I am thinking about making this small room into a guest room (maybe a window in the door or the wall, adding a bed, etc).
There are some knobs and pipes in one of the walls (2nd pic below) that I don't know what they are - can these be removed without any issues?
The black pipe looks like a drain cleanout. The white pipe looks like a drain for a washing machine and the two valves with the blue handles look like hot and cold water valves for a washer although they are very low. You probably want to keep them. You can't just remove them without doing some extensive work.
Here's my plan for you.
You have an exit door right there in the room, that's great. Don't have to spend money on new emergency exits. I'll assume that's an outside wall then, and it's not entirely underground, so you can add a window to the wall on either side of the door for natural light and fresh air. Don't block the door with furniture.
Repurpose the laundry hookup to provide a small vanity table with a wash basin in the guest room. Nice touch! The black cleanout can be hidden by the same cabinet but make it accessible through a cupboard door. You won't have to access it often, hopefully never, but you don't want a blocked drain to require destroying your vanity.
Perhaps the room is too small for a bed and a vanity? Then the cold/hot/drain can probably be cut and capped on the opposite side of the wall, or perhaps inside it with minor drywall repair after, and the cleanout will be behind the bed.
Change the light fixture to something with less prison vibe.
I'm guessing there was a deep sink in there once upon a time. I've never seen a washing machine hookup that wasn't in the wall to give you the required air gap.
That said, if you want to get rid of them, all the pipes except the cleanout could be capped in the wall with minor sheetrock repair required afterward. You could probably rotate the cleanout and put it behind an access panel but that seems like a lot of work for something you could just hide.
A door with a window works. If you replace the door with a window it must meet egress standards.
Obviously I’m late but good news and bad news. The good news is the room is supplied with water and a drain. I’m assuming there must be another laundry room and this was included for convenience and there is a very good chance it located above or below the main laundry room. The big white pipe is your ventilation for your dryer. You know the water spouts and the other is the drain. Just keep in mind that if the main laundry room is directly above or below it probably uses them for the same purpose(that would be the bad news).I’ve never seen a house with 2 interior laundry rooms. Whatever you decide to do make sure not to impede the functionality of infrastructure and negativity effect your main laundry ,bath rooms or kitchen . Any room using water,vent or drain. A window, in that case , could be an issue. Still, you can hide everything exposed within the wall assuming you have the skill and patience. Keep in mind that depending on where you live permits might be required. If so and you don’t get them they can be petty. I’ve seen a situation of work done without a permit because the man was qualified and it was his house but ended up getting caught when he sold it as it didn’t match the plans the county had on file .Just fyi.
