How To Choose Cabinets For Your Laundry Room? 8 Useful Tips

How To Choose Cabinets For Your Laundry Room? 8 Useful Tips

Laundry room cabinets should be practical and functional, and should also feel like a seamless part of the overall home’s design. But the question is – how to accomplish this? Well, you can start by browsing ProCraft cabinets and following these essential tips.

Tips For Choosing Laundry Room Cabinets

Select Moisture-Resistant Materials

Laundry rooms are humid, so you can’t use any type of solid wood. Some wood species do well against moisture with proper maintenance, while others, not so much. So, avoid wood species, such as pine, cedar, poplar, birch, ash, etc. Instead, choose oak, maple, hickory, or cherry if you’re going for a premium-look and don’t mind a hefty price tag and maintenance.

And if you see the opposite end of the price spectrum, there are particleboard cabinets that are cheap and readily available. But they are also not suggested for laundry rooms because they will swell and warp very, very soon.

So, which materials to choose, then? Plywood and MDF are two cabinet material options that are suggested by most experts and designers.

Plywood is durable and moisture-resistant, and these cabinets also require much less maintenance than solid wood cabinets. So, they won’t swell or warp very easily in the humid conditions of laundry rooms. Plus, they also cost less than solid wood cabinets.

However, if you’re looking for something even more budget-friendly but moisture-resistant and suitable for your laundry rooms, then pick MDF cabinets. They are fairly durable and are also budget-friendly.

And remember that, whichever material you choose, it’s important to consider the finish carefully and go for something that makes the surface moisture-resistant or waterproof, such as laminate, thermofoil, or waterproof paint. More on this later.

Choose Framed Cabinets

Framed cabinets have a face frame between the cabinet box and the door. They are the common types of cabinets and are durable due to the addition of a face frame. You need that for your cabinets to last longer in a moist and humid area, such as the laundry room.

The only other cabinet construction type is frameless, where there is no face frame. They are modern and stylish, but they can be less durable due to the absence of a face frame.

Now, if your kitchen and bathroom have framed cabinets, you don’t need to think twice before choosing framed cabinets for your laundry room. However, if your kitchen has frameless cabinets, you should pick full overlay framed cabinets for your laundry room because they are the closest to frameless cabinets when it comes to appearance.

Choose Finishes That Are Moisture-Resistant

As discussed earlier, you need a moisture-resistant finish to couple with a durable material. If you want a painted finish, you can go for a glossy, matte, or satin finish. But more than that, you should pick a type of paint that is water-resistant.

Pick from acrylic latex paint, oil-based paint, enamel paint, water-based polyurethane, chalk paint with a top layer of polyurethane, or any other cabinet-specific paint.

If you want something else, you can choose wood veneer with a polyurethane top-coat, high-quality laminate, or thermofoil. For those who need a premium finish, lacquer is a winner.

Choose A Design Style That Complements The Home’s Design

Even though some think that laundry room cabinets can be designed individually without having to factor in the home’s design, the best design approach is to choose a laundry room cabinet style that complements the home’s design.

So, if you have modern cabinets in the kitchen and the living room, you should consider a similar cabinet style in the laundry room as well. The same goes for traditional and transitional style.

Neutral Tones Work

When picking laundry room cabinet colors, go for lighter colors or neutral tones. They make the space brighter and more inviting. This becomes even more important if you’re working with a smaller space.

However, if you want to be bold and make an impact, you can also choose dark colors if they complement your home’s design and style.

Stock Or Semi-Custom

If you’re looking for budget-friendly cabinets, your choice is to either go for stock or semi-custom cabinets.

Stock cabinets are already manufactured and assembled in standard sizes and designs. There are limited customizations you can do apart from choosing finishes, colors, door and drawer styles, and configurations. So, you might not find some features you may want in laundry room cabinets. But if that works out for you, stock cabinets are an excellent budget-friendly option.

On the other hand, if you want more customizations, you can pick semi-custom cabinets. You can choose features, sizes, and options that you can’t with stock cabinets. So, you have way more flexibility. They cost more than stock options, but less than fully custom ones. We’ll discuss more in the next point, which features to have if you’re going for semi-custom cabinets.

Furthermore, if you’re building or remodeling a high-end laundry room, you can always choose custom cabinets. They offer maximum freedom in choosing any design and feature you want.

Choose Laundry-Room-Specific Features

Before learning about features that are excellent for laundry rooms, you should know which features you can choose with stock cabinets and which you can only pick with semi-custom or custom cabinets.

For stock cabinets, you can choose to have:

  • Adjustable shelves
  • Deep drawers
  • Pull-out shelves
  • Overhead cabinets
  • Cabinet inserts
  • Full-extension drawers
  • Lazy Susans
  • Magic corner
  • Pull-out trash can
  • Various Hardware and accents
  • Various Configurations and sizes
  • Finishes and colors
  • Door and drawer types
  • Soft-close drawers
  • Decorative panels
  • Cabinet lighting

There can be more options as well, depending on the brand.

On the other hand, with semi-custom cabinets (and also custom cabinets), you can choose the above options, and many other customizations and features as well that are specific to laundry rooms to make the space more functional for you. They can be:

  • Pull-out hampers
  • Vertical dividers
  • Pull-out drying racks
  • Built-in ironing boards
  • Built-in countertops
  • Tall cabinets
  • Various heights and depths of drawers and cabinets for laundry items
  • Sliding or bi-fold doors
  • Open shelving or cubbies

These are just a few features and customizations you can pick. There are many more options, so consult an expert for help.

Don’t Ditch Upper Cabinets

If you’re thinking of skipping upper cabinets or want open shelving, you should think twice. This is because upper cabinets are preferred by most people in laundry rooms to keep detergents and other hazardous chemicals out of the reach of children.

Now, you can keep these items in open shelves too, but they will look anything but good. So, cabinets are the way to go. You can, however, install a combination of cabinets and open shelves if you like. In fact, open cubbies are pretty useful in laundry rooms if you choose the right location for them. You can store frequently used items, like towels and dryer balls, in them.

Conclusion

Choosing cabinets for your laundry room may seem difficult, but once you start out, things will look simpler and fun. Start by defining your purpose and budget, and then choose the material, finish, color, features, and other stuff. And consult a ProCraft cabinetry dealer MD for help.