Add Built-In Shelves Next To A Washer & Dryer, step by step

Laundry room update? Do not mind if I do. To jog your memory, so far we have replaced the washer/dryer, taken down window shutters & cluttered shelves along with frosting the door (all here), filled some ceiling cracks, and painted the room the same color (Benjamin Moore’s Sesame) as the kitchen. And voila, we are all up to speed.

Well, if you truly want to be up to speed, now it looks like this:

But let us back up so I can blather on about how those shelves came to be. Even during our initial walk-through of this house we chose to maximize that sliver of space with some built-ins to add a lot more function.

Did we mention the room is simply 3.5′ wide? That means the washer and dryer doors would not even open if they were placed on the other wall under the window or fuse box. So if anyone’s still having trouble getting how narrow this space is, I broke out my spider monkey skills (and crazy toes) to demonstrate. Do not try this at home, kids.

Since the room is so skinny, we knew adding that vertical storage next to the washer would be key (we cannot truly go “out” for fear of bashing into fold-out shelving or counters or drying racks – so we might as well go “up” instead!). Speaking of up, since the built-in cabinets above the dryer are fully out of Sherry’s reach (poor thing, but at least she can reach the dryer buttons), more accessible storage was simply the thing. And since no ready-made bookshelf skinny sufficient to fit into that 14.5″ gap won us over (they were all too shallow to allow us to take full advantage of the nook), we opted to build something instead. It certainly could not be harder than the behemoth console that we built, right?

Wrong.

Simply kidding. It certainly was easier. So here is a swift-ish recap of how it went down. First I measured the space and marked up a little sketch that I did with a few measurements. I will pause while you marvel at my technical drawing skills.

After much consideration, we opted to use the right wall (with the window on it) as side #1 of the bookshelf and to build a vertical divider of sorts to be side #2. We hoped the whole thing to be as deep as the appliances, but then it would partially cover the window. So instead we are chose to split it. The bottom half would be washer-depth and the top-half (above the window sill) would be window-depth. Confusing, I know. And I am sure this drawing below (which helped me determined wood cuts) does not assist. But here it is anyways. Enjoy!

I got the folks at Home Depot to make most of my cuts, so here is the bulk of my wood pile by the time I got home. We used whitewood with 1 x 2″ poplar boards mixed in (since they do not sell whitewood planks that thin) simply like the console. Also like the console, I’d be screwing two 1 x 12″ boards side-by-side to get a wider board for the bottom and top portions of my vertical divider. And then a 1 x 10″ trimmed with 1 x 2″s for the middle shelf that would connect the two divider halves. Not pictured, nor sketched above, are some more 1 x 12″ boards for my shelves and some miscellaneous 1 x 2″s for trim.

The middle shelf would sit flush with the window sill, so I cut and attached the 1 x 2″ trim pieces so it’d leave a sill-sized notch. Here I am testing the placement, which fortunately worked out truly well.

Then I screwed bottom half of the divider directly into the “floor “(which is in fact a piece of plywood that runs under the appliances for extra stability – more on that here) and into the middle shelf using my Kreg jig. It hung over the plywood a bit (I forgot to calculate the brought in trim on the middle shelf when cutting my board) but I solved that later with another piece of 1 x 2″ trim on the floor to finish things off.

You can see above that I screwed in a couple of pieces of wood on the back and side walls for the middle shelf to rest on. That is because the vertical divider does not go all the way back to the wall (to leave some access to the washer and the dryer duct).

Speaking of which, I updated our old aluminum-foil-ish dryer duct to a safer rigid all-aluminum version from Lowe’s (since we hear they are less of a fire hazard). It was an straightforward switch (remove the other guy, clamp new new one in place with metal clamps and metal wall piece, that is it).

Here is the top divider now attached, simply like the bottom guy. Notice how he’s set back to be even with the window? Is this making more sense now? It is sort of a two-tiered profile so it uses all of the depth that we can use without oddly overlapping the window.

As for the rest of the shelves, we hoped them to be adjustable and removable. Adjustable because, well, sometimes you want to adjust your shelves dagnabbit. Removable because it’ll assist us gain access to the back of the washer/dryer if need be. So I purchased four 6ft lengths of metal shelf tracks at Home Depot (the same kind that we have in our built-ins and master closet) and snipped them with metal cutters to the right lengths.

The space between the divider and the wall was shaping up to be a smidge wider than my 1 x 12″ shelf pieces, so I brought in some additional 1 x 2s to bridge the gap. In the long run, I think this in fact make the metal tracks more secure (since otherwise they’d simply be nailed into drywall). So perhaps a glad accident?

