Before and After: $950 Turns an Office into a Space-Saving One-Wall Laundry Room

You don’t always need an entire room for your laundry essentials—sometimes, you just need a sturdy wall. Need proof? Take this project from Jessica and Matt Gassaway of The Brain and the Brawn. After the couple urned their cramped laundry room into a mudroom, they needed a place to put the washer and dryer. Enter: A wall of their extra bedroom, just on the other side of the now mudroom.

“The prior owners had used the wall as an office, but we weren’t using that space at all,” Jessica says. They used the other two walls in that room for an office desk and a guest bed, respectfully, leaving this wall—directly on the other side of the original laundry room wall—free for the taking. That meant they could flip the machines to the other side relatively easily, since they’d minimize any plumbing or venting changes.

“We didn’t convert the entire extra bedroom into a laundry room—we wanted to keep it to just one wall so we could still utilize that bedroom as the office and guest room,” Jessica says. “Another unique thing we kept in mind during the process was the ability to take apart this laundry wall one day in future and relocate it to another room.” 

The process took a few months, because Jessica wanted to spend time in an in-between phase to make sure she liked the placement of the laundry room before doing anything too permanent. “I also was vehement that I wanted a raised washer and dryer, so it took some time during this testing phase to make sure I liked the exact raised height we were working with,” Jessica says. 

First, Matt moved the ventilation, plumbing, and electricity so they could use it in the other room, and built temporary raised platforms to hold the washer and dryer for the testing phase. Once the couple decided this is what they wanted, they started the design and installation process. Jessica and Matt decided to surround the washer and dryer with shelves and drawers, and put a side-opening cabinet to store their cleaning supplies and vacuums.

“I’d also dreamed of having several of the other features we included—such as the awesome pull-out shelves below the washer and dryer, plus extra deep drawers below each of those for the dirty laundry waiting to go in, separated out by type via dividers in each drawer,” Jessica says. “I’d never seen anyone do this setup before, but it existed in my mind and to make it a reality felt so satisfying, especially when it has worked out even better than I pictured it.”

For $950, Jessica and Matt now have their ideal laundry room.

“Thankfully, I love having the washer and dryer raised,” Jessica said. “And I genuinely enjoy doing laundry now, which may sound crazy but is true because it feels so smooth and nearly effortless now.”

Inspired? Submit your own project here.