I would make the far wall into a majestic 'wall-o-cabinetry' but something that might look more like a butlers pantry when viewed from the kitchen, rather than a laundry room. Since you want to do something cheaply, I mocked something up with Ikea sized cabinets. I'm guessing something like this could be done in Adel White and Basalt Slate laminate for about $1500, which is not exactly the cheapest thing ever, but it's a thought. Here's a mockup:

And here we go:
Doing a tall pantry and the exterior corner would give you the vacuum storage, and with a creative behind the door hold you could get the kitchen rag hamper done too. Next in would be a pull-out trash organizer at 18" and then a blind corner with swing out for the kitty liter storage and what not. On the uppers some glass front doubles would look nice, but I mocked up three high 30" horizontal ones just for fun next to the 36" double on the end. I popped two 18" appliance garages in under the far corner to organize the small appliances. I tried doing this all in Ikea kitchen planner but got too frustrated with it. I think you get the idea though. It's not terribly important that it be Ikea, just if you want to do cheap cabinetry, at least they have a decent guarantee and good hardware.

You would have to pull the blind corner out away from the wall in order to get it to work properly around a washer/dryer and you would need some filler up top, but none of what I put in would be too tight to not allow for all that.

heh.. And now I realized I swapped your 'like to have's with your 'need to have's. Hah, layout help fail.

Thanks, brickton. We are thinking along similar lines. I'd LIKE for that room to look like an extension of the kitchen -- counters and all -- but I think I'm going to need more storage than would permit counters. I like the way you broke up the upper cabinets to add character. I also like the blind corner pull-out for the cat box for cleaning purposes, although it does end up taking up a lot of space.

Counters will probably be maple butcherblock ala Lumber Liquidators. One first glance it will be close enough to the maple plank in the kitchen to look like a match. Unfortunately there's no way laminated white will look like the off-white painted cabs in the kitchen. I may need to go for contrast instead.

I may have an issue with stock cabs anyway -- the W&D are much taller than a standard base cabinet. Maybe I could build a deep wall around the W&D (If I can find 30" deep wall cabs) and then for the other "L" have a regular height counter?

so will the w and d end up next to each other like in your 'blank template'?

if so, you could run cabs from next to the dryer, around the corner and on over... could have counter top next to the dryer for folding.

on one of the cabs I'd leave the bottom open (where maybe a lower drawer would go) for the l*itter box. I'd put it on a piece of wood (or something...) with a handle on the outer side to pull it out to clean. that'd give kitty privacy and it'd be out of site usually...

cabs over the w/d from st*orage there... could you hang a bin under the over the washer cab for the k*tchen towels? a hook or 2 to hang a very small laundry basket for them? I've seen tiny, tiny laundry baskets out there...

I'd run cabs fl*oor to ceiling along that outer wall, then on the wall by the door i'd put a rack of hooks for coats, sweaters etc with a bench below it and a boot/shoe holder under the bench. that's one of those vinyl trays to catch mud, melting snow, etc from boots and shoes.

What do you guys think of this? This seems to hit all my needs and some of my wants, but that deep corner is still problematic. I put the worm bin in the corner, and I can slide it out for access.

I have 4 concerns:

One, I access that worm bin almost daily. A chute in the counter won't work, since worms need darkness and also need to be prevented form taking the occasional walk, so the worm bin has a lid.

Two, I can just see myself putting stuff -- like kitty litter tubs -- in that open space. Or leaving the worm bin pulled out. I won't be attractive.

Three, I am unsure about the cabinet and drawer sizes being so different.

Four, given that almost none of the cabinets are stock sizes or configurations, I might be designing something very expensive to build. My woodworking skills are decent, but I don't think they are up to cabinetry.

Bump. Anyone?

Last call for any input.

I don't know any other way to phrase this, so I apologize if it sounds weird.

How will you get the worm bin in and out of its space? Even if the counter is removable, it looks like quite a logic puzzle.

That's why there's an open space next to it with just the short drawers above. It could slide toward the recycle/pull-out and cat box cabinet and then I could lift up the lid for feeding or pull the whole thing out for maintenance.

I'm not enamored with that solution, it's just the best I could come up with.

The countertop is removable because it will need to be if I ever need to get to the hose bibs behind the washer -- it'll cut right in front of them.