Utility Rooms/Mudrooms

15 years ago

Hi everyone. I'm new and I have a request. I visited the Laundry forum but all the talk was about laundry. lol

We're getting ready to build on and remodel. One room we're adding is a large, or larger, utility room/mudroom.

I've searched the net high and low for full pictures of utility rooms and came up with nothing. This stuff is so new to me. Would anyone be inclined, when you get the time, to take a full picture of your utility room so I can show my contractor, if I see one I'm interested in? OR..is there a website which shows full rooms?

The kids are grown so we don't need the individual shelves for coats and things.

Thanks in advance!

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Comments (12)

Oakley
Original Author
15 years ago
Forgot to add, I found the gallery and a topic about mudrooms, but for some reason it takes forever to load. It's always been this way. Is it hard to load for anyone else?
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User
15 years ago
The bests place to look for an room that you might add cabinets is on company websites that make cabinetry like Kraftmaid.......

Here is a link that might be useful: Kraftmaid laundry and craft rooms
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First, comments on changes other people have already suggested: - The utility room /mudroom enlargement circled in red is nothing short of brilliant. it takes space that's already planned, already under-roof and makes it into a much more functional area. Note that the main house door is now right next to the trunk of the car ... perfect for unloading groceries, and everyone will have room to "spread out" a bit as they enter the house (as opposed to be crammed into that little hallway space. Do note that you can have a whole world of shelves UNDER the stairs in this space, making it a fairly large storage area. This could be a spot for the gun safe; it's a little more private than the hallway-just-off-the-great-room, and guns are something many of us like to keep private; plus you'd have the counter space for bringing guns out to check, clean, whatever ... and with the gun safe moved to the utility /laundry, you could use what's now labeled as "gun safe" as a pantry. I don't think I'd want an exterior door in this spot though. It'd be out-of-sight-out-of-mind and very easy to leave unlocked. - Second, the area circled in blue ... I'm less enamored of this area. This house isn't large, and you don't have any other space to act as an office ... yet we all know we need a space to store bills and other mail, a spot for a printer, a place to charge laptops, etc. That's what I'd do with this "media room" ... I'd use it as a pocket office. It could be closed off with pocket doors. Pocket doors for a pocket office. If you do away with the little office space, here's what I'd do with this spot: You don't need two hallways, one running on each side of the gun safe ... it'd look kind of weird from the great room ... and that nose-to-toes powder room is too small for comfort. 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User
15 years ago
I've never tried to look at that gallery so I wouldn't know. I was wondering if you know what size your laundry/mudroom will be? Where the washer and dryer will be located in it?
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User
15 years ago
And more.....

Here is a link that might be useful: Google Image results for laundry rooms
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jrmom
15 years ago
I posted this question recently, but I have an existing laundry room that I wanted to re-do, add cabinets and maximize space, I recieved a lot of great feedback. I was going to purchase the cabinets that someone suggested from homedepot, they were thermafoil, in stock and $99 for 54 inches wide and 24 inches high. They also had a 72 inch tall pantry 18 inches wide. We went to purchase these cabinets on Labor Day and they were out of them. My DH suggested we talk to the kitchen designer, as to fill all the wall space completely. I thought that it would cost a fortune, but I agreed to see. The guy was great he suggested mills pride cabinets, when they arrive we have to build the boxes, but the quality of the sample looked great, we are doing 3 27 inch cabinets (and they are 30 inches tall the others were 24) and a 18 inch wide pantry for $650, I didn't think that was a bad price, it will take 3 weeks for them to come in, and we have to install them, I will try to post pictures when we are done.
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johnmari
15 years ago
jrmom, we have the Distinctions (formerly Mills Pride, they're changing over the name) cabinets in our laundry room and they are pretty impressive for the price, quite sturdy. We have 2 30x30 wall cabs, it was something like $175 for the two. The door selection kind of stunk but we chose the Gatsby white Shaker style as being the most innocuous of the available options. It's not thermofoil, it's sort of a matte sprayed-on finish that's halfway between paint and plastic - kind of strange but for the price I ain't gonna complain. DH, who is TOTALLY unhandy, was able to put the two cabinets together complete with attaching the doors in less than two hours (second one went much faster than the first), and another hour to hang them. I think we're going to stack a couple of 30wx42h wall cabinets for a pantry in the mudroom since none of their pantry cabinets really work for us.

