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Best Size for a Mudroom, Laundry Room, Pantry??

gaonmymind
12 years ago

I have noticed that alot of the regrets in building are the size of the mudrooms and the laundry rooms. All of our bedrooms are planned for upstairs where our laundry room will be. The mudroom is off the kitchen.

This is my first real house. We are coming from an NYC condo...so it was a whole different world. I have a 1 year old girl and 7 months pregnant with the 2nd. So I am not sure of all the "real" family needs. I tend to lean more towards form over function, so I know need input from experienced homeowners.

This is our wish list to the architect for the spaces with inspiration pic. Sorry no pic for laundry.

Mudroom/ Multipurpose:

Powder room

Good good amount of floor space to move around

6 lockers/ cubbies

Large closet

Small message center/ counter

Enough room to for dog crate

Entrance from both garages and family exterior door

Near kitchen/ Pantry

Lockers and clutter not visible from kitchen

Pantry:(our kitchen has no upper cabinets so all the food will be stored here)

11x7

33" wide stand-up freezer

Laundry Room:

70 sq ft+

Washer, dryer, sink, fold down iron board, folding counter, vacuum/mop

Window

Comments (22)

  • lavender_lass
    12 years ago

    I don't know what size you'll need, but I'd rather have more space than needed, in these areas, than not enough!

    Here are a few laundry room pictures that might inspire you. Hope this helps :) {{gwi:1425084}}From Kitchen plans
    {{gwi:1425086}}From Kitchen plans

    And this is from Southern Living's Idea House and is part of the laundry/craft room... {{gwi:1425087}}From Kitchen plans

  • mydreamhome
    12 years ago

    Do you have a floorplan yet? That would help alot.

    We have plenty of space in our mudroom at 8'x12'. We opted not to section off our cubbies to allow for greater use of the space. Ours is very similar to your inspiration pic above but without the dividers and we have 6 baskets on the open shelf. We also added a set of tall cabinetry that houses a concealed print center & office/school supply storage in that space.

    Our laundry is 8'x8'8". We incorporated alot of organization in our laundry. We had the cabinet guy install 3-2can full height trash pullouts in the laundry as concealed hampers. All laundry is sorted as soon as it is brought into the laundry room into the appropriate bin. When the bin is full, you just dump it in the washer--a full bin is exactly 1 load! We also have a large sink, plenty of counter space, plenty of cabinet storage & a place for hanging clothes. While we don't have a pull down ironing board, I do have a spot for my collapsing ironing board that is out of the way.


    Our pantry is located under our U-shaped staircase and is huge--it houses all the canned goods, dry goods, kids' snacks, cereals, Costco sized paper goods, etc + my cake decorating supplies & pans, crock pot & there is a spot for my swiffer, swiffer vac & broom. The pantry is an L-shape measuring 3'8" x 9'4" at the entry down the long leg of the 'L' & 8' x 4'6" down the short leg.

    Hope this helps!

  • kirkhall
    12 years ago

    @mydreamhome--would you post additional pics of your laundry room? (or floorplan)? I really like that!

  • ILoveRed
    12 years ago

    Love the idea of the print center in mud room. My printer is in my red room (living room) and is ugly.

    In mud room I would add a place for LOTS of shoes and boots and gloves, mittens etc. I gaurantee those shoes will never make it any further than the mud room. Especially if you have boys later on.

    In the laundry room add space to hang damp items on hangars to dry. Close to dryer. Essential in my house. Very little goes in drawers in my house.

    Congratulations on the wee one.

  • aa62579
    12 years ago

    The pantry we built in my parent's house is almost that exact same size. It starts out feeling big and then you start adding in shelves and you realize it's not so big anymore!

    I'd suggest making sure to plan the location of the fridge carefully. We have it so that it is opposite of the double pocket doors. You'll need around 6' when the door is open, so we chose the location with no shelves opposite it to allow plenty of room.

    We also did 3 sizes of shelves to try to maximize the space, but not have all deep shelves where things get lost in the back. The back long wall is approximately 24" deep, sides are approximately 18" deep, and then there is an approximately 8" shelf for cans (holds 3 deep of common size) that is on the door wall. *Actually, I have stocked it, so I know it holds 3 cans - so maybe closer to 10" when the trim got added on, since I think most cans are about 3.5" in diameter.

    This is not to scale, but sort of a mockup of what we did. They have both a refrigerator and a chest freezer in the pantry.

    {{gwi:1414742}}

    Here is a pic of the can shelf and one of the sides.

  • mydreamhome
    12 years ago

    kirkhall--here you go! Sorry, some of the pics are construction or just after we moved in, but you get the idea--please excuse the clutter!

    Floorplan:

    Washer/Dryer Side:

    Corner:

    Hamper Side (construction):

    I'll see if I can find some elevations for you later. Hope this helps!

  • gaonmymind
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Thanks everyone for your ideas and input.

