Extra Storage for Laundry Baskets

One thing I love about focusing on “making one room the best it can be” is the opportunity to think outside the box. This laundry room project is the perfect example. We need more storage for laundry baskets. Because we aren’t afraid of customizing the space, especially in the name of organization and efficiency, an opportunity presented itself. Week 5 of the One Room Challenge is showcasing a new hole in the wall. (Which was done much earlier in the process, but I wanted this project to have its own week!)

The Layout

The laundry room/mudroom is also the pass-through to the outside. It is positioned right behind our kitchen. The wall with the washer and dryer is the ‘stove’ wall in our kitchen. The other wall has an en suite bathroom for our guest room.

So, the toilet is on the other side of the wall as you go out of the house. But, the section of wall leading into the house runs along the bathroom closet. It’s big. In fact, it’s WAY TOO BIG.

It’s a reach in closet with shelving, but it’s actually in a narrow, walk-in sized space. It’s about 24″ wide, and 39″ deep.

Storage for Laundry Baskets

We are putting two utility pantry cabinets to the left of the washing machine, and while they are 24″ depth, the width of 18″ each might not be optimal storage for laundry baskets. Hubby brought up the idea of cutting into the wall to “steal” the back portion of the closet from the bathroom, and open it into the laundry room. Genius. The best part? When the door leading into the house is open, (which is almost always), you can’t even see that section of wall. So, not only will it be extra storage, it’s hidden storage.

A Hole in the Wall

The name is deceiving, since normally the phrase ‘a hole in the wall’ is undesirable. This time, it’s going to take it up a notch. And I literally cut A HOLE IN THE WALL. I started from inside the closet, just in case it didn’t go well. The patching would be a lot easier to fix up inside of a closet. I used my oscillating tool, the multi-tool as some call it, to cut sections of drywall away to see what I was dealing with. Turns out, nothing really.

The Final Cuts

This is the laundry room storage area…unfinished, of course. The interior of the closet will have additional cuts as we remove that middle stud to place a header. Once that wall is finalized and patched, we will be creating a wall between the new laundry storage and the new closet space in the bathroom.

The idea was to remove that front, center stud, adding a “header” in place at the top of the opening, where the red markings are in this photo.

Making the New Wall

We decided to create a thin wall between the two closets. This meant that the new wall had to attach to something on the inside wall. Because there was no stud in the place we needed to attach to–and since there is plumbing behind this wall, we decided to cut into it.

Since the flooring of the original huge closet was tile, we removed the one tile that would be in the way as we built this new wall. We decided to remove it so we wouldn’t have to drill into the tile floor. We installed a 2×2 along the bottom.

For the new wall to be attached in this section, we installed a cross beam between the existing studs, then installed our own stud to attach the new drywall and new wall studs. This would be the corner of the back of both closets.

Once the new stud system was in place, we were able to cover the open section with drywall, attaching to the new stud we had placed.

The back of the closet would be a “thin wall,” using 2×2 boards at the top and bottom, with 2×4 boards turned sideways at the edge and in the middle for support.

From the outside, you can see that the new laundry storage area has drywall added. The left-hand side wall is now in place, as well as the header along the top.

Bead Board

Once the new drywall was up, I used bead board along the back. For one, it gives the back of the laundry storage a bit of dimension. It also hides any holes that I just didn’t feel like fixing. I just had to caulk the edges to get rid of any gaps.

The bead board is installed, and the closet walls have all been mudded and sanded multiple times.

After the mudding and sanding, it was ready for paint. I went with Conifer Green by Behr, the same color as the cabinets in this space.

The Floor

Because we tiled the laundry room floor, but hadn’t decided what to do with this new laundry storage area yet, we just kept the original tile floor and stud in place. I covered the floor stud with a piece of 4.25″ trim, and filled the gap with a 1×1″ piece of wood. Then, I used some leftover LVP to cover the original tile flooring.

The Trim

I used corner moulding to trim out the opening of the closet, ensuring that it would look finished.

The Shelving

I used 1×2″ boards, painted to match the trim, to create the edges that the shelves would rest on.

The actual shelves were cut from large pieces of pre-finished closet shelving. With the opening at 22″ wide and 24″ deep, I chose the shelving boards that were 8′ long, so I could get four shelves out of one.

I also bought a shallow piece at 4′, and I installed a couple shallow shelves at the very top of this storage area, with the intention of keeping harsh chemicals and other items we either want out of reach or don’t use very often. They are hard to see since the closet is so dark.

New Storage Space

It’s done! It fits a ton of laundry, all of our baskets, and you can’t see anything when the door is open.

This hidden laundry closet is an absolute game-changer for organization, and just keeping things out of the way!

See the Progress

Week 1: Laundry Room | Mudroom Project Planning

Week 2: The Mood Board

Week 3: See the Demo

Week 4: The Tile Floor

Week 5: Creating Hidden Storage

Week 6: Prepping the Walls

Week 7: Laundry Room Updates

Week 8: The Laundry Room Reveal