New IKEA laundry room cabinets plus new lighting & storage solutions completely transformed our laundry room!
After knocking out our kitchen remodel “before” and “after” a few years back, I decided it was time to give our sad looking laundry room a much-needed makeover. We added a ton of extra storage to it using IKEA cabinets & wardrobes and it made SUCH a difference!
Today I’m sharing all the details of the IKEA additions to our laundry room plus all the other little extras we added to it as well. Hopefully you’ll find an idea or two you can use for dressing up your own laundry room! (post includes commissionable links; for more information, see my full disclosure statement {here})
Our Before and After
Our laundry room wasn’t very big (7’5″ x 5’6″) and when we bought our house there was some prime real estate that was going unused including the wall above the washer and dryer that was entirely bare with no cabinetry or shelving. Here’s the “before” of how it looked:
And here’s that same space after our makeover:
Not only is it a much prettier place to do laundry but it’s so much more functional and full of storage space too! I wanted to keep the cost of this mini makeover low so used IKEA products for all of our new laundry room storage.
The IKEA Laundry Room Cabinets We Used
Above the washer and dryer we added IKEA SEKTION wall cabinet frames with AXSTAD doors. Specifically we used {this 30″ SEKTION frame} in the middle with two of {these AXSTAD doors} and one of {these 15″ SEKTION frames} on each end with {these AXSTAD doors}:
When you get cabinets from Ikea, everything is ordered separately so you also need to buy interior shelves and hinges for the cabinet doors. I used {these Utrusta hinges} and {these Utrusta shelves}):
Cabinet Installation
The IKEA cabinets come disassembled but are relatively quick and easy to put together (under 30 minutes per cabinet). Once assembled, cabinet frames are hung on {this SEKTION metal suspension rail} which actually makes hanging them pretty simple. First you mount the suspension rail to the wall, ensuring it’s level. Then you hang the cabinet frames on the rail and lock them in place.
To give our cabinets a more finished, built-in look, we added small filler pieces on each end of the cabinet (cut from {this FORBATTRA cover panel}) and a strip of crown molding at the top:
Adding Open Shelving to IKEA Laundry Room Cabinets
I wanted open shelving between the two end cabinets and while Ikea has several wood shelf options, I luckily had a leftover piece of the white oak boards from creating these floating corner shelves in our kitchen:
So that’s what I used! The oak board was cut to size to fit between the two end cabinets and then secured with screws going through the inside of the cabinets into the ends of the board. It holds a woven basket (with socks that have lost their mate 😊) and a pair of {these glass jars} holding powder detergent and my wool dryer balls:
Cabinet Hardware
The finishing touch to my new IKEA laundry room cabinets was adding {these acrylic pulls} in the Golden Champagne finish – love them!
Butcher Block Countertop
The last major addition to this side of the laundry room was a large piece of butcher block above the washer and dryer. It sits on simple wood cleats (horizontally mounted wood strips) installed on the back and side walls. Having this flat surface for sorting and folding laundry has been a game changer:
I bought the butcher block from IKEA and unfortunately they no longer carry it, but {this countertop} is similar.
Other Additions to Our Laundry Room
Some other smaller additions to our laundry room include an over the door ironing board holder similar to {this one} and {this retractable clothes rack} we mounted on the wall. It’s great for air drying Jeff’s shirts – you simply pull up on it from the bottom and it opens up to give 10″ of hanging space:
When I bought mine it only came in silver but it’s now available in white too (which is the color I wish I had!).
We also added {this skinny rolling cart} which fits perfectly in the gap between our washer and dryer:
Having the rolling cart makes it easy to grab my laundry essentials including detergent, bleach, stain spray, and {these delicates bags}. I also have one of {these small bins} on the bottom shelf for dryer lint:
Check out my post on laundry room storage ideas for more details on how I organized this space.
I’m sure you’ve noticed the cute tangerines on the wall too – those are simple peel and stick decals that I bought {here}! They’re so easy to put on and they come off without damaging your walls whenever you’re ready for a change. I share the step by step details of installing them in my post on vinyl wall decals.