    I just posted the plans.


    Take a look let me know what you think of the actual spaces. Thanks!

  • gaonmymind
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    thanks Sweeby that makes alot of sense. I will be adding the broom closet in the pantry as well. The bottom half of the pantry will have a counter so I can keep all my small appliances there and a cheap microwave for the kids. I do not want them using my very expensive speed oven in the kitchen...lol

  • Brad Edwards
    12 years ago

    I am planning on over-sizing our pantry and putting our stand up deep freeze in as well. I will be doing all the carpentry work on the closets. Our plan has a small yet efficient mud/laundry room, I don't need a ton of room to fold clothes, wash shoes, etc. But its great to store things in the pantry.

  • momto3kiddos
    12 years ago

    One thing that you will have room for is a countertop in your pantry along at least one wall. I plan to keep all my "large" appliances - crockpot, toaster, pressure cooker, bread machine, etc. on the counter with outlets to use them there is I don't want to move them around. Make sure you leave room for cleaning supplies (mops/brooms, cordless vac charger) and put outlets in there for such things unless you have another area designated for these items.

  • Brad Edwards
    12 years ago

    Momto, I plan on having the crockpot, toster, bread machine etc underneath the island on a vampire power strip that way I can just take them out and turn them on wo having to move them all over the place, call me lazy but we use our bread machine twice a week, and crockpot about 3 times.

  • auroraborelis
    12 years ago

    oceandweller - what is a vampire strip?

  • ontariomom
    12 years ago

    If you are planning on more than two kids, you may want space for more than one washer and dryer. We have four kids, and our new laundry room is 100 square feet. It will have room for folding and hanging clothes to dry plus 2 washers and one dryer. The more kids, the more dirty laundry and clean laundry pile up (and as they grow bigger so do their clothes). Good luck with the new baby!

    Carol

  • tempe110
    7 years ago

    I'm totally resurrecting this thread, but I am curious Ontariomom how 2 washers and 1 dryer has worked for you over the last few years. Have you wished you went with 2 dryers if room allowed? Or is 1 plenty? I'm about to have my fifth baby. I plan on having a stackable washer/dryer downstairs near our pool, but our main laundry room will be upstairs. Is 2 washers and 2 dryers overkill upstairs?

  • ontariomom
    7 years ago

    Hi tempe110

    I love having two washers and one dryer. One of the washers is a large front loading one, and one is a smaller top loading one. We hang around half of what we wash to reduce wear and tear and possibly shrinkage in the dryer. Our dryer is a gas dryer, which I would also highly recommend as it greatly reduces static electricity. I would not need two dryers, given how much we hang to dry our clothes.

    Good luck with baby number 5!

    Carol

  • tempe110
    7 years ago

    Perfect thank you for the fast response! I hang about half my stuff too so that makes sense. I will definitely make sure it's a gas dryer!

  • ontariomom
    5 years ago

    Mariatstadt,

    That is a very rude comment. Your hurtful comment should be removed from this thread. Baby number five has already been born!!!!

  • PRO
    Virgil Carter Fine Art
    5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    OMG, a 2012 thread...

  • PRO
    Mark Bischak, Architect
    5 years ago

    An oldie, but goodie; even though it may have taken a tangent.

  • suellen19
    5 years ago

    I have a mudroom/laundry. office and pantry combination. No cubbies as there are no children in the home. Kitchen on one end, garage entrance on others. We have hooks just outside in garage for wet clothes and a shoe rack also.


    House build · More Info
    Desk side. Coat closet, desk area. Cabinets above house vases, holiday glassware, cookbooks, and one with batteries, flashlights and misc. File drawers and desk drawer. The big one on the far end holds large bag of dog food and other dog items.

    Not in picture but located left of coat closet is my drying closet for drying sweaters and things that don't go in the dryer. Louvered doors and there is wiring for a heater/fan combo but we didn't put it in. The heated floors seem to do the job nicely.

    House build · More Info
    Sink W/D side. on the far end left is floor to ceiling pantry with slideout drawers inside.Next upper cabinet holds misc kitchen gadgets that are not used to often. Other side of sink upper has detergent and other laundry needs as well as cleaning supplies. Small cabinet up above that holds some tall vases. Then comes stacked W/D with a small cabinet above that has kerosene lamps and other seldom used items. Below counter left of sink drawers with candles and other small holiday deco in top drawer, second drawer down is husbands snack drawer, 3rd drawer has some kitchen pans and other weird shaped things in it. Second set of drawers has tablecloths and placemats in top drawer, extra plastic wrap, paper towels etc in 2nd drawer, various small kitchen appliances in bottom drawer. Cleaning supplies under sink. Next top drawer and second drawer holds small household tools and other such items. Next top drawer has paper goods and misc. Two bottom drawers just misc stuff.

  • curiouslyme
    5 years ago

    Can you tell us the size of your mudroom/office, laundry, pantry?