Sorry I can't help you on pictures oakleyok, but my mudroom/laundry is still not presentable by a looooooongshot - no paint, ugly utility rug on the floor, no window treatments (haven't figured that part out yet), let's not talk about what PO put up for moldings... And yes, Gallery threads take FOREVER to load - if you are on dialup I wouldn't even try. Usually what I do is pop open another browser window (just click "File" and "New Window") and go do something else while the thread is loading.
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Oakley
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks for the replies and the links. We're going to put the utility room off the kitchen where the old tiny one is, and extend it in the old living room, while we add on to the living room. It's hard to vision, I know, but it should be really nice. The size of the room should be about 12 feet long, and I'm not sure how wide it will be, but it will have plenty of cabinets and counter tops.

What I'm looking forward to is the window we have in the old living room now, which is about 6 ft. wide by 4 ft. high, with plantation shutters. It will be included in the new room and I'll have a counter under it, with house plants I can finally grow in full sun! It should be a very bright and cheery room.
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jaymielo
15 years ago
You should go look on the building a home forum for pictures of ponydoc's clutter room. It sounds like it might be similar to your set up. We have a very modest sized mud room which is combined with our laundry room. However, we tried to maximize the space and utility with lots of cabinetry. No windows, so it isn't full of light, but I'm very happy with it so far.
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jrmom
15 years ago
johnmari, thankyou for your information, My DH will be glad to hear that they are not hard to put together, the style that I picked is the Montana, white, I think it's thermafoil (the name makes me think of silver cabinets, not white). I was so happy the guy could maximize our space, he was really good, I've never gotten such good help at home depot before. I now have to deal with the sink, my dh has agreed to move the big utility sink into the basement and let me get a smaller sink, so I may need to order a base cabinet. He has a good friend that is a plumber that will help him (it usually goes that he helps the plumber), the plumber said that I could go to one of his showrooms and look at sinks....so we'll see.

I know what you mean about not showing the laundry room pictures...I'm embarassed to take a before pictue but I will...I can't believe that it took us 15 years to think of this and spend the $$ on it.
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hoosiergirl
15 years ago
Here's ours, Oakleyok:

I absolutely LOVE our mudroom! It keeps all that *stuff* contained before we enter the kitchen and living areas. Obviously, this pic was taken before we started using it, and it's never looked this nice since, but it's fine for us. On the other side is a broom closet and a utility sink with a window above it. Good luck to you!
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annie1971
15 years ago
I have to say that I am not going to tell you what you need in your laundry/mud room. I am going to say that it could very well be the most frequented room in your house and that you should take serious consideration! I wish that my laundry room was double it's size because it could possibly accommodate more countertop space, project workspace, and a great sink for cleaning and soaking. I wish that my laundry room was not a room leading into the garage! (everything that should be in the garage ends up on the laundry room counter top)!
Make sure that your washer and dryer fit properly into your space and that your storage is adequate and easily accessible. Many laundry rooms are not laid out for the front loader model washer and dryers. Be sure you have enough space to do what you want to do in your laundry area. I personally think the laundry/mud area of a home is the new best feature. If you have the opportunity -- get it right for yourself!
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oceanna
15 years ago
Oakley, have you checked the Laundry room thread in our Gallery? I did a lot of work in there to help folks looking for pics. Maybe you'll find some ideas there?

Here is a link that might be useful: Gallery - Laundry
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Utility Rooms/Mudrooms

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