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Need help with small laundry room design

6 years ago

Hi,

I'd like advice on layout of our small laundry that is part of an addition/renovation. The measurements are 7'2" wide by 7'5" deep. The current design is L-shape with stacked washer dryer and a sink.

- Should we ditch the sink (we rarely use a sink for laundry)?

- stack the washer and dryer or not?

- L-shape for cabinets or just put the machines and cabinets on one wall (and which wall - left wall or back wall?)

- any organizational ideas we should incorporate?

- Where should the skylight be placed (center in room, center on potential l-shaped upper cabinets, center on l-shape lower cabinets (as currently drawn)?

- what size skylight (currently 23x23)? The roofline is well above the 9' ceiling in this location since it is not on the edge of the house (this is a one story home)

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Comments (4)

thekiserprince
6 years ago
I'm no designer but can speak for the washer dryer set up. If you moved the sink left just a few inches, the extra room would make it easier to move around when doing laundry. Also, If you make sure it is at least a 27 Inch wide opening for your stacked laundry to fit into, now or for future purchases, you will have more choices but you will always find some 24 Inch models. That being said, most front load washers open right to left, however, european models such as Electrolux, Miele and others can open left to right. Also, some type of access to the back of the units for installation is always a great idea. I've seen many a designer overlook this. Maybe even provide the specs for the washer and dryer to the designer,/builder so no mistakes are made. In fact, do that for all the appliances
janiceme
6 years ago
I think a pocket door entrance would be a great space saver for this room. I would move the sink to the corner closest to the door and on the shared wall with the bathroom. You could have the washer and dryer side by side, not stacked) along the same wall - great for saving on plumbing runs - and have your counter across the back. The top of the dryer is useful for folding space and you could have upper cabs and hanging rods along both the shared bath/sink and back walls. A pocket door would allow you to have some hooks or towel bars along the wall that is currently behind the door.
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Here are my suggestions: Completely separate the laundry from the office area. No adjoining counters. You can fold clothes as you take them out of the dryer. I would get a huge deep sink and skip the dog bath. My fabricator made a cover for my sink that matches the corian countertops. So it's a handy place when not in use. Put the washer beside the dryer. I wouldn't put in a built-in trash cabinet if this room doesn't generate a lot of garbage. Why not put a 12" base cabinet there that can store supplies and the cabinet doors would face the hallway that leads into the room. Do you need a place for an extra fridge or a chest freezer? Is this house already built?
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Annette, thank you for taking the time to answer. Apologies for the very rough sketch. I didn't explain that we will be adding the envisioned left hand wall, sectioning off the new laundry space from the current open garage space. The elevator and space at the bottom of the sketch are in the interior of the house. The door between the elevator and the stairs opens from the foyer into the garage. The closet I have drawn in there, we have now decided will be added to the laundry room and not the foyer. The lines I have drawn in the middle of the left hand wall will be stairs going down to the lower level of the garage. There will be a door there. The sketch I have drawn correlates to the right hand section of the blueprint. The perspective would be the equivalent of the first photograph. The new wall will be placed where the dotted line is in the blue print . Am I making more sense? (or any sense.... ;) ) I agree with you about putting the dryer on the exterior wall. I'm not sure why my contractor boyfriend is so insistent on them not being on an exterior wall. Were the Fl units you were using in the house on pedestals or without? I feel without the pedestals they will be ok. I'm short: 5'4"
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It's a laundry room, so it's probably a low priority space. Your big problem is clutter and darkness, not pipes. How much hassle and money do you want to invest? You could greatly improve the space if you: --Massively declutter so the room isn't a junk room. Do you really need a gazillion kinds of soaps and laundry products? Always declutter before redecorating. --Replace the stained ceiling. --Paint all the walls an off white/ivory/tan that harmonizes with the floor. (Is that a tile floor? If so, then get wall paint that works with it.) Or if the floor is shabby vinyl, replace it with a tile-look vinyl and paint walls a complementary color. --Paint the pipes so they blend in with the walls. Those are the least of your problems. Just make them disappear with paint. --Replace window curtains with bamboo shades. --Build/install shelving entirely across the wall with those cabinets. Just get rid of the cabinets. Then run a curtain rod across the wall and hang ceiling to floor curtains in an attractive pattern. Store absolutely everything on those shelves and nowhere else, using clear bins to organize your stuff. Don't have anything out at all, not even a shoe! Notice how this curtain is hung. Do something like this only in front of a wall of shelves of shelves on the wall where you now have cabinets. This idea but with shelving all the way across and deep enough to hold bins at the bottom for your laundry products and to organize misc. stuff . . . after you declutter. --Put a skirt around the utility sink.
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IMHO that type of floor tile will date your house in a few years. I would go with the flooring that exists in the kitchen. You can have fun decor in a laundry room, but I’d make the hard to change things more neutral and leave the pattern to something someone could change. My old house(that had an actual laundry room) I did pretty neutral cabinets and countertops but I spent some money on a high end wallpaper. I always got compliments on that room, it was so funny to me. But it was cheerful. You could achieve that look with wallpaper. This one has some shiplap, with wallpaper above. If I had a laundry room now, I’d probably go nuts with something like this 😂.
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janiceme
6 years ago
Just reread the measurements. So, I would still put the sink where I suggested, but have the w/d side by side along the back wall. Counter could run from the sink along the shared bath wall.
housequester
6 years ago
We have a fairly small LR in our new build and I ditched the sink. People kept looking at me like I was nuts but I've never had one and rarely soak things. The one thing I've noticed I would use it for is to wash my hands after putting in dirty loads, but there's a bathroom around the corner so it's no big deal.

We bought these hanging things because a hanging rod had no logical place in our design:

Instahanger clothes hanging system https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AKRTWM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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