The previous owner of my house spent a lot of time and energy renovating certain pieces of the house, especially the kitchen. The one distraction, however, was the washer and dryer sitting out in the open next to the fridge. I don't have an issue with the washer and dryer in the kitchen (it's very European), but I did have an issue with the wasted space in an otherwise refined room.
One of the first projects I did when I purchased the house was to stack the washer and dryer and build a laundry closet that would allow me to tuck the washer and dryer away. This also gave me the opportunity to build a coat closet next to the front door (the existing closet was on the other side of the kitchen).