A not so glad accident? Realizing at this point that it’d be quite difficult to paint all of the wood in place. So out it all came so we could access everything more easily. The good news is that it was fairly swift and straightforward to take out, which will be appreciated if ever it has to come out for some serious appliance maintenance.

In the sunroom (the laundry room is waaay too small to attempt to paint these big pieces) we applied two swift coats of primer (Kilz No-VOC) followed by two coats of white paint (Olympic Premium No-VOC semi-gloss off-the-shelf white paint) on all of the framing for the built-ins to make sure we were getting our whitest white without any wood bleed going on. But after lazily painting the shelves with simply two coats of paint the next day (no primer) we realized we likely would’ve been fine without primer on the framing too. Oh well. It certainly did not hurt.

Oh, and we also painted that side wall on the right white (to make it look more like it was part of the bookshelf). But we left the back alone for a shot of color that would be seen through the shelves.

Then I reinstalled everything, nailed in my metal shelf tracks, brought in the clips, and took them for a spin.

On the bottom half I also brought in a little lip at the back of the shelf since, unlike the top, they do not go all the way to the wall. This will hopefully prevent things from sliding off and getting lost back in there. But if something does sneak back there over the lip somehow, we can still easily retrieve it thanks to the shelves being removable.

But sufficient “how we built it” mumbo jumbo. Let us check out the wrapped up product:

That 2″ gap between the appliances and the shelf was intentional so that when the washer starts a-rockin’ things on the shelves do not start a-knockin’ (if you know what I mean). In fact, that is literally what I mean. It is not a euphemism.

Admittedly she’s not the prettiest thing in the world when she’s empty (I think I would’ve preferred the look of fixed all-the-same-size shelves). But the function of adjustable shelving made a lot more sense, and we can now store something small and something tall without worrying that things will not fit.

And there is no denying that we have gained a lot of usable storage space when it comes to the max-depth that we worked hard to obtain. We have not quite figured out all that we will put here (besides the obvious detergent, iron, etc – perhaps a basket that can be used for winter gloves & scarves and a larger one for flip flops and sandals). Simply for lively Sherry went ahead and fancied it up a bit with some – you guessed it – baskets.

Along with a few other things we already had (magazine files, a scalloped bowl, a jar full of clothespins, etc).

We are toying with the idea of this becoming our new drop spot for mail, coupons, and other miscellany. So perhaps it’ll look like this in the long run?

As for the cost on this one, it certainly was more than if we’d gone with a not-quite-right existing solution (like this narrower, shallower version from Ikea). But we totally think it was worth getting something that looks more seamless and truly makes the most of the space (so we can use the full width and depth and adjust the shelves to customize it even further whenever need be). Here is the ol’ budget breakdown:

• Wood (from Home Depot & Lowe’s): $59
• Metal shelf tracks & shelf clips (from Home Depot): $15
• Primer & paint (Kilz No-VOC primer & Olympic No-VOC paint): already owned
• Baskets, magazine files, the bowl, etc: already owned
• TOTAL: $74

Oh, and the aluminum dryer transition duct was $10 from Lowe’s.

If you are searching around for more ideas for making shelves yourself or adding vertical storage, this post is full of 16 ideas for adding shelving.

As for our laundry room to-do list, these days it is looking more like this:

• Paint the odd brown quarter round near the baseboards glossy white
  
• Redo all the dinged up trim (also in semi-gloss white)
• Paint the walls
• Replace our dryer hose with a safer all-metal one
• Add adjustable built-in shelving in that nook next to the stacked washer & dryer
• Replace the hinges and knobs on the upper cabinetry
• Get a new light fixture <- Hands-on something? perhaps a small chandelier?
• Add a window treatment (perhaps a homemade one?)
• Add other functional storage near the door for shoes, Burger’s leash, etc
• Hang some art to keep it cheerful and obscure the giant metal fuse box

Even though we are only about halfway through, we are feeling fairly good that in the past few weeks, this space has already gone from this…

…to this:

As for where we will store the ironing board- we have a plan for that. More details to come after we tackle it (we wanna make sure it works first, haha). In the meantime we’d enjoy to hear what storage solution you are loving (or lusting after) in your laundry space. Got some sweet cabinets or drawers? A cool collapsible drying rack or ironing board? Your quite own laundry sink? We know there are some pimped out laundry rooms out there, so let us hear it.