Most laundries in Illawarra homes are the room nobody really planned. They end up as a narrow strip by the back door, or a cupboard off the kitchen that's meant to hide the washing machine and still somehow dry, fold, and store everything. A small laundry renovation isn't about finding more floor space. It's about using the space you already have properly.
Here's how we think about a tight laundry when someone asks us to make it work harder. If you already know the room needs doing properly rather than tinkering with, our laundry renovations page covers how we run those jobs end to end.
Small laundry renovation ideas that actually work
Four moves do most of the work in a small laundry: keep the sink and machines on the existing plumbing wall, take the cabinetry to the ceiling, stack the dryer over the washer, and swap the swing door for a cavity slider. None of them needs a wall moved, and together they turn a strip by the back door into a room that sorts, dries and stores a whole household's washing.
The order matters. Layout first, because a sink moved across the room costs more than every cupboard in it. Storage second, because height is the one dimension a tight laundry has spare. The machine decision and the door come last, and they're the two that free up floor you didn't know you had. The rest of this post takes each one in turn.
Sort the layout before you pick anything pretty
Before you look at tiles or tapware, work out where things go. In a small room the layout does most of the work, and getting it wrong is the expensive mistake.
The two common shapes are a single run along one wall, or an L-shape that uses a corner. A single run suits a galley laundry or a European-style cupboard. An L-shape gives you a bit more bench and works when the room is closer to square.
A few things worth settling early:
- Keep the sink near the existing plumbing so you're not paying to move waste and water across the room.
- Leave a clear stretch of bench next to the machine for sorting and folding, even if it's small.
- Make sure the door and cupboard fronts don't clash with an open washer or dryer door.
Storage that goes up, not out
When you can't go wider, go taller. Full-height cabinetry to the ceiling is one of the best moves in a small laundry, because that top shelf holds the things you only reach a few times a year.
- A tall broom cupboard for the mop, vacuum, and ironing board, so they're not leaning against a wall.
- An open shelf or two at eye height for the detergent you use daily.
- A pull-out hamper built into the joinery instead of a basket on the floor.
- A bench over the machines, closed at the back so lint and socks don't vanish behind them.
We build a lot of joinery and built-in storage, so this is usually where a small room gains the most without touching a single wall.
Stacking versus side-by-side
The washer and dryer decision shapes everything else.
Stacking a dryer above the washer frees up a whole machine's width, which you can turn into a cupboard or bench. It suits narrow rooms and cupboard laundries. The trade-off is you lose the run of bench across the top of two machines, and you'll be bending and reaching a little more.
Side-by-side keeps that continuous benchtop, which is genuinely useful for folding, but it needs the floor width. If your room can spare it, it's the more comfortable setup day to day.
A heat-pump or condenser dryer is worth a look either way, since it doesn't need to vent outside and gives you more freedom on where the machines sit.
What a small laundry renovation costs
This is usually the next question. A laundry renovation in NSW tends to land somewhere in the five figures, often the lower end for a small room, once you add new joinery, a benchtop, sink and tapware, waterproofing, tiling, and the trades to tie it all together. A light refresh that keeps the existing layout sits lower. Moving plumbing, tiling floor to ceiling, or adding new cabinetry pushes it up.
Treat that as a starting point, not a quote. Every home is different, and the honest figure depends on what's behind the walls and how much you're changing. We give a fixed-price proposal once we've seen the space, so you know the number before anything starts.
Small moves that make a real difference
You don't need a full strip-out to make a tight laundry feel better. A few smaller changes go a long way:
- Swap a swing door for a cavity slider to win back the floor the door was stealing.
- Run a splashback behind the sink and machines so the wall wipes clean.
- Add a drying rail that folds flat against the wall for wet-weather days, which we get plenty of in Wollongong.
- Improve the light with a decent LED, and if you can, a window or vent to keep the room dry.
Most laundries don't need to be bigger. They need to be sorted. Get the layout and the storage right first, and even a cupboard-sized room can handle a full household's washing without feeling like a fight.
If you'd rather hand the whole room over, that's what our laundry renovations service covers across Wollongong, the Illawarra and the Southern Highlands. Laundries also tend to get folded into a bigger job — if that's where you're heading, look at home extensions or what an extension costs before you decide how far to take it.
Want a hand with this at your place? Get a free quote or call 0434 037 851.