Almost every question about laundry cabinets has the same first answer: does the machine open at the front or the top. A front loader gives you a worktop-height block and a free wall above it. A top loader needs its lid to swing up and stay open, which rules out most of what you were planning. Everything else on this page follows from that, along with the two things a laundry does to furniture that no other room does.
With front loaders, treat the machines as a base run: put a worktop across them and hang wall cabinets above it with the familiar kitchen gap, around 18" (457 mm), at 12" (305 mm) deep so they clear your head. With a top loader, measure the lid at full travel and keep everything above that line. In both cases, get the cabinets off the floor and seal every edge, because a laundry floor gets wet as a matter of routine rather than as an accident.
Front, top or stacked
Machines
What can go above
Depth
Note
Front loaders
A countertop directly on top, or wall cabinets hung above one
12" (305 mm) wall cabinets clear your head while you load
The flexible case. The machines are a worktop-height block and the wall above is yours
Top loaders
Nothing that stops the lid opening fully and standing open
Shallow, and often nothing at all directly above the lid
Measure the lid at full travel. This single dimension decides the whole wall
Stacked pair
The dryer is already at head height, so cabinets go beside rather than over
Full height cabinets alongside work better than anything overhead
Check the stacking kit is the maker's own and the floor is sound
The top-loader case is worth labouring, because it is where plans go wrong. The lid does not stop at vertical: it swings up and back, and it has to stay there while you load the machine. Measure that position with a tape, mark it on the wall, and treat the mark as the lowest point anything can occupy. A shelf that clears a closed lid and fouls an open one is useless in a way that is only discovered after installation.
The worktop over front loaders
A single surface across a washer and dryer is the highest-value thing you can add to a laundry, because folding is the task the room is actually short of. It also hides two machines behind one line, which makes a utility room look considered rather than assembled.
Three things to get right:
Do not rest the worktop on the machines. They vibrate, they need to slide out for service, and one of them will be replaced with something a different height. The top should be supported by cabinets or brackets at each end with the machines standing free underneath.
Leave the machines removable. Boxing appliances in so tightly that a service engineer cannot get one out is a common and expensive regret.
Check the height of the machines with their feet adjusted. Laundry appliances are levelled on screw feet, so the finished height depends on the floor and on how far they have been wound out.
How high, and how deep
Above a worktop the familiar kitchen figures work, and for the same reasons. About 18" of gap leaves room to use the surface, and the guide to that gap explains why 15 to 20" is the working range. Wall cabinets at 12" deep keep clear of your head, and the depth guide covers why going deeper is a false economy.
The one laundry-specific adjustment: you lean into a washing machine rather than standing at a counter, so if the cabinets hang directly above front loaders with no worktop between, hang them higher than a kitchen would. You want to be able to bend at the machine door without meeting a cabinet corner with the back of your head.
For a small laundry, one more option worth considering: a single shallow shelf with a hanging rail under it, rather than cabinets. It holds the detergent, gives you somewhere to hang shirts straight out of the machine, and takes almost nothing from the room.
Water, steam and the floor
A laundry is the second wettest room in a house after a bathroom, and the water arrives in three ways that all reach a cabinet:
Standing water on the floor. A hose fails, a filter is opened, a machine overflows. In this room that is routine rather than exceptional, which is the argument for getting every carcass off the floor on legs.
Steam. Opening a dryer at the end of a hot cycle releases a cloud of it, and it goes straight up into whatever is above and sideways into whatever is beside.
Condensation. A warm humid room with a cold outside wall puts water on surfaces without anything spilling at all.
So this is a room for full edge coverage rather than the default visible-edges-only, for the same reason a sink base is: an unsealed chipboard edge that gets wet swells permanently. Combine that with legs and the two together are what beat a wet floor. A moisture-resistant board grade is worth asking about here too, and it is a quote rather than a switch in the editor.
Vibration, honestly
A washing machine on spin puts real energy into the floor and into anything touching it. Two honest statements about that:
Cabinetry does not damp vibration, and nobody should tell you it does. What furniture can do is stay out of the way: not resting on the machines, not clamped against them, and not relying on a worktop that the machines are holding up.
