You don't have enough room to accommodate a 36" pocket door. You need either 36" to the right or the left of the opening. IMO it's not worth the remodel.

You have to tear off the interior wall of the laundry and reframe the wall to accommodate the track and door.

I knew the wall would need to come down... but don’t know why I didn’t think that I needed at lease the width of the door for the pocket. Thanks .

36.5 is from outside jamb to outside jam. The door opening is 32” (I wasn’t exactly sure how to draw it).

If it can’t fit behind the fridge, the wall between the pantry and laundry door is 40”. Is it an option there?

The pantry doesn’t go in that far (see photo).

I was going to get a quote because I have no clue what it will cost and google says $1,000-$3,500. And I’d like a little less of a range.

You can’t see the shelving from the kitchen, and I can reorganize above the dryer so it’s not as crazy. Would you recommend just leaving the door off?

Plan to be here for 15 years or more. (Been here 3, and my parents bought a house around the corner)

So the wall with the plastic shelves is 40" from the door jamb to the corner? If so you can probably do a pocket. In this case it will likely be easier to build a second wall inside the laundry to create the pocket versus re framing, just guessing you will find lots of obstructions in that wall. Definitely look at completely changing the storage- installing IKEA cabinets floor to ceiling in that space would transform the amount of storage while looking much more put together.

Your LR isn’t that small- it’s just packed to the gills. If you’re going to make this your home for 15yrs do what you need to do to make it as functional and lovely as you can! Were it me I’d make the reno more extensive. The pantry design isn’t very functional. I’d combine the pantry and laundry into a single space with a single door, moved to the right so it’s not so tight to the fridge and do a pocket door or barn door. Or if you’re concerned about dry goods and the damp you could do a shallow inset pantry cab and steal the rest of the pantry space for the laundry/mud room. I am sure that combined sf could look and function better. It won’t be very expensive. And.... I mean no offense in saying this... but as I’ve gotten older I’ve realized that sometimes the solution is not more or better storage, it’s less stuff to store!

"You have to tear off the interior wall of the laundry and reframe the wall to accommodate the track and door."

This. And you will lose a few inches of floor space in the process, because the new wall will be thicker, to allow for the pocket door. Plus adding an entire new wall (framing & sheetrock) on that side, then there is the trim, which might be saved and re-used.

I would definitely want a door there. Only you can decide if the extensive remodel is worth it.

If it can’t fit behind the fridge, the wall between the pantry and laundry door is 40”. Is it an option there?

Yes.

Plan to be here for 15 years or more. (Been here 3, and my parents bought a house around the corner)

Then it’s definitely it worth it to make the most out of the laundry room AND pantry!

It’s a weird (tract home) layout. The interior laundry room dimensions don’t add up to the width of the wall between the laundry door and pantry.

But there is 40” on the outside wall. But if I come in from the kitchen side, I worry about matching everything up.

The pantry isn’t small- and the shelf heights work pretty well for what I do, and plan to do. I just tend to do a Costco / large grocery trip every 3 months and then weekly or every 10 days for fresh foods. (Pre-covid) and my pantry looks a little less organized as I’ve had to make do with what’s available.

Also, the shelves have started to sag as I store many cans on them, so I had to move those lower to the ground. Ideally I’d have them higher for ease to grab.

But that’s about 80lbs when all my boxes are full. I reuses the boxes from Costco and while it looks like I have a lot of corn, each box has different stuff.

The paint on the shelves is also starting to wear from pulling in and out my flour / sugar containers and cans.

One shelf (straight in) is about 26” wide and the one to the right with all the cans is about 35”.

We have 10ft ceilings and I can put 3-4 more shelves above- which will help with storage. But since the lower shelves need work- I’ve been slow to add the others as I dont want to spend the time and money to add them, then need to redo the lowers.

The weird corner wall- behind that is out water tank. I got a rough quote of $5500 to put in a tankless heater which would free up that space and then square it off (not included with the tankless price).

I do agree my laundry room is overflowing with stuff and along with stuff I don’t use I have some things in there that should be elsewhere. I typically have 2 bins on the dryer. One for my daughters clothes and I don’t use paper towels (except for a few things- maybe 1 sheet a day) so I’m always going through my dish towels and hand towels and set them in the laundry to wash.

Since putting in the shelves in my laundry room, my vacuum is no longer wall mounted so that stuff just gets thrown in there.

One step forward 2 back.

Absolutely getting rid of stuff is important.

I have a huge kitchen, but some things are inefficient (super deep shelves that are only 10” wide under my island).

I’m not necessarily looking to be able to put more stuff in, just make it more functional to use it.

Whoever pointed out the added depth of the wall thank you, I didn’t know that would be the case.

Overall it sounds like my area COULD be better designed, but I should audit what I’m currently doing.

@KW- thanks! You commented on my master that I’m working on. My husband (who never suggests home upgrades) said “we should put a pocket door there” and I jumped on it. I’m still online shopping for ideas on that. And appreciate your input over there!

