Say Goodbye To Laundry Room Eyesores With These Smart IKEA Hacks

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Marketing is all about identifying your customer's key pain points, then providing them with workable solutions. When it comes to challenges around the house, the laundry room often tops the list. Doing the laundry is a never-ending chore that constantly threatens to overwhelm us. While many of us would enjoy spending a quiet afternoon folding towels or clothing in a beautifully designed, dedicated space, the reality is often less luxurious. Whether you have an old home or your washer and dryer are in the unfinished basement, you likely have to deal with some eyesores. Fortunately, IKEA has lots of solutions for making a laundry room practical and pretty — from big built-ins like their SEKTION high cabinet frame or PAX wall-mounted storage to simple fixes like picture frames and towel racks.

When it comes to interior design woes, the laundry room often tops the list. You may have the latest washing appliances, but rarely is the room filled with picture-perfect décor or practical storage solutions. In addition to overflowing hampers and piles of unfolded clothes, you often have to contend with situations that are outside of your control. Eyesores like exposed plumbing pipes or wires, a lack of counter space for folding laundry, and unsightly electrical panels require innovative coverups. You need to clear the mess without putting your home's operational systems or your family's safety at risk. That's where a trip to IKEA comes in.

IKEA actually makes a laundry cabinet that slides neatly over a washing machine. It's a ready-made hack you can use to quickly eliminate eyesores in the laundry room. Most washers or dryers will squeeze neatly into the bottom of the cabinet. Plus, much like an over-the-toilet shelving (which you could also use, by the way), the NYSJÖN cabinet has slim compartments with doors. They provide plenty of extra storage in a crowded laundry room or hide mechanical pipes or wiring.

Need something that's about the same height as the IKEA NYSJÖN but deeper? Use the IKEA SEKTION high cabinet frame. (The same product is called METOD in Europe.) It's a large storage solution that may be the perfect answer to multiple laundry room eyesores or laundry areas in bathrooms or hallways. Like the NYSJÖN, this IKEA hack perfectly hides your washer and provides laundry room storage. The downside? You'll need to invest in some fixtures, including doors, hinges, and shelves, to make this cabinet frame work for your needs.

The IKEA PAX collection encompasses a series of wall-mounted storage frames in various configurations. Use a cabinet to enclose your washer and dryer. Is the eyesore in question laundry room plumbing or wiring? Cover it with a suitable PAX cabinet frame and create space to store your linens or laundry liquid at the same time. Since PAX cabinets attach directly to the wall, they don't need a solid back. You can easily cut out access points for things like valves or cleanouts. Strengthen the sides with sturdy wood planks if you're storing — or disguising — anything heavy.

Sometimes, the biggest eyesore in your laundry room is the clutter that accumulates. That's where IKEA's powerful modular shelving systems come in handy. Use them to create extra storage and make organizing easy. The IVAR system can be used to create open shelf organization with any budget. It looks especially great in utilitarian laundry rooms. With all your cleaning essentials stored neatly away on IVAR shelves, sorting and folding clothes doesn't feel like so much of a chore. This is also a great IKEA hack to hide unsightly pipes in your laundry room.

The cube-style KALLAX shelving units from IKEA are flexible — you can stack them horizontally or vertically — and easy to decorate. People use them to make everything from bookcases to side tables. Use a shelf in a shared laundry-bathroom or laundry-basement as a room divider or to hide an unsightly furnace. Turn a KALLAX shelf into a wardrobe, hang one on the wall for additional storage, or stack one to create a makeshift table. It's hard not to argue that the IKEA KALLAX is the perfect solution for a neat and organized laundry day.

The stylish IKEA RISÖR room divider is a good choice for hiding laundry room eyesores. Folding screens are typically lightweight and easy to move, and this offering from IKEA is no exception. Drop a RISÖR screen down behind large appliances to hide offensive electrical panels and ductwork. It could also be useful to create a sense of separation for a laundry area situated in a bedroom or bathroom. Hide a washing machine behind an IKEA RISÖR room divider and no one will know it's there.

IKEA offers over 10,000 products globally, including many home décor items. You could use almost any combination to creatively cover unsightly pipes. Let's say, for example, your washing machine's water pipes are visible. You don't want to cover them with drywall or an ugly utility box. That's just not the right aesthetic. Instead, consider crafting a solution using décor items from IKEA: books, baskets, artificial (or real) houseplants, or canisters. You could even cut the back out of some items, like decorative storage boxes, and slip them over the offending outlets.

Picture frames are widely used to hide all sorts of problems in a home — from mechanical access points and electrical panels to defects in the drywall. In your laundry room, you can hide any wall eyesore using an IKEA frame hack while also adding some stylish décor to what is typically a bland space. If you have a lot of issues to cover, like a wall of plumbing fixtures, frame large panels of fabric. If you match the patterns or colors with your existing décor, this makeshift solution might even look intentional.

You can use the IKEA TISKEN towel rack with suction cups to say goodbye to the eyesore of washing machine hookups. You don't even have to drill any holes in your wall to install it. Mount the towel rack above whatever you want to hide, such as unsightly pipes or wires, and hang a pretty towel over it. You can also use it to store hanging laundry tools, like brushes, fabric scissors, a Unicca Small Foldable Tabletop Ironing Board, or even a Jautokerdar Extra-Large Hanging Storage Organizer.