 Small Space Laundry Rooms

Looking through magazines, Pinterest, Instagram and Houzz, we tend to see a lot of glorious laundry rooms that are bigger than the average kitchen. Wouldn’t it be a dream to have a coat warmer, a bay window, an extra fridge, a craft station, a home office and every kind of laundry accoutrement in the laundry room? Yeah, sure, but that’s not reality for most of us. Especially when living in a charming historic house in the city of Atlanta. Or in a house built in one of the wonderful Atlanta suburbs, where many of the homes were built before the era of the majestic laundry room space. In this blog post, we’ve lined up 5 small space laundry rooms with big style to inspire you.

At Innovate Atlanta, we know space might be tight in your laundry area. But we still want to make it a beautiful room for you. And we want to help you find a design that will make laundry feel like a joy, not a chore. Here are the 5 small space laundry rooms we’ve completed for clients. We hope they’ll give you hope that your laundry room can be a beauty too.

Small Space 1: An Attic Laundry Room

In order to give these homeowners more space, we finished their attic, adding a study, a bedroom and a spa-like bathroom and a laundry room. Slanted ceilings were part of the charm, but also created design challenges. Space was tight, especially in terms of height! So we came up with the clever solution of putting the washer and dryer across from one another rather than side by side. While it’s a tiny space, there are a lot of great features that keep it clean and stylish.

On this side, a mix of cabinetry and open shelves provide spots for laundry supplies and even a little display. And a rolling hamper makes it easy to corral dirty clothes. There’s even a pass-through so that clothes can be thrown straight into it from the other room. (And pass throughs are always fun for kids making forts or playing hide and seek.) Our clients picked some very futuristic and beautiful appliances we wanted to honor. Marble countertops, brass hardware and deep warm gray paint elevate the style.

Across the small room, more cabinetry and marble countertops continue next to and over the dryer. Our clients opted for a rod above the dryer for convenient air drying.

Oh, and one more really fun thing about this laundry room — the door to it is hidden within a bookshelf. Yes, laundry rooms can be fun and even mysterious! Check out the full story about this attic renovation to see it and learn more.

Small Space 2: A Reconfigured Mudroom

This super-busy family of five needed their side entry to serve a lot of functions — a mudroom drop zone for coats, bags and shoes; a laundry room; overflow pantry space and hand-washing space. Located right off the kitchen, it served it, but also needed separation. we replaced the swing door with a space-saving pocket door, seen on the right side of this photo. We also replaced a basic utility sink with a much prettier stainless steel undermount sink with a marble countertop and a handsome faucet.

Before: The mudroom was dark and cramped. The door seen here opened to a non-functional pantry. The washer and dryer were cramped and there wasn’t any functional space around them. And the only place to sit and put on shoes was the back staircase.

After: We removed the pantry to give the space some breathing room. This also allowed for drying rack cabinetry with extra drawers on the bottom. And we managed to find space for some upper cabinets for outerwear and overflow pantry items.

The style of the room lightened and brightened the space. The Laura Ashley tiles ground the room in a lovely pattern that’s durable for high traffic. Natural wood on the shelving and benches add warmth, while shiplap adds texture. And a schoolhouse style light fixture fits the period of the historic home.

Learn more details about this laundry room-mudroom makeover

Small Space 3: A Compact Laundry Room

The previous clients had hired Innovate Atlanta to renovate their kitchen, and then decided to tackle the side entry. Their beautiful new kitchen was making their existing laundry room look even more drab than before! And these Marietta clients had hired us to renovate some bathrooms and bedrooms, then wound up asking us to complete a functional mudroom renovation.

What they both had in common was that they decided “Hey, while we have these guys around, why don’t we spruce up our laundry rooms?” This is a great idea — we’ll already have all the tiling, painting, plumbing, electrical, carpentry and other tasks scheduled for your home, we’ll have the dumpster there, and the rooms protected from dust. So let the scope of your renovation grow to wherever you need it while it’s convenient.

Before: So, here in the Marietta home, this space needed to serve as the family’s mudroom, laundry room and storage overflow space. It also needed to serve as the dog’s dining room. We were able to make the space more functional by doing some clever reconfiguring. The laundry room was located in the back off this overflowing drop zone.

After: Part of the renovations included removing a back staircase. So if this new butler’s pantry-mudroom seems wider, it’s because it is! You can read more about what we did with the entire space in this story. But for our purposes in this story, we’re going to look at how fabulous that small laundry room at the back of the photo is!

Stacking the machines saved enough space for some much-needed extra cabinet space next to them. And it also left enough room for a folding and organizing countertop on the opposite side of the room. A patterned floor tile and coastal blue walls completed the beautiful finishes in here.

Small Space 4: A Closet-Sized Laundry Room

This laundry room represents the size many of our clients have in their homes. There’s just enough space to open the washer and dryer doors and turn your body around. But that’s OK. A small space doesn’t mean you have to scrimp on style. In fact, you’ll need such a small amount of tile that you’ll be able to splurge on something extra special!

In this case, the chevron mosaic tile creates a stunning backsplash. It’s complemented by digitally printed porcelain tile with a coastal look on the floors. Cabinets overhead allow the homeowners to keep the tops of the machines clear for folding and organizing. And we even squeezed in some drying racks that fold flat along the walls when not in use.

Small Space 5: A Laundry “Room” in the Cabinet

We finished a basement into a beautiful studio apartment and media room for these Atlanta-area clients. And we managed to squeeze in some conveniently located laundry appliances right in the kitchenette. Though you can’t be totally sure where they are …

… Voilà! They are hidden behind tall cabinet doors. The doors fold and slide back out of the way when it’s time to do laundry.

Learn more about this basement studio apartment project

We hope these 5 small space laundry room solutions have inspired you to spruce up your own spaces. And if you need professional help making your home more efficient and organized, our in-house design team can help you come up with great solutions and our renovation team will make them come to life. Schedule a free consultation to let us know more about your project.