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worldmom_gw

What can I squeeze into my laundry room?

worldmom
15 years ago

We're remodeling about half of our main floor, including our kitchen, and our existing mudroom/laundry room is being sacrificed to make our kitchen larger. This is the new space that we've carved out for our laundry "room." It's about 5x10 feet.

From Last Import

We purchased Electrolux FLs, and they will topped with a 30" deep soapstone counter (to match our kitchen perimeter counters). There is a leaded glass window above the dryer, so I only have room for a cabinet above the washer. We have a huge pantry in the adjacent kitchen, so I'm not too worried about not having a lot of cabinet space. Basically, I just need room for bleach, laundry soap and fabric softener.

One thing I would like to do is bring the cabinet down to the counter to disguise the water shut-off box. To access it, I'd just need to open the cabinet door and reach back to the valves. This will take up a couple of square feet of my folding space, but I don't want the box to be visible. I'm not sure what else I could do. Do any of you have any other ideas for making it less conspicuous?

Opposite our washer and dryer will be floor-to-ceiling shelves with space underneath the bottom shelf for a roll-out three-bin sorter. We have 12 children (and before you panic, I will have a second washer and dryer downstairs!) and I plan to have a basket for each bedroom. I do three loads of laundry on "normal" days (e.g., no sheets and towels), so the folded clothes will go into the baskets to be put away every evening.

Aside from the things that are planned, I would like to have a bar for hanging wet clothes - maybe something retractable? Maybe one of those retractable cable clotheslines would work? I'd also like to have a fold-down ironing board, but I'm limited by what can do on the one open wall by the pocket door; there are no studs here to attach something heavy. I *could* have our contractor build that wall out, though, or maybe put in a tall cabinet in which we could keep a regular ironing board.

I'd love to hear if any of you have any great ideas for how to utilize this small space to its fullest potential. The room will have kind of a vintage feel, but other than this light fixture, it's a blank slate.

From Last Import

Oh - one more thing I just thought of - our kitchen will have oak floors to match the existing ones in our house, but our nearby powder room will have 1" hex tiles. I've been thinking about putting the same tile in the laundry room because it would be a better choice if we had a leak. My concern is that it might look too choppy, though, since you can pass from the formal center hall (left) through the laundry room to the kitchen (right) and both those areas will be oak. Should I keep the flooring the same, or do you think it would look OK to put tile there?

Comments (6)

  • sspye
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Whoa, I can't get past the 12 kids!

    You have done a great job planning your laundry room. I agree, I would go with a retractable clothes line, instead of a pole. One way that you could disguise it, would be to enclose it in a wood box to match the trim on your stained glass window. Depending on the size of the window, it could be hidden behind a wooden valance that you would lift to expose the close line. This would run the full length of your laundry room. Not a good place for kids to be running through if this is a busy intersection in your home.

    I agree with you on the cut-out on the back of the cabinet over the washer for your water shut-off's. You can store your laundry supplies in there.

    Depending on the depth of your chimney, the empty space next to it could have a tall utility cabinet, cut-back. The minimum cut-back that I would do is back to a 12" depth. You can either have a regular ironing board in there, plus storage for other misc. cleaning supplies, or have your builder install the necessary support for a fold down ironing board. It obviously cannot be recessed due to the pocket doors. I don't like the storable fold down ironing boards because they really don't give you a lot of space, plus I assume that you have small children. These cabinets hang very low on the wall and litte heads can ram into the corner's of these stand alone cabinets when they are not recessed.

    I'd continue with the wood flooring for continuity. Why? Because that is why we pay for house insurance...LOL

  • wa8b
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Rather than hiding the water valves in a cupboard, why not put the hose bibbs and drain stand pipe below the counter? You could then use two valves mounted on the wall above the counter to turn the water off and on that supplies the bibbs. If you use the same type of valves and trims used for bath or shower valves, you could match fixtures used elsewhere in the house or in your kitchen. All you'd see is the two valve handles on the wall. This appears very clean and not at all unattractive, and you wouldn't lose any counter space by going this route.

    That's what I've done in my laundry room. I don't see any hoses (which are beneath the counter), only the two valve handles on the wall.

    Both the faucet and the valves used in my laundry room are commercial fixtures from Chicago Faucet, but shower or tub valves would work just as well. Here is a photo showing the valve assembly I used. I chose handles matching those used on the nearby laundry room faucet.

  • gslgal
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    I wouldn't lower lower the cabinet just to hide valves - sounds like you can use every square inch of folding space! Take a look at the fold down drying rack from Ballard Designs. It comes in different sizes. Maybe it would work for you on the wall next to the chimney. You'd probably need your contract to put blocking in the wall so you have something solid to screw to. My 1st attempt at posting a link so hopefully it will work

    Here is a link that might be useful: Beadboard Drying Rack

  • flseadog
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    How much wet clothes hanging do you anticipate? With only 3 children but 2 daughters I found that sometimes I could do an entire load of laundry that required hanging when they were teenagers. "Delicates," special t-shirts that they didn't want to shrink, etc. were always hanging somewhere. Our laundry room had a different configuration but was only 5x7. At one point I used a spring tension shower curtain rod across the width of the room opposite the door to get extra hanging space but it always seemed that t-shirts ended up on hangers dangling from the door casing too.

    One solution for you might be to place a short rod from your cabinets to the wall in front of your window but that leaded glass window sounds like a nice feature that you wouldn't want to hide behind drying laundry. The only other possibility I see is moving the pocket door on the right side to line up with the door opposite. Then you might be able to shift the washer and dryer to the right wall and use the space above the dryer for the hanging rod without obscuring the window.

  • taliaferro
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Leifheit has a few options:

    {{gwi:1996358}}

    It's retractable and virtually disappers when not in use.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Leifheit

  • taliaferro
    15 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Here's one that is mounted on the ceiling:

    {{gwi:1996359}}

    Lowers down 4 feet from the ceiling using a pull line. There are 10 Lines on the dryer and the line length is adjustable from 4-6 feet.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Project Laundry List