Laundry rooms in many Hamilton County homes sit directly adjacent to the kitchen — often sharing a wall, or accessed through a mudroom off the kitchen — which means they come up constantly as a “while you’re at it” question during kitchen remodel consultations. Here’s an honest breakdown of when it makes financial sense to bundle the two, and when it doesn’t.
The case for bundling
If your laundry room shares a wall with the kitchen and both need cabinetry, the fabrication and installation efficiency of ordering everything as one cabinetry package genuinely reduces per-unit cost compared to two separate smaller orders months apart. If your crew is already on-site with tile setters, cabinet installers, and electricians for the kitchen, adding laundry room scope to the same schedule avoids a second mobilization — a second project setup, second permit process, second round of scheduling trades — which carries its own fixed cost regardless of project size.
The case against bundling
If your laundry room is a self-contained space with no shared wall or systems with the kitchen, there’s less efficiency to gain, and adding it to the kitchen project mainly just adds scope, cost, and timeline to a project that’s already complex. If your laundry room needs are primarily about washer/dryer capacity or utility hookups rather than cabinetry and finishes, that’s a more straightforward, lower-cost project on its own that doesn’t benefit much from being bundled.
What a laundry room refresh typically includes
Most laundry room updates we build alongside a kitchen project include upper and lower cabinetry matched to (or intentionally different from) the kitchen finish, a counter surface for folding, updated flooring that matches or complements the kitchen, and sometimes a utility sink. If space allows, we’ll also look at whether a stacked washer/dryer configuration could free up floor space for more storage versus a side-by-side layout.
What it typically costs to add
A cabinetry-and-counter laundry refresh bundled into a kitchen project usually adds a modest percentage to the total project cost — well below what the same scope would cost as an entirely separate project, largely because of the shared mobilization and design time. The exact number depends heavily on your laundry room’s current condition and whether any plumbing or electrical relocation is needed.
Our honest recommendation
If your laundry room is visibly dated and shares any wall, plumbing, or design sightline with your kitchen, it’s almost always worth including in the same conversation — even if you ultimately decide to phase the work. If it’s a fully separate, functional space that just isn’t your top priority right now, there’s no efficiency penalty to waiting and tackling it as its own project later. We’ll give you a straight answer on which situation you’re in during your free consultation.