Custom Walk-In Pantry and Laundry Room Combo Design Ideas

Our design experts weigh in on how you can easily create a multipurpose walk-in pantry and laundry room using custom design.

Remember the old song “Whistle While You Work” from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs? The tune talks about doing chores and tidying up in good cheer, even in spite of an intimidatingly long to-do list. Sure, the song debuted years ago when families didn’t rely as much on dual incomes. But it’s just as relevant today, given how we find ourselves regularly juggling multiple tasks and struggling to find the time and energy to keep our homes clean.

Preparing meals and snacks while doing laundry and taking care of a hundred other household chores can get overwhelming pretty quickly. If only there were a way to combine all of our responsibilities—including laundry and pantry organization—into one shared space where everything is easily accessible and neat. (While we’re at it, maybe we could also add in a bit of entertainment to spur the work along?)

Here in the Georgetown neighborhood of D.C., we know how precious space and time can be. A multi-purpose area like a combination walk-in pantry and laundry room is one great way to:

• Store your various pantry items

• Maintain your household cleaning and laundry supplies

• Relax at a laundry folding and sorting station while enjoying your favorite snacks

Not to mention, make our chore days a little cheerier! Here are some laundry room and pantry ideas and ways to create a customized space.

Custom Walk-In Pantry and Laundry Room Design Ideas

Designing a custom-organized, combination walk-in pantry and laundry room should offer the convenience you need and maybe even a place for a little entertainment as you engage in household activities.

These ideas extend plenty of functionality and convenience, as well as space for all of your pantry and laundry room, needs to be combined into one amazing and entertaining room.

Create Your Perfect Space:

• Start from Scratch. Some people don’t even have a laundry room. If that’s your situation, first determine where the most convenient place for such a combination would be. It might be a great location just off the kitchen or a convenient area near the living room.

• Renovate Your Current Area. If you already have a laundry room, you can work with a custom designer to find ways to incorporate cabinetry, shelves, and organizational tools for both pantry and laundry items.

Hide Your Supplies Behind Cabinetry:

• Pantry Items. You can simply hide pantry items, such as canned goods and miscellaneous snacks, behind cabinetry doors to make things look more neat and organized.

• Pantry and Laundry Supplies. You can even have two cabinetry areas—one for your pantry items and one for your laundry room storage, including your detergents, cleaning products, and sponges.

Renovate a Small Closet:

Some prefer a custom closet instead of traditional cabinetry. If that represents you, and you have a closet inside the room you are remodeling, consider a custom-designed closet plan for making that closet into your official small pantry storage. Or, if you are working with a larger area, you can afford to make the entire laundry and pantry combo into an open room.

Custom closet organization can be a perfect solution for your walk-in pantry or your laundry room supplies. A closet can also be dedicated to laundry-specific supplies and larger cleaning items such as steamers, irons, and dust busters. You could even include chrome attachments on the back of the door for your brooms and wet jets.

Incorporate Shelving for Quick Access Items:

• Adjustable Shelving. Sturdy, adjustable shelves are ideal for quick access items from your small pantry area. You can also add an extra shelf just above your washer and dryer for laundry pods, bleach, and dryer sheets that you use regularly.

Personalize Your Pantry and Laundry Design

As you minimize your pantry and laundry or linen closet clutter, you can also think about what can take your mind off of stress as you are whistling while you work and doing your chores.

When you are creating a walk-in pantry and laundry room design, it’s important to add your special touch to make that space more meaningful to you. For instance, you could:

• Prepare a folding station. Prep an area just for folding. This may be a place where you sit and watch a mini television and have your snacks or takeout—all while folding and tucking shirts, dresses, and sweaters. You might even want to include a mini-fridge for a basement area pantry and laundry room.

• Use chrome bins for sorting. Be sure and include chrome bins under or next to the folding station for sorting different categories of items, such as socks, undergarments, or t-shirts. Chrome bins are also great in the pantry for storing irregularly shaped ingredients or containers.

• Hang clothes in a temporary wardrobe. A temporary wardrobe acts as a holding station for hanging clothes that you will eventually transfer elsewhere. Or, it can be a quick-grab station where each individual can stop by to grab their own items and take them to their bedroom. You can also use this wardrobe to air dry your damp or delicate items.

• Get a stackable washer and dryer. A stackable unit frees up space for installing a sink for managing unwanted stains or adding a special corner shelf for old photos, trophies, mementos—whatever makes your heart happy. One unique client of ours decorated her laundry room with 1800s washboards and scenes from the historic Georgetown waterfront to remind herself that even the heaviest load of laundry is ten times easier to clean and sort now than it was back in the “good ole’ days” when people had to do their laundry in the Potomac River.

• Install lower-level shelving for laundry baskets or heavier pantry items. Shelving closer to the floor is great for storing heavier pantry items you wouldn’t want to strain trying to retrieve (or worse, risk falling on your head!). In the laundry area, meanwhile, lower-level shelving is the perfect place for storing your laundry baskets. You can even have wider shelving with dividers for multiple baskets.

Finalize Your Custom Design Plan

Designing and decorating your workspace the way you like can help ignite a spark of joy in your work—even if it’s not accompanied by whistling. Including conveniences like a small television, refrigerator, or a snack pantry can make laundry and other tasks go by so much faster. You might even DVR a Disney movie just for fun!

However, transformation is not always an easy task. If you’re thinking of finally taking the leap and creating a combination walk-in pantry and laundry room, you may want (or, indeed, need) some backup. A custom closet designer can help you measure, plan, and ultimately, create the best pantry/laundry room combo for you and your family, without the hassle and stress of DIY or the potential pitfalls of “big box” store solutions.

Especially for small apartment communities like those in D.C., a trained designer’s expertise can be your greatest asset when trying to optimize a tight space. Together, you’ll be able to create a room that is both twice as functional and twice as enjoyable to spend time in.

If you’re ready to create a custom-designed walk-in pantry and laundry room combo space, don’t wait! Contact us today—or feel free to go ahead and schedule a free design consultation to get started right away.

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