I am excited today because we are talking about the room that is used for people’s most hated chore and often a forgotten space in their house when it comes to design. I am also sneaking in a little mini-reveal of the laundry room we did for our Palos Verdes remodel. I absolutely love this space because it really is not a very big room at all, but we were able to squeeze so much functionality into it. Alright ladies, hold on to your laundry baskets, because today we are going to share some of our tips for designing your dream laundry room!
TIP 1: PLACE YOUR WASHING MACHINE SIDE-BY-SIDE AND PUT A COUNTER TOP OVER IT
This is a great tip, because it can be used in almost all laundry rooms, regardless of size. In fact, it even works great in a laundry room closet, as long as it is big enough to have your washer and dryer side-by-side. This gives you such a huge work surface to take advantage of and it also makes the laundry room dressier and feel more designed. The material you use doesn’t have to be expensive. In fact, a butcher block countertop slab from IKEA cut down to size would work perfectly and wouldn’t cost you more than $200.
TIP 2: MAKE IT MULTI-FUNCTIONAL
Pack in as much multi-purpose space as you can. One thing we love doing is incorporating a mudroom area into a laundry room. As you will see below, in our Palos Verdes remodel we put a small area of cubbies and hooks that can be used to store book bags, jackets, pool or beach supplies, or sporting equipment. Don’t stress if the space you have isn’t huge, just a few hooks on the wall with a bench with dividers would help wonders with keeping everything organized. Take advantage of the cubbies and put baskets that can corral stuff that always gets lost or separated like goggles, sunscreen, cleaning supplies, hats and scarves and other winter accessories, etc.
TIP 3: DESIGN IT WITH YOUR FAMILY IN MIND
Really take the time to think about what your family needs and how it uses the space. In the Palos Verdes project, they lived a block off of the beach and they had a dog, so we added a foot bath that could be used to wash off everyone’s feet before coming into the house. It also makes the perfect place to bathe the dog. If you live up north, think about incorporating storage for winter sports equipment such as ski’s, boots, ice skates, and hockey equipment. Include a utility sink in your space and place a wall-hung drying rack above it for swimsuits to drip dry or for your hand washed items that need to be air dried. By planning for the way your family truly uses the space in advance, it will save you a ton of headache and heart ache wishing you had included something after it is too late.
TIP 4: STORAGE, STORAGE, STORAGE
If space allows, we always encourage our clients to include non-traditional cabinetry or storage in their space. We love using oversized cabinets to store vacuums, mops and brooms. We also love having built in shelving area where you can store separate laundry baskets. These can be organized so that each family member has their own basket or you can separate them out so that there is an area for whites, darks, handwashables, etc. Think about systems the systems that you already have in place (or would like to put into place) and design for those scenarios.
TIP 5: ADD SPECIAL TOUCHES
Just because a laundry room is functional, does not mean that it can’t be beautiful. In fact, this is a great space to play with color, pattern and material because it is a smaller space so those materials won’t be budget busters or as overwhelming as they could be in a larger space. So go ahead, paint it a bright happy color you love, use a bold patterned wallpaper, and splurge on a pricier tile. Listen ladies, as much time as we spend in that dang room, it might as well make use smile when we go in there. Am I right? I absolutely love the gorgeous cement tile that we used in Palos Verdes. It makes such a statement without completely overwhelming the space. I also literally died and went to fixture heaven over that unlacquered brass shower head we put in the footbath. Also, how cute is the dutch door that leads from the laundry room into the main part of the house. I love that Erin can be doing laundry and still be able to see what the girls are doing in the rest of the house. GENIUS!