What actually reduces vibration is the machine being level on a solid floor, which is what its adjustable feet are for. If a machine walks across the room on spin, the fix is the feet and the floor rather than the cupboard next to it.
The services, and the dryer
Before the cabinetry is drawn, find out where everything arrives and leaves: hot and cold supply, waste, power, and for a vented dryer, the duct. Cabinets that sit over the plumbing wall need a way for pipes to pass, which is a notch or an open back rather than a hole drilled after the fact.
A vented dryer has requirements of its own in its manual, covering the route and the length of the duct. Those are the manufacturer's numbers and they matter, so read them before deciding what goes on that wall. A condenser or heat pump dryer avoids the duct entirely and brings its own considerations about where the moisture goes.
Leave access to the shut-off valves. A laundry where you have to empty a cupboard to reach a stop tap is a laundry where the leak wins.
Measure the lid before you draw the wall
Put the machines in with their real heights, mark where a top-loading lid reaches, and the cabinets fall where they can actually go. Switch banding coverage to all and stand the run on legs, since a laundry floor gets wet as a matter of routine.
How high should cabinets be above a washer and dryer?
If there is a worktop across front-loading machines, treat it like a kitchen: about 18 inches (457 mm) of gap above the surface, with 15 to 20 inches being the working range. If the cabinets hang directly above the machines with no worktop, hang them higher than a kitchen would, because you bend into a washing machine rather than standing at a counter and you do not want to meet a cabinet corner with the back of your head. With a top loader, the controlling dimension is the lid at full travel, and nothing may occupy the space below that line.
Can you put cabinets above a top-loading washing machine?
Only above the point the open lid reaches, which is higher than people expect. The lid does not stop at vertical: it swings up and back and has to stay there while you load the machine. Measure that position with a tape, mark it on the wall, and treat the mark as the lowest point anything can occupy. A shelf that clears a closed lid and fouls an open one is discovered after installation and is useless. In many top-loader laundries the honest answer is cabinets beside the machines rather than over them.
How deep should laundry cabinets be?
Twelve inches (305 mm) for wall cabinets, the same as a kitchen, so they clear your head while you work underneath. Going deeper is a false economy in a room where you are already leaning into machines. Base cabinets beside the appliances can be the full 24 inches, which is useful for baskets and bulk. In a small laundry, consider a single shallow shelf with a hanging rail under it instead of cabinets: it holds the detergent, gives you somewhere to hang shirts straight out of the machine, and takes almost nothing from the room.
Should a countertop rest on the washer and dryer?
No. Machines vibrate, they need to slide out for service, and one of them will eventually be replaced by something a different height. Support the worktop on cabinets or brackets at each end and let the machines stand free underneath it. While you are at it, keep the appliances removable rather than boxing them in so tightly that a service engineer cannot extract one, and check the machine heights with their feet adjusted, since laundry appliances are levelled on screw feet and the finished height depends on the floor.
Do laundry cabinets need special protection from water?
They need the same treatment a sink base gets, for the same reason. A laundry takes water three ways: standing water on the floor when a hose fails or a filter is opened, steam when a dryer is opened at the end of a hot cycle, and condensation on cold surfaces in a warm humid room. Get every carcass off the floor on legs, and specify full edge banding rather than the default visible edges, because an unsealed chipboard edge that gets wet swells permanently and cannot be repaired. A moisture-resistant board grade is worth asking about for this room.
Do cabinets reduce washing machine vibration?
No, and anyone who says otherwise is selling something. Cabinetry does not damp vibration; what it can do is stay out of the way, which means not resting on the machines, not clamped against them, and not depending on a worktop that the machines are holding up. What actually reduces vibration is the machine sitting level on a solid floor, which is what its adjustable feet exist for. If a machine walks across the room on spin, the fix is the feet and the floor rather than the cupboard beside it.
What should I check before designing a laundry room?
Where every service arrives and leaves: hot and cold supply, waste, power, and for a vented dryer the duct route, which has requirements in the appliance manual covering length and path. Cabinets over the plumbing wall need a way for pipes to pass, which is a notch or an open back designed in rather than a hole drilled later. Leave access to the shut-off valves, because a laundry where you have to empty a cupboard to reach a stop tap is a laundry where the leak wins. And measure the machines themselves, including a top-loading lid at full travel.
