Washers and dryers are must-have household staples with a fatal flaw – they’re just not that nice to look at. In homes that need to keep these appliances in their kitchen, this becomes a problem. A major design consideration is how to hide these big, unsightly boxes while still making sure they’re fully accessible when needed.
One common workaround is opting not to even have washers or dryers at home. Homeowners can use a laundry service or make regular visits to a local laundromat. But the budget and time costs of outsourcing the cleaning of dirty laundry eventually start to rack up.
So today, we’ll be looking at the different ways you can get a washer and dryer for your home and seamlessly integrate them into your kitchen space.
Location
A quick workaround to any washer and dryer placement problem is the careful planning of their locations. Both of these appliances are reliant on utility lines to function properly, so you’ll need to have a good understanding of the power, plumbing, and ventilation systems in your home. Here are a few of the best locations that can help hide your washer and dryer.
1. Bathroom
Perhaps it is cheating to suggest a place that isn’t a kitchen in an article that promises tips on how to hide a washer and dryer in a kitchen. But we would be remiss not to mention one of the most common alternatives to storing these appliances in a kitchen – placing them in a bathroom.
The main reason washers and dryers are placed in kitchens is their functional need to connect to a home’s water source, a sewer/drainage system, and adequate ventilation. The only other room in most households that have all three of these is none other than a bathroom.
Bathrooms are also tucked away more so than kitchens. It’s a perfect palace to hide a washer and a dryer.
2. Kitchen-Adjacent
Other good places to keep your laundry appliances are any service or storage rooms located right next to your kitchen. Since they share a wall with the kitchen, they also have the same access to the utility lines that service it.
Most people have laundry rooms, even just small ones, that they place next to the kitchen for this very reason. Other choices include dedicated outdoor laundry spaces, garages, and basements adjacent to the kitchen space.
3. Walk-in Pantry
A quick way to conceal any unsightly kitchen tools, meal ingredients, and appliances is to make use of a walk-in pantry in your kitchen. Homeowners can choose to give up a few square feet of kitchen real estate for a dedicated pantry area.
Using a closed-off pantry means that you can hide anything you don’t want to be out in the open behind literally closed doors.
Coverings
When you’re working with a relatively small square footage of home space, you might not have much of a choice when it comes to picking out an ideal location for a washer and dryer. Or even in cases where they do have enough room, homeowners just might flat-out prefer the kitchen proper as a space to keep their home laundry appliances.
In these cases, the best way to hide them from view is to cover them up. There are a variety of options for this and all have their pros and cons to consider. Let’s take a look at some of the more common cover-ups.
1. Kitchen Cabinetry
Homeowners can choose to integrate their laundry appliances with the built-in cabinetry in their kitchen. A common practice is to cover up the washer and dryer with cabinet doors, bi-fold storage doors, and sliding doors.
This keeps the appliances accessible and ready to use and it lets you show off more of the gorgeous cabinet doors you decided to use for the kitchen.
2. Curtains
Some clearances might not be enough to accommodate extra cabinet doors for washers and dryers. Other times, the type of cabinet doors in a kitchen just can’t lend themselves to being used for a washer or dryer.
In cases like these, a well-placed curtain can be your best friend. They’re easier to open and close and they take up very little space, so they’re ideal ways to cover up appliances.
3. Kitchen Island
With kitchens that use island counters, there’s typically a side that faces the rest of the house. The opposite side is hidden and can be accessed only by walking over to the working side of the kitchen. This is the perfect place to hide any unsightly kitchen appliances.
The kitchen island can serve not just as an effective solution to hide away a washer and dryer, but also as a design centerpiece for the kitchen.
Space-saving Workarounds
Washers and dryers aren’t compact appliances. They can take up to 5 square feet of floor area each. This can pose a big problem for more compact kitchen setups – even if there’s enough space to store both a washing machine and a dryer, they take up so much of the space that it’s almost impossible to cover them up.
In those types of situations, the best workaround is to find ways to cut back on how much space these appliances take up.
1. Just Washer
Homeowners can simply do away with having a dryer. You take away the need to accommodate an extra machine and you don’t have to worry about hooking a dryer up to the ventilation system. This makes it that much easier to hide the washing machine.
If you keep just a washing machine in your kitchen, you can choose to use whatever outdoor space you have to airdry your clothes. Homeowners with backyards or outdoor patios can use those for hanging and drying their laundry. Those in buildings might have balconies that they can utilize.
If there’s too much rain or snow in your area, modern bathroom technology from Japan makes use of ventilated and heated clothes dryers that function just as well as outdoor air drying. You can also opt to use a typical heater for the same function. Just make sure the humidity levels in your rooms won’t inadvertently promote the growth of molds.
2. 2-in-1
Some homeowners just can’t do without having a dryer. Another way to effectively half the required amount of space without having to get rid of a dryer is to make use of a combination washer and dryer. These machines essentially do both washing and drying of laundry.
The two main downsides to using a combination washer and dryer are the limited laundry capacity and the longer duration of a complete wash and dry cycle. But if you’re from a smaller household and you don’t have too much laundry to deal with regularly, then those are minor issues.
3. Stacked Appliances
If you have a kitchen that has small square footage but a sufficiently high ceiling, you can always choose to stack your washing machine and dryer on top of each other. A lot of washer and dryer sets were specifically designed to be stacked.
This is a perfect way to still have the use of two dedicated appliances but also conserve some space to more effectively hide them from view.
