Over the past several years, my husband and I have enjoyed walking through the Parade of Homes. It is so interesting to see what features people choose to put in their homes and all of the neat ideas I would never think of in a million years.
We browse through all types of houses from small to large and from $200,000 all the way to the big dawgs priced in the millions.
And of course, I am always intrigued by their laundry rooms and the choices people make regarding those areas. Such as:
- Why a builder would put a laundry “closet” in a 5-bedroom home. That is just bizarre to me. If one has a family large enough to fill up a 5-bedroom home, then I can practically guarantee that they need a laundry room to deal with all of that clothing. A laundry closet just doesn’t make any sense at all.
(And the same goes for putting in a super small 2×3 foot pantry for a house that size. Ridiculous!) - Windows. I love windows in every room, and I can’t really understand why one wouldn’t put a window in a laundry room of all places if the option exists. Windows evoke a feeling of ‘clean and airy.’ And of course that makes you think of clean laundry!
- A Sink. A sink is such a necessity in the process of washing clothes. If there is available space in the laundry room it is just icing on the laundry cake to have a sink readily available!
- Color choice in the laundry room. I am always interested why people choose to use ‘builder beige’ in the laundry room. Yellow, a light blue…even something bold like a spring green would be better than a drab beige. Beige certainly has its place in a home’s color scheme, but if you’re trying to make your laundry room a happy, ideal, motivating place to work then beige is NOT going to do the job.
I distinctly remember one of the million dollar homes we toured, and I’ll note that this was even before my love of all-things-laundry began (my pre-children days!). This laundry room was truly the biggest I’d ever seen, besides the one at the Biltmore Estate. It was a 20×30 room and had more shelving and floor space than I could have ever imagined.
There was an actual ‘ironing space’ where the ironing board could be left up all of the time!! What a dream!
Not to mention a laundry chute, 2 sets of front-loading washers/dryers, a double sink, a whole wall of windows and a television! Talk about a fabulous place to wash some dirty clothes!
As you all know, my laundry room is extremely small. Please don’t get me wrong: I am so grateful for that tiny little space that I can bless my family. But if I let my mind dream a little, this is what my ideal laundry room would have:
– It would definitely have an ironing space where I could leave my ironing board up all of the time. I hate having to take it up and down (even though it’s not really that big of a deal).
– It would have a large, deep sink. It’s hard to do real stain removal when I use the shallow sink in the kids’ bathroom. I’d love to have a deep sink where I could soak things overnight if I needed to.
– It would have several windows. It would be nice to look outside when in my laundry room. Daydreaming is nice no matter how old you are.
– It would be the same shade of yellow as our baby nursery. Our nursery has the perfect (to me) shade of light yellow. It makes you feel cozy and airy and clean. The sheer color just makes you feel good when you walk in the room.
– It would have good lighting. You can’t get stains out if you can’t see them! Thankfully, my current laundry room has great lighting.
– There would be lots of shelving. Shelving to store linens that don’t get used year-round, laundry detergent and supplies, bulk purchases that we make, etc. I’m definitely not a Mama that saves everything, but it is really nice to have ample storage and shelving when needed.
– I’d have an 8-ft Folding Table. I could quickly take clothes from the dryer to the Folding Table and fold away.
– And I’d have 2 sets of front-loaders. (I’m dreaming here, remember?) I can’t even imagine how quickly I could get our laundry washed and dried with a double set! I might could even cut down to doing laundry 2-3 days a week since it would be finished twice as fast!
Again, I am not complaining about my current laundry room. I am so blessed and grateful to have a space where you can actually shut the door! But it’s sometimes nice to think about how you would improve your current situation.
What is in your dream laundry room? Tell me all about it in the comments! I love reading these…
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My dream laundry room? Apparently I have yours! 😉 When my husband and I purchased our home 10 years ago, we started a 10 year house remodel. Seriously. About five years ago we made it to the laundry room (actually, we had to BUILD a laundry room first, and then decorate it!). So my laundry room has…
1) Yellow walls – when I first painted them I panicked and thought I had chosen a horrible school bus yellow, but hubby assured me it wasn’t that yellow. And he was right. It’s SO cheerful and I LOVE it!
2) It has one big window that lets all sorts of amazing light in throughout the day. It’s also basically a three (and a third) walled room and is open to the back door area which has 8 windows, so LOTS of light!
3) I don’t have an 8′ table, but I do have a massive wood desk that is as wide as the room and deep enough to stick baskets on the back and fold on the front. It was my dad’s desk when he was going through medical school back in the 60’s and I love it. On one side there is a door that opens and a tray that pulls out and pops up (formerly for a type writer) where my sewing machine fits perfectly. LOVE!
4) I don’t have a laundry shoot, but my husband designed and built a laundry hamper pass-through from our bathroom closet on the other side of the wall. Open a lid in the closet, dump in towels and sheets. Pull open a bin in the laundry room and remove towels and sheets to be washed. I LOVE it!
5) I wanted REALLY GOOD lighting, so we have two sets of super-bright track lighting. I only use them when I have to – which isn’t often because the room is so bright anyway. Still, I love to be able to turn those babies on and see whatever stain I am looking for when necessary!
