A laundry room is important in every home. The placement of it is very important. If you’re lucky enough to build or redesign a house the placement of the laundry room should be given ample consideration. In order to help you out we found this article. We hope it helps you design your dream home!
Unlike the typical 10-foot by 10-foot kitchen or the 5-foot by 8-foot bathroom, laundry rooms have no standard size. That???s why many laundry rooms end up in awkward places or banished to a dark and dingy basement. ???They become afterthoughts,??? says designer Amber Linse.
But if you???re lucky enough to have space for a washer and dryer in your home, it makes a job that everyone hates a bit more manageable. So homeowners and designers are always looking for the best solutions for where to put the laundry room. Should it be near the bedrooms? Or should it be off the kitchen? What about in a bathroom?
The truth is, it depends on a variety of factors, including your lifestyle, how much laundry you do and whether you care if guests see your piles of dirty clothes come laundry day. ???There???s never one be-all, end-all best spot,??? says designer Joanne Padvaiskas.
With that in mind, we wanted to explore the pros and cons of putting the laundry room in the kitchen, bedroom, closet, bathroom and more. Here???s what to know to help you decide where you should put yours.
Off the Kitchen
Let???s start with what many designers say is the best location for a laundry room: off the kitchen in its own room.
Pros: The logic is that most people spend the bulk of their time in the kitchen, and kitchens tend to be on the main level of the house ??? also where most of our time is spent. So locating the washer and dryer near the kitchen makes sense. That way if you???re cooking, cleaning, watching TV or helping your kids do homework, you???re within earshot of that dryer buzzer and can quickly stay on top of the loads. ???You do it where people live, so you can actually use it,??? Padvaiskas says.
The laundry room shown here is right off a kitchen and includes a pantry, mudroom and powder room.
Cons: If your home has two or more stories, then putting your laundry room on the main floor off the kitchen means that you???re a flight of stairs away from the bedrooms and hampers. On a busy laundry day, that means a lot of trips up and down. A laundry chute could cut down on some of those trips. But you???ll still have to carry the clothes back up. (Why haven???t more people turned those laundry chutes into dumbwaiters?)
Also, washers and dryers make a lot of noise. If your kitchen is near a room where you enjoy quiet time, watching movies or entertaining with friends, you could have some noise issues. To get around that, you could install sound-insulation batting.
In a Bathroom
For this family home in Virginia, Stubb was tasked with finding space for a laundry room where there wasn???t any space before. The family had already added a second floor to their one-story home and didn???t have the budget to add a laundry room to the reconfigured space downstairs, where they really wanted the laundry to be located.
Stubb came up with the solution to tuck stacked units into a new guest bathroom off the kitchen. ???Being from Scandinavia, they were used to the European philosophy of utilizing more than one space for two different uses,??? the designer says.
Pros: A guest bathroom can be a really cost-effective option, because you already have water running to the space. If you???re doing a powder room, this option also puts the laundry on the main floor, where the bulk of activity happens.
Con: If you???re opting for a guest powder room or bathroom, you might not want to let laundry day fall on the same day that you???re entertaining. Also, if you???re thinking about this option for a main bathroom, consider what you???ll do when another family member is using the bathroom, or the shower in the bathroom. Waiting to switch loads could be frustrating.
Bathrooms also tend to get wet, so you???ll basically have to fold your laundry elsewhere. And some homeowners won???t be able to cope with having clean laundry in a space that also contains a toilet. ???There???s just that clean-dirty mix that creates more of a yuck factor,??? says Carter.
Finally, if you like your bathroom to be more of a calming, relaxing, spa-like experience, then you probably don???t want to be staring at a pile of laundry or hear the dryer going while you???re relaxing in the bathtub.
There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to where to put the laundry room. It all depends on your family size and lifestyle. In the end most people who have a washer and dryer in the home are just thankful. ???We will all just appreciate anything, because to have them in our home is a huge convenience,??? Linse says.
Designing a new space can be extremely challenging especially if you aren’t a very creative person. In order to help you out we found this article with 10 different interior design lessons. We hope it helps you design a space you love!