DIY: Laundry Pedestal

Front loading washing machines are so super pretty, but if you're like me and your laundry piles up (leaving you with multiple loads to do at one time), you will find that these puppies are quite low and hard on the back! Additionally our washer and dryer hookups are higher than the units themselves, leaving unsightly venting and water connections in plain view. 

We had plans to buy the matching pedestal for the washer and dryer, but at $400 + tax and shipping for two of them, we figured we'd be better off saving a few bucks and building something ourselves. There are lots of tutorials out there for similar designs with drawers, but I wanted a simple project that I could complete in a weekend. Plus, I have a wall of cabinets in the laundry room so I really didn't need drawers underneath.

Materials

1 - 1/2" sheet of 4x8' birch or maple plywood, good on one side

3 - 2x12 lumber, 12'

Drill

Driver

Wood filler

Table saw

Chop saw

Wood screws

Counter sink bit

Paint

Furniture slides

After measuring my washer and dryer, I decided on a final finished size of 5' wide by 3' deep by 11.75" high. I planned my plywood cuts to maximize usage from a single sheet. For this project I ended up building the base from 2x12's, then cladded the three visible surfaces with painted plywood (the pedestal sits in the corner of the room so only the front, top, and right side are visible).

THE BASE

First I built the outside frame. When I cut the front and back pieces I needed to compensate for the thickness of the plywood I would be attaching later. This was only going on one side so I subtracted the thickness of the plywood from the length of the final pedestal. For the supports/bracing, I needed to compensate for the thickness of the 2x12 that spanned horizontally on the front and back, plus the plywood cladding on the front. Keep in mind lumber sizes aren't actually the size they come in - a 2x12 piece of lumber is actually 1.5  x 11.25", so keep this in mind when planning your cuts and measurements.

Cut list:

Front and back:  2 pieces of 2x12 lumber cut to 4' 11.5" 

Sides and bracing: 4 pieces of 2x12 lumber cut to 2' 8.5"

Dry fitting everything over of the top sheet to ensure a good fit, leaving space on two sides for plywood facing.

THE TOP

From my 4x8 sheet of plywood, I cut 3 pieces.

Top: 5' x 3'

Front: 5' x 11.25"

Side: 3' x 11.25"

I dry fit everything together to make sure if fit. Once I was happy with it, I started screwing the sides to the base. For this I drilled countersunk pilot holes for my screws. Once the screws were placed, I filled the holes with wood filler and sanded them down once dry. Following this I ironed on some veneer edge banding, cut the excess, and sanded the edges. I then painted the entire thing with two coats of white paint.

Once everything was dry, Chris and I moved the base into the laundry room. Consider attaching the plywood in the location where the pedestal will finally sit as it's much lighter and easier to grab before the plywood is attached. We didn't do this, so we stuck some old carpet samples underneath so it wouldn't scratch the floor and slid it into place (you can also use felt furniture slides).

After struggling trying to get the washer up onto the pedestal, and then adjusted the feet on each unit so they sat level, we slid the whole thing into place (that is where the felt pads come in handy again).

Here's the final product! It really makes a massive difference to the usability of the appliances. It's not as hard on the back moving loads from the washer to the dryer and we saved ourself about $350!

Let us know if you found this tutorial useful in the comments below! What type of set up do you have in your laundry space?