6) I don’t have any fancy machines, but I have a 12 year old stack washer/dryer combo that’s paid for and works. No complaints. 🙂 I have a rolling cart of shelves that holds all of my baskets of laundry goodies in one place. I also have a rolling laundry sorting hamper with a hanging rack above it – nice for hanging shirts after I’ve ironed them.
7) The room is wide enough that I have actually been leaving my ironing board out all the time, but it’s pretty tight and I really just need to finish the ironing pile and stick it in it’s storage spot next to the desk again. But at least I can leave it out if I want to.
Now that I’ve written a book! 😉 Basically, I have my dream laundry room and I am very thankful for it! Sometimes I wish for a wall-mounted drying rack (that would be a dream for me), but I know I have nothing to complain about! I’ve lived all over the world and done laundry by hand and foot in a bathtub, used all manner of machines and drying lines, and I never cease to be thankful for what God has blessed me with here in the States. 🙂 If you want to see pictures, I’d be happy to send some.
Oh, I’ll get sucked in if I let myself dream about a laundry room for too long! I love the second picture, which seems to be a laundry/mud room combo. I would love to have a clothesline in the backyard, and that would give easy access from the washing machine right out the door to dry the clothes.
My husband’s parents have a big laundry room with two washer/dryer sets. When we lived close to them, we would visit on the weekends and bring our laundry baskets with us. I could wash, dry, and fold laundry for two adults, a toddler, and a baby in 3 or 4 hours. It was wonderful! (And then I would take it home and it would take three days to put it all away. 🙂 Funny how that works.)
OH my dream laundry room… (this is us dreaming right!?)
I would have a room… a ZBIG BIG room. instead of storing clothes in our rooms I would store them in the laundry room. To me it just makes sense to have everything in one location. I could fold and just put away.
I would also have a TV and stereo because folding laundry is lets put it BORING. You need something to keep you company. SO music or TV.
I would love to have a SINK. I don’t know why people think this isn’t necessary but it is. Everyone needs a sink in the laundry room.
Storage storage storage. If I am going to put all the clothes in there then I want storage to fit everything.
I would love a machine that would fold clothes or hang them up…. maybe I just hire a maid… hehe!
Sometimes its nice to just dream.
I have a pretty nice laundry room. It has a nice laundry tub, hanging bar, a few cupboards, a window and it’s painted a nice light blue. Something I would like to change about it is to make it a wider room with a door to the outside so I could make it a laundry room/mudroom combo. I don’t really have much space to store or sort laundry. I end up doing it in the hallway. If the room was wider I could have more shelving/storage.
I hate to complain about my laundry room. When I first got married I didn’t even have a place to do laundry at home. I am very thankful to have a washer and dryer in my house now 🙂
Even though we are wrapping up our laundry-room re-do, it’s still not my ‘dream’ laundry room! I would prefer a main-level, laundry room/mud room combo with room for sorting bins, drying racks, rods to hang things as they come out of the dryer, a large folding area, a sink…. Plenty of lighting and windows are a must, shelving/cabinets (I prefer cabinets, but I think shelves keep you more organized). Love the idea about being able to walk right outside to a clothesline, too!
Ha, my husband is finishing up renovating our laundry room and I am trying to figure out what I want to put in it. It’s a big room and right now the only plan is a washer/dry and an ironing board.
This is my wish list:
–clean, maybe freshly painted ceiling
–maybe a bright color on walls? bright green or yellow? or maybe just wall stickers? or art? it’s so pretty and white in there now but i do want some color.
–large, deep sink. very serious about the sink.
–good lighting throughout
–folding table/counter/maybe a table, maybe i can put sewing machine there?
place i can hang up clothes on hangers
ample space to hang dry
maybe a drying cabinet? or small drying rack for small things
radio/cd player
cabinet/shelf for detergents
maybe something for the washer/dryer to sit on (cabinets?) so they are not so low down
We’re in Sweden where it’s more common to hang up clothes to dry, so I am trying to figure out a pretty way to do that.
I might have had you ideal laundry. When we built our extension it was wide enough to be a laundry/kids playroom. It gets full morning sun in winter. it has double sliding doors on opposite walls, one leading to the backyard and rotary clothesline. and two sets of double hung windows on the long wall with a pull out sofa bed /lounge between the window. Next to the laundry area is a wall mounted television. The laundry has a deep sink, hanging above, shelving, and tiered sorting for laundry-handwash, whites, coloureds, black/navy and two spare drawers. There is a dryer wall mounted over the washer, which has a dryer option (not all the good though) A diving wall joins my sewing area which is wide enough for cutting, sewing and overlocking. It has storage above and below. I never put the machine away, so quick fixes are done easily. Next to the sewing area is a wall and a second fridge. Teens never leave the room for cold drinks and it is great for overflow holiday food. Close the entrance door to the rest of the house and it is private and away from my kitchen so the kids can be a noisy as they like. HOWEVER, we have just sold the house to our son and moved to an apartment. The new laundry is perfect but another story.