Thanks for all the laundry room ideas last week — we really appreciated the feedback. We took time to consider every suggestion and even got a few quotes for more involved options like moving hookups, shifting the doorway, and possibly bumping out a wall. One recurring idea (call it “Option 3”) was to rotate the washer and dryer 90° so the appliances would be tucked out of sight. That would also let us move the storage-room access to the back wall and eliminate the awkward “walk through one room to get to another” circulation problem.
It was an intriguing idea. We hadn’t thought of it originally because rotating the units would require moving electrical, water, and venting — a more intensive reconfiguration than we’d planned — and it didn’t really add usable square footage. Still, hiding the appliances and solving the doorway issue had clear appeal.
A variation on that concept (let’s call it Option 4) took things a step further by reclaiming some of the unfinished storage room to create a fully enclosed laundry room. That would mean framing new walls, adding drywall, moving hookups, and installing a door — a bigger project, but one that would give us a proper dedicated laundry space.
Even though a true laundry room sounded nice, it almost felt like more fuss than we needed. Maybe it’s our background living in small New York spaces — we’ve always been comfortable doing laundry in compact areas and carrying baskets into the bedroom to fold. We’ve never had a laundry space large enough to iron or fold inside, so making do in other rooms has always worked. For us, carving out a dedicated room felt like a solution to a problem we didn’t really have.
Then a comment from Lesley on Facebook changed our thinking. She pointed out that if we moved the storage door to where the appliances currently sit, a window in the future bunk room would become visible from the hallway — and that would brighten an otherwise dark side of the hall.
Seeing the potential for light to flow down the previously dim hallway made Option 4 suddenly very appealing. The hall currently loses natural light halfway down because the last rooms that allow daylight into the corridor are Clara’s room and the guest room below. On the opposite end, our bedroom lines up with a window and the hallway feels noticeably brighter. If we install a frosted glass door for the new laundry room, it would let even more light spill into the hallway while still offering privacy and sound dampening.
That “more light” benefit might seem like a small tipping point compared with gaining a larger laundry area, but for us it was decisive. Gaining a bigger, enclosed laundry space and eliminating the need to pass through one room to get to another were important bonuses, but the light down the hall sold the plan.
In practical terms, the change would involve closing the existing cased opening and installing a frosted door on the wall currently behind the washer. We debated keeping the laundry area open versus closing it with a wall and door; ultimately we favored a door to reduce noise and to keep a certain curious toddler out. Instead of turning the corner and walking a few steps to the current storage door, that door would shift forward and become the entry to the new laundry room, with a new wall to enclose the space.
From inside the storage room, the new layout places the washer and dryer along the new wall, with the modified doorway positioned to line up with the vertical wall near the dryer vent. Please forgive the mess in our sketch — we still have the original laundry bi-folds and other clutter in there — but the new arrangement would create a more functional laundry zone while improving hallway daylight.
One design detail we wrestled with was how the change affects attic access stairs. Our online floorplanner tool didn’t perfectly reflect our actual staircase, which has a single bottom step and a small landing rather than a longer run. The structural change mostly requires moving that bottom step, but we were concerned that enclosing the attic access with a wall that hugs the lower steps could make hauling bulky items, like the Christmas tree, a bit tighter.
Ultimately, we decided the trade-off was reasonable. A walk-up attic is already a big upgrade over a drop-down ladder, and while access might feel a little more enclosed, the benefit of more natural light in the hallway and a properly enclosed laundry room would be worth it.
Cost and logistics remain the biggest hurdles. Moving plumbing, electrical, and venting is beyond our DIY comfort, so we brought in two contractors to estimate moving hookups, adding a drain under the washer, framing two walls and two doors, and finishing with drywall. The first bid came back at $4,700, which was higher than we expected and included a detailed itemization. That price is significant — close to what we might spend on a bathroom overhaul or new kitchen appliances — so it gave us pause.
We’re waiting on the second estimate from a well-recommended contractor and hoping for a more manageable number. After all the planning and visualizing, we’re eager to move forward, and we’re secretly excited about some therapeutic demo work soon. For now, we’re weighing cost versus benefit: extra light in the hallway, a true laundry room, and a clearer circulation path versus the price of moving all the hookups. Fingers crossed the next bid gets us closer to a “yes.”