Their First Build Started With Sheets of Plywood: The Result Looks Like a Custom Laundry Room
One wire shelf once provided most of the storage in this laundry room, leaving detergent, baskets, and household supplies exposed above a washer and dryer. Empty wall space surrounded both machines, giving the room plenty of unused capacity but few places to put anything.
Imgur creator headbandsandhome took on the room as a pandemic project and first build, starting with plywood rather than ready-made cabinets. Sheets became cabinet boxes, doors, drawers, a tall storage unit, and a built-in structure designed around the appliances.
Finished cabinetry now stretches from floor to ceiling, while a stacked washer and dryer opened enough room for a long work surface. Butcher block, herringbone tile, hanging storage, and a pull-out hamper completed a room that bears little resemblance to the wire-shelf setup it replaced.
One wire shelf left most of the wall unused
Before work began, the washer and dryer sat side by side beneath a basic white wire shelf. Cleaning products filled the shelf while larger items ended up on top of the machines.
Tall ceilings made the unused space above stand out. Rather than add another shelf, the project would use cabinetry to claim the wall from the appliances to the ceiling.
Plywood became the cabinet boxes
Cabinet construction began outside the laundry room with cut plywood panels assembled into individual boxes. Open frames provided the structure before doors, drawers, paint, or hardware entered the build.
Building separate boxes also allowed each section to fit a specific job once installed.
Drawers turned empty space into closed storage
Several plywood boxes became drawer units, with slides mounted inside before the fronts went on. Different drawer depths created room for both small laundry supplies and bulkier items.
That choice moved storage away from a single exposed shelf and into dedicated compartments.
Tall cabinets used the room’s height
Full-height cabinet frames took advantage of vertical space that had gone unused. Dividers and shelves split the interiors into storage zones instead of creating one oversized cavity.
Once assembled, the units began to show how much cabinetry could fit around the laundry functions without increasing the room’s footprint.
Cabinet doors gave the plywood a finished face
Shaker-style doors changed the appearance of the raw boxes, concealing the plywood construction behind a consistent grid of panels.
Dark hardware added contrast against the light painted finish and carried across doors and drawers.
Stacking the machines created room for a counter
Placing the dryer above the washer freed the space previously occupied by one machine. Cabinetry could then extend into that area while leaving the stacked pair accessible.
A long butcher-block counter filled the newly available section, creating a surface for folding clothes and sorting laundry.
Herringbone tile filled the space above the worktop
Small rectangular tiles were arranged in a herringbone pattern between the wood counter and upper cabinets. According to the creator, tiling proved the hardest part of the project and took three attempts to reach the finished result.
Dark grout emphasizes each tile and connects the backsplash with the black cabinet pulls and hanging rail.
A pull-out hamper disappears behind a cabinet front
One lower cabinet hides a large laundry hamper on a sliding frame. Pulling the door forward brings the basket out with it, while closing it restores the uninterrupted cabinet run.
Dirty laundry gets dedicated storage without requiring a freestanding basket on the floor.
Raw plywood ended up looking like fitted cabinetry
Finished room combines floor-to-ceiling cabinets, stacked appliances, butcher block, herringbone tile, drawers, hanging space, and concealed laundry storage within one wall.
Few clues remain of the plywood boxes shown during construction. For a first build, the result raises a bigger question: would you have guessed these cabinets were built from scratch rather than ordered from a cabinet shop? And would you take on an entire laundry room for your first woodworking project?
Image credits go to @headbandsandhome.