I also swapped out our ceiling light for {this simple but stylish flush mount}:
The other side of our laundry room underwent some major changes too – the previous homeowner had open shelves that went halfway up the wall holding their kitchenware and shoes:
We removed the shelving and installed IKEA PAX wardrobes to create a cubbies for coats and drawers for shoes (we have no coat closet so space for coats was much needed!). Here’s what that side of the laundry room looks like today:
I shared all of the details of how we used PAX wardrobes to build a coat & shoe storage space in my post on creating IKEA mudroom.
And if you’re wondering about the change in flooring from Saltillo tile to wood, we made this change as part of our kitchen renovation since our kitchen and laundry room floors connect to one another. Check out my post on our Hallmark wood floors if you want more details on my engineered hardwoods and how they’ve held up since we installed them.
Thanks for taking a minute to stop by today and take a peek around our laundry room! If you want to see another big makeover project I did using Ikea products, check out our master closet makeover and Ikea PAX closet system review}.
XO,
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Paul Freeman says
Beautifully done work in your laundry room! An excellent use of all the extra real estate available to you.
It has inspired my wife and I to do something similar as our dimensions above the appliances are the same as yours: 5’6”.
I’d like your expert input. The cabinets and the filler pieces you used amount to maybe 5’2”. What did you do with the extra 3-4” of space?
Thank you so much!
Kris Jarrett says
Hi! I used one 30″ cabinet and two 15″ cabinets (total of 5 feet of cabinetry) that we centered on the wall and then we added 3″ fillers on both ends to get to the 5’6″ width.
Manish says
Hello- we have the same laundry machines and a butcher block would need to be at least 34 inches width to cover the machines. Ikea’s is 18 inches. Did you attach two blocks together?
Giuliana says
Hello there – beautiful laundry!! we are renovating our garage as I type, and had already purchased the same cabinets for the laundry area. Do you have any guidance on installing the crown molding above? the doors are flush to the top of the cabinet, so not sure how exactly to install.
Thank you for your time!
Dwayne Johnson says
Hello,
I truly appreciate the time you have taken to share your make over and all the resources you sourced. I am in Canada and I was able to find the same stuff at my local Ikea.
My wife and I are doing our best to replicate your make over in our tiny laundry room.
I have been looking for dimensions particularly when it come to selecting the right width for the Sektion frames.
The width (going across) of our room is 66.25″ and I’m not sure what width you were working with in your laundry room, but it seems if we went with the same frames you used 30″ center and 2x 15″ right and left frames that is 60″ in total leaving us with an extra 6″…I am thinking to go with a 36″ x14 3/4×15″ center frame, which would leave us with just 1/4″ .
I am definitely a novice at this…not handy at all. Any help with understanding dimension would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Dwayne J
Michelle Hill says
I have searched high and low for those baskets ever since I saw this beautiful post! Do you recall where you bought them from or have recommendations for similar ones? Thank you!
Claudia says
Wonderfully done, I will take some of your ideas to integrate in my project !
Christina says
This looks amazing! I am trying to do something similar in my laundry room. Would you be able to tell me the dimensions of the open oak shelf between the two cabinets?
Thank you!
Kris Jarrett says
Thank you! It’s about 30″ long.
Jennifer says
Beautiful! What kind of flooring did you use?
Kris Jarrett says
They are engineered oak hardwoods – the flooring in our laundry room is continuous with what we have in our kitchen and kitchen eat-in so that go changed when we did our kitchen remodel. There are more details on the exact flooring we chose here: https://www.drivenbydecor.com/hallmark-wood-floors-review/
Samantha tali says
I love reading your blogs. I’m going to try to duplicate most of what you did for your laundry cabinets. Would I need one or two of forbattra cabinet fillers? I’m not really sure how you used them for fillers, but hoping my guy doing it can figure it out. Thanks!
Kris Jarrett says
Thank you! Everything depends on the width of your space but we only needed one piece of Forbattra to do ours!
kate says
Hi there, love this! I was hoping you can help with the cord? You’re laundry cord goes through the butcher block, but you have something that protects it in the hole? do you know where I could get that? or what it’s called? THANK YOU
Kim Dockman says
Love this laundry room! What color paint did you use?