7 modern laundry room ideas that look sharper than a starched shirt

The laundry room is a place for cleaning and organizing, so a modern design that embraces clean lines and a minimalist aesthetic just makes sense. It creates that transcendent feeling of form meeting function and elevates your interior design into poetry. (But you know, good poetry. Not the stuff we used to write about our middle school crush.)

If you think it’s weird to wax poetic about a laundry room, just wait. We bet we can have you speaking in rhyme by the end of this article.

Even the lowly laundry room can become a thing of beauty when you look at it with a designer’s eye. And with a modern laundry room design, your space will feel as sleek and stylish as a freshly pressed suit.

Here are seven modern laundry room ideas to help you bring clean style to your functional space.

7 modern laundry room ideas to fold into your design

Laundry rooms are usually small spaces, so they need to be optimized for storage and organization. And if you want to master modern design, then you need to add storage solutions that don’t make the space feel cluttered.

These 7 modern laundry room ideas will help you strike that balance between form and function (much like a poet striking a balance between meter and rhyme).

1. Maximize your space with fold-out furniture

Laundry won’t be the only thing that folds in your space. If you have a small laundry room that’s short on square footage, you can keep your floors clear and clutter-free by adding furniture and accessories that fold flat against the wall when you aren’t using them.

A drying rack that hangs flat against the wall looks like a piece of modern art — with its clean geometric lines — when it’s not in use. Then it pops up when you need to hang-dry your linens. A fold-out ironing board is easy to get out of the way when you’re not using it and a foldable wall desk is the perfect place for folding clothes.

The Riley Foldable Wall Desk even serves as a whiteboard when it’s folded up so you can jot down your to-do list or grocery list. Not only is this a functional design choice, but there’s also something delightfully tongue-in-cheek about a foldable folding station.

2. Add a hall tree

A hall tree isn’t just for entryway furniture. It also makes a great addition to the laundry room — especially if your laundry room doubles as a mudroom.

Choose a hall tree with a lot of hooks, like the Alise Hall Tree with 5 Coat Hooks. Then add hangers and use it to hang-dry clothes. The wood and black metal design are also signature elements of industrial modern home decor.

You can use the shoe shelf and bench for their implied purpose, or you can add baskets to squeeze in a little extra storage space. Add laundry baskets for dirty clothes or storage baskets for cleaning supplies.

3. Swap cabinetry for bookcases

If your laundry space is more like a utility room — lacking the beautiful Shaker-style laundry room cabinets that you see in home decor magazines — you can get an organized look for less by adding modern bookcases, like the Emelle Bookcase with Glass Panels.

Bookcases look great beside a stackable washer-dryer unit because the height of the bookcases mirrors the height of the stacking unit. You can also create a harmonious look by framing a side-by-side washing machine and dryer with a bookcase on either side. Install a closet rod between the bookcases and add hangers to create a hang-dry station.

Bookcases give you plenty of storage with the option to display items on open shelves or add baskets so you have the freedom to make your space function the way you want.

4. Turn an entertainment center into a laundry center

For the ultimate DIY laundry room storage solution, opt for an entertainment center instead of a standard bookcase. This classic piece of living room furniture has the perfect layout for laundry room storage.

It offers open-shelf storage with two media towers and a bridge, plus there’s hidden storage behind the cabinet doors and drawers of the TV stand. You can add a closet rod and hangers to the open space where the TV would typically go to transform it into a DIY drying station instead.

Arrange the unit next to your stackable washer-dryer in a small laundry room, or place it on the wall opposite your washer-dryer if you’re one of the lucky few with a spacious laundry room.

5. Hang floating shelves

Here’s an idea you can fit into even the tiniest laundry closets. (You know the ones, with the side-by-side washer-dryer taking up most of the room.) Hang a set of floating shelves, like the Elmcrest Wall Shelf, above your laundry unit to give you more storage space.

Typical laundry room shelving only includes a single shelf above your machines. By adding a set of shelves, you’ll get four times as much storage. Add baskets to the open shelving to hide your less attractive cleaning supplies and hang multiple shelving units side-by-side for a storage system that runs the length of your wall.

6. Include a workstation

If your laundry room is lacking counter space, add a table or standing desk to your laundry room decor. A bar-height table, like the Tucson Rectangular Bar Table, makes a good standing workstation. It’s just the right height for standing while you fold laundry or work on your latest home repair project.

You could also add a DIY countertop to your space by installing a piece of butcher block or a tabletop to float over the top of your side-by-side washer-dryer. This gives you more workspace even if you don’t have any extra space in your laundry room.

7. Choose a modern color palette

Modern color palettes are often crisp, clean, and minimal. An all-white laundry room (think white walls, white cabinets, white floor tiles, and a white subway tile backsplash) is a modern and minimalist choice. This color scheme works well in laundry rooms because these spaces are often lacking in natural light, and white adds brightness to the room.

But feel free to add a pop of color to make your laundry day more fun. But be warned: if you choose dark paint colors, it could make a small, windowless space feel overwhelmingly dark and gloomy. Balance out darker looks with bright light fixtures, and don’t paint the entire room in a dark color — try making it an accent wall instead.

Iron out your design ideas

There are so many modern laundry room ideas, and yet, there’s so little room in the average laundry room. One of the best ways to narrow down your decor ideas is to take stock of the space you have and how you plan to use it.

If you’re a wash-and-wear person, then you probably don’t need to make room for an ironing board. And if you would rather hang-dry every article of clothing you own than risk it shrinking, then you definitely need space for a drying rack.

Once you know which elements are essential to your laundry room makeover, you can measure your space and start shopping. Your local Coaster Furniture store is the perfect place to start turning your laundry room into a work of modern art.

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