I got lucky in my older home and was blessed with a larger laundry room. Since the house was built in the 1970s it needs a lot of updating. There are several projects in the laundry room like a pocket door, a laundry sink, and a laundry tower. With three kids, I have a lot of laundry! It’s difficult to keep all of the laundry baskets straight. I want a solution that makes it easier for me to keep everyone’s laundry sorted.

No Demo Needed for This Project

The laundry room is a blank slate! It’s kind of refreshing to not have to contend with soffits and outdated tile installs. I was able to jump right in to this project. It is so exciting to build this laundry tower and get my laundry under control. There is a wide open space right next to the water heater and I wanted to build the tower there. This was a good opportunity to enclose the water heater at the same time and alleviate that eyesore. Using 2x4s I started by building the frame for a wall. It will be a division between the water heater and the laundry tower. It is basically a rectangle with an additional 2×4 running horizontally for added stability.

I secured two strips of wood into the studs. The placement of my wall was not going to be on a stud. The strips of wood allowed me the same reliability of attaching to the studs. It also let me be flexible with my placement. Once that was in, I used pocket screws to attach sheets of 1/2 plywood to the wall frame that I built. I also used pocket screws to attach another sheet of 1/2 plywood to the side of the cabinet. The cabinet marks the other side of the laundry tower. Another sheet of 1/2 plywood was attached to the strips I secured to the wall earlier. This gives the back of the laundry tower a cleaner look.

Finishing Out My DIY Laundry Tower

I used 1x2s screwed into the sides as supports for the shelves. 1/2 plywood was cut to the appropriate size and secured to the tops of the 1×2 supports. I used additional 1x2s to trim out the fronts of the shelves and crown moulding to finish the top at the ceiling. The 1x2s were attached using finishing nails and they really give the front a finished look.

Crown moulding can be kind of tricky and you really need to have a miter saw to do it right. For the outside corners the pieces need to be cut to length at a 45 degree angle. The pieces then need to be cut at a 45 degree angle front to back so the two pieces will sit flush with each other. Inside corners are the same but with the cuts in the opposite direction. Attach the bottom of the crown moulding using finishing nails, a nail gun makes the process really easy. The surface at the bottom is wood so the nails should be pretty secure. To make sure your top nails at the ceiling are secure use two nails next to each other at opposing angles.

Once I have everything trimmed out I use caulk to really finish it off. I run a bead of caulk along all of the seams and joints to give it a smooth look. A wet finger is then run along the bead of caulk to removes any excess and even it out. The caulk makes everything look so finished and built in. Always caulk and then paint. Once the caulk was dry I painted using a gorgeous blue color that complimented the color in the wallpaper I chose for the walls. It was color matched to the cabinets I chose from RTA cabinet store.

The DIY Laundry Tower Keeps Everything Organized

I love the finished laundry tower. There is a shelf for everyone and the shelves have space for a laundry basket. Each laundry basket has someone’s name on it and then “clean” on one side and “dirty” on the other. This system makes it so much easier for me to keep track of where I am in the laundry process. And it simplifies sorting the laundry out for everyone in the family. I can 100% recommend a laundry tower as it was a game changer for me.