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Building a Home

Adding a Laundry Room addition

16 years ago

Hi Folks, newbie here.

In about 1 1/2 years from now I hope to break ground for a new addition to our present home. This addition will be ~12'x16' and will be part laundry room, part mud room, with a shower. I also have high hopes to put a smaller cellar or basement under ~3/4 of the room. Right now there is already a small laundry room in this spot but it's a worthless 6'x8' space that's barely big enough for 1 person to stand in one spot whist tending laundry (why did the previous owners even bother?).

Looking ahead, my main question to you in the know is if there are any good websites that offer design plans for this type of set up?

Thanks for any info or suggestions too, vgkg

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Comment (1)

pinktoes
16 years ago
When we started designing our house, soon to be built, we knew we wanted a "real" laundry room. Here's how we approached it:

First, we decided basically what functions we wanted it to serve/what we wanted in it. We walked through an imaginary day living with our laundry room and made a list of what we did in it and what space/equipment/kind of storage would be required to support those activities.

We also had to decide if it would be our main way of coming and going. Your garage or car parking situation might already answer that for you.

Then, to aid our imaginations, we looked at TONS of stock house plans in softcover books from the grocery store and also online (cheaper). We looked for things similar in size to the space we'd have available. Then just tried to find what's similar.

I had been collecting pages torn out of magazines, and photocopies from library books, etc. for years of how I thought we'd want it to be. It is almost impossible to find even one book devoted to just laundry rooms or just mud rooms. If there were one, I would have it.

Then start with a sketch of the space available to you to use and try to configure it to accommodate the bath, and the traffic pattern, and the laundry appliances (plus freezer? pet's quarters? etc.) The best solution to that problem will leave you space for the other physically smaller and more flexible things to be tucked in wherever they'll fit, like coat storage, ironing board, boot bench, whatever.

I cannot tell you how hard it has been to design this, or how pleased I am that I spent the time to do it. I think it will just change our lives! Have some fun, too. Along the way, I saw and made note of cute/fun things I wanted to in terms of decorating.
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If you like to design spaces, I need your help! I have a plan laid out, but I'm curious to see what others would do in the same space. Here are the main reasons for the addition: current kitchen is far too small (9x10'11") - the 4 of us enjoy cooking and baking and we need more space for people and storage move the laundry up to the main floor from the basement create an entry/mud room for our family to come and go would like to have upright freezer on main floor too half bath on main floor The attached photos have the layout and our needs and wants on them. We're open to new ideas and suggestions. Thank you!! Exterior of house with addition area. Will have gray siding with white trim. Front porch windows and screen door will be removed so the porch is open. We're debating removing the half walls of the porch as well so the columns would be floor to ceiling. Thoughts?
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For $700, I would add one. I vowed that if we ever have another two story house, we'd have a laundry upstairs. I have three kids and lugged laundry up and down stairs for 2 years. I had to do the same during extended visits to my parent's house. Laundry at my parent's would pile around the units, because no one wanted to carry it back up. My two teenage little brothers would leave their stuff, dirty/clean, around the laundry room, piled on the washer, and use the dryer as their dresser. That last one was a parenting issue, and I won't get into that, lol. But just showing some possibilities of dealing with teens. If the laundry is closer to the bedrooms, it's a win for everyone.
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