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by Rachel Lyon, Editorial Director for The House Designers®
Not as glamorous as the kitchen or as high on the priority list as a great bathroom, the laundry room is sometimes overlooked by house shoppers—but it really shouldn’t be! It can make the chore easier and even offer functionality that goes above and beyond just washing clothes and linens. If you haven’t decided what you want in a laundry room, it’s time to start thinking about the features that would serve your household best!
The Right Size
How large is your family, and how much laundry do you produce? Do you have basic needs, or do you have plans to do more with the space? Would you rather get the laundry done in one area, or do you enjoy folding in front of the TV? Everybody has a different amount of and way of doing chores, so you should decide how much laundry room you need to start.
If you’d like to keep it simple, laundry appliances are easy to fit into closets, and they also make welcome additions to bathrooms and kitchens. Elaborate laundry rooms, and mudrooms that include the laundry, have become popular in recent years, but they should be weighed against their size to ensure they balance with the rest of the house. You wouldn’t want to put too much square footage somewhere you aren’t going to spend a lot of time, but many really appreciate having the space for a hanging rack, an ironing board, and a countertop for folding. It’s all about how you see yourself doing the laundry!
Convenient Location
Depending on your lifestyle, your family members, and the layout you have in mind for your house, you could find a reason to put the laundry room in any number of places. That’s why The House Designers has house plans with so many arrangements! Some people like to put the laundry far out of sight (like in the basement) to focus on other parts of the home, and others want it featured front and center upon entry to help with organization. Which camp do you fall under?
As long as your builder puts in the hookups and there’s room for a suitable vent (alternatively, you can get a ventless dryer), the appliances can go just about anywhere. Many like to put the laundry near the bedrooms, in the same hallway or upstairs in a two-story home, to minimize the transportation distance from hampers and back to dressers and closets. In the case of split bedrooms, the master usually wins, and it might even have its own connection to the laundry through a walk-in closet. You’ll also find home designs with laundry facilities on each story for even more convenience—no hauling up and down stairs!
If you have an outdoorsy or sporty family, you’ll probably prefer a laundry mudroom to intercept messes as soon as they come inside, and to store equipment so it doesn’t clutter the rest of the house. This arrangement is typically on the larger side, but it makes great use of space. Everybody loves a mudroom these days, so if you do, you might consider one that pulls double duty with the laundry.
Functional Extras
Laundry rooms are pragmatic at their core. Homeowners have dressed them up over time, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are there to serve an important function. Perhaps you’d like to add more, while you’re at it? Multi-functional spaces help you do more with less, so you can get the most out of the investment. Your laundry room could serve as a number of other things depending on its size and location.
Whether on the smaller side or located by the bedrooms, a laundry room with storage for linens just makes sense. If you can add a shelf or some cabinetry, do it! If you have more space to work with, having extra storage makes the laundry ideal for sewing and craft materials, and all you have to do is add a table to complete the room. In a mudroom situation, you can add even more cleaning power—a boot and/or dog washing station can spare your bathrooms and save you from wrestling with a hose outside. We even have house plans with pet kennels in the mudroom—perfect if you don’t trust them home alone, but also just a good place to put a bed if you have a dog that waits for you by the door. These things are a lot more than you might expect in a plain old laundry room, but if they’ll improve your household, there’s no better place to put them.
If you’re looking for a new home, connect with a house plan specialist to help you find everything on your wish list! We know you probably won’t base your final decision on the laundry room, so rest easy knowing our modification services can help you put the finishing touches on the design. Our Advanced Search is a great place to start, too!
