Disclosure: Samsung gifted me the appliances and hired me for content creation on Pinterest. This blog post wasn’t part of our agreement, but I thought you’d be interested in this new change to our cabin!
Doing laundry in our cabin has always been a fraught experience. First, the machines that came with the house were absolutely foul and didn’t really do their job especially well. Then, the location of the laundry closet was a bit… treacherous (more on that to come). So last fall, before the holidays, we made a really big, positive change: we moved our laundry appliances to the guest bathroom. Today I’m walking you through why we made the change and how it’s impacted our household chores!
All About Moving Our Washer & Dryer to the Bathroom
The Before
Let’s start with what the space looked like when we first moved in… it was pretty basic. Nothing too special and seemed fine until we discovered just how gross and ineffective the appliances were.
Our Laundry Closet Makeover, Part 1
While we were painting the living room and dining room, we also refreshed the laundry closet with a fresh coat of green paint. We also replaced the appliances, cleaned off the shelves, and organized our necessities.
But see the steps? And the propane stove? And the bifold doors? They made doing laundry an adventure. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve miscalculated while emptying the dryer and stumbled on the steps. Or tumbled into the hot propane stove. Or wrestled with the bifolds so that I could open the dryer. SO FUN.
Which is why for the past year or so, I’ve been mulling over where else the appliances could live in the cabin… there’s no water access on the second floor, so that wasn’t an option. I didn’t want them in our primary bedroom suite because of the noise. No room in our kitchen and we don’t have a basement. I figured that this awkward laundry closet was just something I’d have to accept… until Samsung reached out to partner to create content on Pinterest for their BESPOKE appliances! That’s when I ran around with my tape measure and tried to find the perfect home for them.
Our New Laundry Area Reveal
As you can see, we moved our entire laundry area into the guest bathroom! So genius, right?? When we moved in, there was a massive vanity in that nook and it was really awkward. When I opened up the wall, I discovered that there was already plumbing set up! We also knew that the dryer duct that vents outside already went past this spot as well. So then it was a matter of making sure the machines would fit (and fit through the bathroom door), adjusting the plumbing and duct, and updating the wiring to handle the new load.
I went through my phone trying to find photos of the bathroom nook that we moved them to… but alas, the only photos I have are from when we were raising chickens in our bathroom!
We actually accomplished this project over the span of 2 weekends, which really blew me away. I thought it would be SO much more work than it actually was. A big part of that is we chose to upgrade to all electric appliances and ditch propane.
Not only is propane very expensive and something that literally has to be delivered to our super-rural home, our goal to make our home more energy efficient and less fossil fuel reliant. We barely even use our dryer because we can dry our laundry with the heat from our wood stove. And in the summer we dry our laundry outdoors.
From the perspective of functionality, this move has been AMAZING. Moving our laundry appliances to the bathroom gives me plenty of space to sort laundry. Typically, I sort on top of the machines. But if we have a lot of dirty laundry, I use the bathtub as extra sorting space! Eventually we plan on adding a countertop, but for now it’s so nice to have this surface.
Also, note how there aren’t any steps for me to fall down! AMAZING.
How we moved our appliances to the bathroom:
Measure… and then measure again
The first step before committing to any appliance is to make sure they will fit! And I don’t just mean ‘fit’ in their final destination. I mean ‘fit’ as in through every door that they will have to pass through along the way! I’ve actually made a cheat sheet of the width and height of all our doorways since every single one is different in this house.
For this project, we removed the door from the hinges to gain an extra half inch of clearance. Then we removed the bathroom sink. Thankfully the toilet didn’t have to move!
Open up the wall and adjust plumbing as needed
We were really lucky that our plumbing barely needed adjustments so we didn’t even have to hire someone. Essentially we needed to fit a larger piece to the existing plumbing pipes that would match the diameter on the washing machine.
Revise wiring for 220
There was already electricity run to this wall, so it was a matter of changing it to accommodate the appliances and their electrical needs. Both of us know how to wire (Sean literally does it at work), so we were able to handle this ourselves as well.
Vent the dryer
This was probably the trickiest part for us because it involved going into our crawlspace. We rerouted the vent duct to go to the new location so that it can use the same exterior opening.
Install the appliances
Then is the fun part: installing the appliances! Because we weren’t finished making the adjustments to the space before they were delivered, we had to move the machines ourselves. These forklift straps are so helpful for moving heavy items, highly recommend! We followed the instructions in the manual and did a trial load of wash to make sure everything was ok.
We repurposed the shelving from the laundry closet to add some vertical storage, as well. They work so well for this storage need, plus the wood tone matches the beams in the rest of the space.
Aesthetically, our new BESPOKE washer and dryer are really lovely. I love that the controls disappear when they aren’t in use. Plus the settings are absolutely amazing. My favorite feature is Super Speed which does my laundry in under an hour. This high efficiency washing machine can wash a full load in 28 minutes and the high efficiency dryer dries in under 30 minutes!
I know it’s a bit un-traditional, but this change is going to allow us to expand our primary bathroom which is located on the other side of the previous laundry closet… which also moves we can eventually move the sink vanity out of our bedroom! But that’s a project for a future date. Leave a comment and let me know what you think!
Such an upgrade! Glad you have a less dangerous laundry situation now. It makes such a difference to have an enjoyable space to be in when doing chores!
thank you!! totally agree!
Such a creative solution, and such a happy thing to help expand your future bathroom space! We have a laundry room/pantry with a powder room at the end of it, and it serves us very well.
P.S. Glad to see a new post here!
What a fabulous upgrade!