Once considered nothing more than a utility room, modern laundries have come a long way since they were moved inside from the outhouse. These days, they’re as much about storage as they are about washing and drying, and when you think about it, it makes perfect sense to get as much cupboard space into a laundry as possible.
Storage helps keep houses organised, so experts recommend including cupboards of all sizes. Spaces that neatly house brooms and vacuums, along with safe places to store detergents and cleaning products, can really help to keep a house in order.
And there’s no reason laundries need to be plain and boring. Beautiful splashbacks and cabinetry can mean the difference between dreading housework and actually enjoying it … well that’s possibly a long stretch but you know what we mean.
Mel DeMelt from Town & Country Designs shares her top tips for what you should include in a highly practical laundry:
- Broom cupboards, tall enough to fit mops and brooms and wide enough to fit vacuum cleaners and buckets.
- A cupboard for cleaning products, preferably off the ground to keep items away from small children.
- Linen storage – there’s really no better place to store extra linen than the laundry. If you have a big family with lots of towels and sheets, it can help to create pigeonholes inside a cupboard, that way no one will mess up piles of folded items while looking for something and you can separately store beach towels, pillow slips, tablecloths.
- High cupboards to store items that are not frequently used. Items such as sleeping bags, extra pillows and electric blankets can remain out of reach until they are needed.
- A cupboard for the ironing board and iron. Pull-out ironing board cupboards are fantastic. Talk to your cabinetmaker about having one built in so that it can be concealed.
- A small space for storing washing detergents is a great idea. Make sure it is close to the washing machine.
- A benchtop for folding and sorting clothes is also useful.
- If you have pets, consider including a cupboard for their food and accessories.
- In small spaces, front-loading washers are great and getting them off the floor will make it easier to load clothes. If there’s no room for both a washer and a dryer, check out the range of washer-dryers. They’re great because you can put your washing in and come back to it when it is dry. On the downside, the cycles take a long time to finish, so may not be ideal for a big household.
- Include, if possible, a pull-out drying rack for airing small items of clothing when it’s rainy.
- If the space is small, work with light colours. It will make the laundry feel bigger and also make it easier to see what you are doing during the day.
To find out more, visit Town & Country Designs and or visit their showroom at Home Base.
