Decorating ideas: Laundry Room Design Tips
Designing a bespoke laundry room
Confession time - I'm a bit of a laundry geek. Laundry rooms and utility rooms are often overlooked when planning a luxury interior design project. The glamour and the focus on kitchens and bathrooms always takes centre stage. But secretly I’ve always loved designing laundry rooms using bespoke joinery. For me they’re such an enjoyable & hard-working room to design and when given proper time and thought can really make a difference in the daily lives of our clients.
What to think about when designing a laundry room
Here our my top interior design tips when planning a laundry room to get the most out of the space:
Storage
Often laundry rooms are tight on space, so when designing one storage and organisation are key. We relish the challenge and work with our clients to think about their day-to-day requirements to optimise the room and make it function as efficiently as possible; what equipment do they use regularly, what needs to be accessible quickly and what can be stored away. We then work with our fantastic joiners to create bespoke storage that is functional and beautiful; ironing boards in their own separate upright area, space to charge a hand-held hoover, high level storage for any cleaning or laundry detergents to keep them away from children, and in the most generous of spaces a cabinet with individual laundry baskets for each member of the family’s ironed laundry to be stored away & taken to their rooms.
Building in useful hanging rails to match the ironmongery in the room is worth planning into your design. It provides easy hanging for ironed clothes whilst still looking beautiful and integral to the design of the room.
When the space is available having the washing and drying machines at eye level is a really helpful ergonomic touch. I also love this addition of a pull-out tray to place laundry baskets on top whilst loading laundry.
Worktops and wall finishes
We love using quartz, quartzite or granite worktops in laundry rooms. Wood is a lovely rustic touch, but it’s not very practical when considering the detergents and stain removers in use in the room, wood also takes much longer to dry than a stone top.
Tiled walls are the absolute dream in utility rooms. You can literally throw anything at it without being precious at all, but it can feel quite cold and clinical, so we usually mix it up with a fun wallpaper at high level or on the ceiling. No-one said laundry rooms need to be boring, in fact if they’re happy spaces you’re bound to spend more time in them which can only be a good thing.
Pets
A lot of our clients have beloved pets who kindly share their bedroom with the laundry room! We love making pets feel comfortable and finding unique solutions to storing all their bits and bobs as well as carving out places to sleep, eat and wash.
Integrated pet food stations are a great idea for a utility room and helps to keep other rooms in the house neat and tidy. Having a bespoke washing station if there’s room is a great addition and of course somewhere comfortable for a good night's sleep.
New laundry technology
During lockdown I barely bought any clothes, I prefer to touch and feel clothes when purchasing them and have always struggled to shop online. So once the shops opened up again, and I finally managed to sneak away, I spent time visiting some beautiful boutiques and bought some lovely pieces to add to my wardrobe. I believe that clothes should last and purposefully pick out pieces with longevity. With this in mind, technological advances all around the world have always fascinated me when it comes to getting the longest life out of my clothes. These are my top three geeky laundry finds with you:
An AirDresser
Samsung’s AirDresser is an add-on to your laundry set-up, in that it won’t replace anything you already have but will give you another option for dealing with clothes and fabrics. The standard size models have space for three hanging garments, which can be steamed to freshen clothes up and to help remove wrinkles. A steam closet can also save you money if you have a lot of dry clean-only clothes. While it won’t mean you never have to take clothes to the dry cleaners again, you’ll make significantly fewer trips. If you get caught in the rain, you can put your damp clothes in your steam closet on your return home and they’ll be warm and fresh when you next go out - bliss!
Professional Drying Cabinets
Fire stations, police stations and military bases all over the world have used professional drying cabinets to quickly dry uniforms ready for re-wear, they’re able to dry tens of items within 30 minutes - amazing! Unlike tumble dryers that can shrink and ruin clothes, Drying Cabinets use a gentle drying process that protects your items, even those made from delicate materials such as silk and wool. I haven't tried this one myself but have it high on my list to include in my own utility as it can be stacked above the washing machine.
Fan-driven drying racks
In our new home we will not have any radiators, and although that fills me with joy for many reasons, it also makes me worried about how to quickly dry Oscar's rain jacket on a Sunday evening when he needs it for school in the morning. Drumroll for the ceiling mounted fan operated drying rack - think of a teched-up version of the old school 'sheila's maid' - personally I'm looking forward to using the Foxydry Air 120. The name says it all!
