A home has many rooms, but one of the most forgotten rooms when it comes to remodel and renovation is the laundry room. Of course, this is odd considering the average household washes over 6,000 articles of clothing per year. For most families, laundry happens once — if not twice — per week. This constant washing means that at least one person in the home is spending a few hours in the laundry room. So why don’t we make it a luxurious space? Here are some tips on designing the laundry room of your dreams.
Invest in Storage Solutions
Your laundry room is more than the place where the washer and dryer are housed. Whether you need to iron, fold or sort, a laundry room should be the place to do everything clothing related. Invest in quality storage solutions that can make your laundry room feel like, well, a room! There are lots of ways you can configure laundry room cabinets to really work efficiently for you and your family. Whether you need more drawers or you prefer shelves hidden behind cabinet doors, a storage solution that allows you to hold all your clothing and laundry-related items will go a long way in encouraging the other members of your family to wash their own loads, too.
Add a Sink
Some things just need to be hand-washed. These items can be cleaned in your laundry room if you invest in a sink for the space. It’s also a great place to clean shoes (including soccer cleats!), pre-treat stains or even wash hands on your way in from outside. A sink in your laundry room is great because it alleviates all the traffic in your kitchen or bathrooms and, instead, the kids can take their dirty sports uniforms directly to the laundry room for treatment prior to the wash.
Sorting Bins Make Life Easier
In a dream world, everyone knows how to sort their laundry. But, try as you might, some members of your family just won’t get it. To help, having sorting bins or hampers in your laundry room can encourage family members to sort their laundry whenever they bring it down. This also helps you gauge whether or not you have enough dirty clothes to run a load. There’s no sense starting the washer if you only have three white shirts and two pairs of white socks to wash! It helps you avoid waste and gets you on the path to a greener lifestyle.
Hide Your Laundry Room Away
A dream laundry room is one that is convenient but isn’t in your face. Many washers, especially in older homes, hook up to sinks or other water lines, making them a huge eyesore in kitchen spaces. If you have the funds when designing your laundry room, consider adding a water line into the space that allows you to put your washer and dryer in the laundry room instead of in the kitchen or even the garage. It’s also not a good idea to have your laundry room on the upper floor. In the event of a leak from your washer, you could flood out the upper floor and potentially damage the lower one. Instead, put your laundry room near the back door of your home so that as visitors and residents come and go, they can easily drop items or clean up. Many homeowners combine their mudroom with their laundry room, which helps to streamline the process for residents and guests alike.
Then, once you’ve done that, make sure to install a door of some kind. Whether you choose a fun barn door or you simply use a tension rod with thick curtains, actually separating your laundry room from the other spaces in your home will ensure that it doesn’t become an eyesore.
Get Innovative with Small Spaces
Smaller spaces will always feel like a challenge, especially for homeowners. Many older homes didn’t have laundry rooms built because some of them were around much longer than washers and dryers have existed! It wasn’t until the 1970s and 1980s that laundry rooms really became prevalent in home design, so any homes built before then probably don’t have much space allocated for them. So, you have to get creative! If you’re remodeling a pantry to be a laundry room, consider going vertical. Stack the washer and dryer and utilize tall cabinets instead of shorter ones to really maximize your storage and usage space.
Don’t Be Afraid to Embrace Color
When we talk about the design of a laundry room, we can’t forget that the color palette is a huge part of that. Feel free to embrace bright, bold colors in your laundry room in ways that you don’t in other areas of your home. Whether you choose light RTA cabinets or choose a patterned tile for the floors, the laundry room is the perfect space to embrace all of your bright and bold color desires. Just make sure you save room for the practical needs of the laundry room and you should be fine.
Take the Time to Make a Plan
A design without a plan is one that never officially concludes. Instead, you just keep adding on until it spirals out of control. Take the time to make a plan for your laundry room design prior to pulling the plug on any purchases. This will help you craft a timeline of the project and also a budget. It’s important that you have these early on so you can hold yourself accountable as well as those you enlist to work on the project with you. Of course, you could always hire a contractor — which is a great idea if you’ve never renovated space in your home before or don’t have anyone who’s trained in-home reno or construction — but many homeowners choose to DIY the entire project.
A laundry room doesn’t have to feel like a forgotten space. From cabinet design to colors, there are lots of ways you can design a laundry room that not only feels like it belongs in a home decor magazine but really looks and feels like your dream space.
