Having the washer and dryer in the half bathroom on the first floor was a trend in colonial homes built in the early 2000’s. While it was nice to have the laundry out of sight, it became problematic as time went on and I eventually decided to fix the problem when the bathroom was about 15 years old. Below are the details and after/before photos of my design solution for this half bath laundry room makeover.

Problems/Goals:

1. To separate the laundry from the bathroom and create two new small rooms.  No one could change out or do laundry when someone was using the bathroom. 
2. Laundry baskets and dirty laundry were always on the floor of bathroom since there was really no place to keep it. 
3. Room was very poorly designed.  The bi-fold door barely opened as it was too close to the toilet.  The dryer door opened over the toilet making it difficult to empty the dryer.  When emptying the dryer, lint got all over toilet. 
4. Room got cold from the outside wall inside the laundry closet.

Solutions:

1. Stacked washer/dryer to get more space.
2. Moved bathroom to other side of laundry and created two separate rooms. 
3. Made the new bathroom a good size for comfort and resale value.  Added window to make bathroom feel bigger.
4. Took off door to enter laundry area.
5. Used a sliding door for the new door to the bathroom from laundry area to gain more space.
6. Using smaller depth vanity in bath vs pedestal sink gained storage and still feels spacious.
7. Added heat to bath so both rooms are warm now!

Bonuses:

1. Gained wall with hooks for hanging clothes.
2. Custom cabinet and counter retained if not gained more storage space.
3. Narrow storage area above washer and dryer is a great space for pool towels!

Here are the After photos of this great transformation! No more laundry in the bathroom!

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And of course the Before photos!

It doesn’t even look like the same space!

Our next challenge was to find a place to keep our brooms and mops since we didn’t gain any space for those with this new room and we do not have a utility closet. Check out what we did here!

Thanks for checking out my half bath laundry room makeover!