And while overall I suppose it’s not a tiny laundry room, I did shoot with wide angle - and having the door off makes a big difference. I’ve since hung it back on.

@hallet I completely agree it’s worth it considering we plan to be here so long- but (if you go look at my master bedroom post) you’ll see it’s like every small project snowballs into a huge one.

I’m in my mid 30s and I just want my house to finally look like a home. I know it’s a process but focusing is the trouble. I don’t get a lot of joy planning, shopping and decorating.

I’m assuming hiring someone to “do my master” by me showing them a picture of the overall look I want and telling them specifics like metal ball bearing slides, no footboard that comes up over the mattress, must have ceiling fan)- them setting up the painter, new floors, etc. is way out of my price range.

As a two income household (I got married at 30) I’m still struggling with the cost of things as my before marriage budget was target - and now we have more funds but I’m having a hard time swallowing restoration hardware prices. But I do value a better quality and am okay with spending, knowing the final price out the door.

Hi LKB! I’m not crystal clear on what’s in the wall between laundry & pantry - I did get the water tank in L wall on right in pantry. If it’s mostly dead space between laundry - pantry, can it be taken full or partially out to make one room of them? Then kitchen wall with 2 doors can be closed up & have one pocket door somewhere on the wall. Sounds like major work but I bet it’s easy as remods go & definitely worth cost for increased functionality & space. The storage in both rooms can be reworked to great advantage. We have 3 pocket doors in our home so I’m a huge fan of them In the right place. As for your deep narrow kitchen cabs, I think pull outs are the answer! For the small amount of width lost to pullout shelf sides, the gain functional space is huge. We added them to all of our lower kitchen cabs as well as to master bath double vanity. Those have a bottom pullout as well as upper side pullout as wide as the pipes allowed. This wasn‘t a cheap project as we didn’t go the DIY route but it’s been worth every cent for the gains in space & function. I bet pullouts could be wall mounted in your pantry too.

What about a barn door (but in a style compatible with your other door) running from doorway to wall where your bulletin board is?

Laundry Barn doors · More Info

If this is a solution, consider getting another door on the right that's compatible.

I THINK the only thing between laundry and pantry is wall. I’m not sure. No electrical on either of those walls, and hvac would be weird there.

My mom just stopped by and we both agree the sizes of the rooms are adequate just poorly utilized.

It may be better to spend on better storage in each vs knocking down the wall.

I’m really going to try to envision how I see those spaces functioning. To see what my next steps are.

I’ve got a call out to the container store to see if I can configure an ELFA storage in the space- by my main concerns are how much they can hold, weight wise and all their inspiration photos - non of them IMO show a real pantry that’s how I like things. But I see the potential.

100%, I have no clue why people don’t do more drawers, and shallow drawers to boot. I found a steal of wire diy pullouts from Costco ($20 each). They fit perfectly in 10 cabinets, but were like 1/4” too big for our bathrooms, and 3” to small for the other cabinets (which is a whole other design dilemma).

I really feel the space is big enough, but just need to be utilized. I couldn’t find custom drawer organizers, so my mom made me some out of foam core and contact paper. We still need to do the other drawers in the kitchen.

I like having a place for everything and everything in its place and do great (my drawers have looked exactly the same since my mom made the organizers), it’s when I don’t have a system I struggle.

I went ahead and organized the laundry room, and took out anything that doesn’t belong.

The only thing we use the dowel in the laundry room is in the summer, my husband dries his camel pak water container and we hang 2 dish mats to dry. We use those 2/-3 times a week.

Alright - the guy who I called to come out and quote me, didn’t show up and only messaged me 2 hours after the agreed upon time.

While I still a pocket would make the laundry room function better, I think (not knowing the cost- only going by google estimate of $1,500-$3,000) I can put that money to better use.

While I was waiting for the contractor, I also submitted my layout to the container store for an ELFA pantry.

Cost (with current sale) is $2,600 installed or $17,000 where we install ourselves.

They didn’t give me as many slide out can racks as I wanted, but is an easy swap.

My main concern, is because ELFA are standard sizes, I lose 6” one one side and 10” on the other.

I know in theory that I’ll be able to store more because of the pull outs, but I’m wondering if i’m wasting the space?

Bang for the buck seems appropriate.

But I’m wondering if I’m better off getting custom cabinets and shelves?

Or is that just going to be astronomical in price?

I don’t want to waste any ones time, just an update.

Because the pocket door fell through (and I’m taking it as a sign), I’m going back to the main project being our bedroom.

I do think some kind of cubbies will end up in the laundry room, but I also think I can just remove the door and have the laundry area really nice looking. Time will tell.

It’s so hard not to get distracted with projects.

I just noticed my daughters bathroom mat is falling apart and I need to replace- which is making me wonder if I should paint, update that space too. (I know silly, but it’s really not as functional as I would like it.