A cleanup center is not a dirty basement anymore. It can be just as beautiful as any other room in your house.
Remodeling the laundry room might be missing from your fall home improvement projects as you move up the ladder. The average American family does 400 loads of laundry per year. It could be. More homeowners are calling for architects and designers to improve the spaces they spend so much of their time in.
The Workstation Laundry Room
Parents of school-age children must supervise homework and Internet access. This is because supervision is often done in the kitchen, where food is prepared and set. Richard and Wendy Cohen devised a solution for the multitasking madness in their old kitchen. They decided to keep the kitchen open for food preparation and to move computing and project crafting to a home office.
The garage is located off the space and has a Popsicle-shaped corner desk ( Slide 2), which houses a computer wired to high-speed Internet access, wide file drawers for legal files, and open shelves for phone books ( 2). There’s also a mail-sorting station with a slot for each family member ( 3).
The roll-away craft table ( slide 3, #4) adjacent to the desk serves as a clothes-folding surface. It forms one axis in a laundry triangle, including the front-loading Miele washer/dryer ( 5) and a utility sink( 6). Mar Benner, an architect from Orren Pickell, Lincolnshire, Illinois, says that putting the sink there was an intelligent use of a dead corner. Maple Brookhaven cabinet doors ( 7) conceal what you don’t want to see: pet supplies and detergent; laundry chutes above the machines; and dirties the dry cleaner can use that. These items are cleverly placed in a standard pullout garbage bin with a cloth liner. ( 8).
Behind a false drawer front, a pullout ironing board ( slide 4, #9 ) is hidden.
The homeowners wanted to include bank windows so they could enjoy the view.
The Mudroom Laundry Room
The back door of a house is often the main door. Its vestibule houses the mudroom, a makeshift laundry area, and dirty footprints. This 19th-century farmhouse in Chester County, Pennsylvania, was an example. Family members would always wash their clothes before heading to the adjacent kitchen.
Barbara Herr renovated this multi-purpose, high-traffic entryway (Slide 6 #1). Her task was to make the space more functional and presentable. Herr ordered two sets of wooden base cabinets.
The Family Room Laundry Room
You’ve probably spent countless hours sorting through and washing uniforms with your athletic children. Dana Cristea was the wife of Jeff and mother to three sport-mad boys. This meant she had to carry overflowing clothes baskets from her second-floor bedroom while doing three loads daily. Dana says, “I was always going down and up the stairs to our basement.” “I spent more time there than in my living room. Dana and Jeff made a vow never to repeat the cycle when they planned the layout of their Shingle-style home in Carmel, Indiana. They combined a few household needs into a laundry/family room on the first level.