Things to Consider When Designing a Small Laundry Room
Making the Most Out of the Space You’ve Got…
If you’re reading this post, then you have a small laundry room. Maybe not as small as mine, but you’re dealing with not much square footage and looking for ideas to maximise it. When designing a small laundry room, you need to be conscious of every decision you’re making. As you may have seen on My Rental Reno series on my YouTube channel, when I was making over this space, I took time with each and every little detail to make sure that we were not wasting space. After all, we couldn’t do much so every decision counted.
Luckily for you, I’ve done the hard work so you don’t have to worry too much. Maybe you’re working with a black space or the room is almost there. Perhaps you are wanting a refresh but are in a similar position of renting or you’re limited by the big changes you can make. Either way, I’m here to help give you the top tips when it comes to designing a small laundry room.
Get Everything Off the Floor.
Your floor space is limited in a small laundry room, so make the most of it. The less clutter you have on the floor, the bigger the room will look. Realistically, you should just have your machines and some counters and that’s it. Now is not the time to add a floor plant or play around with a sculptural piece.
What you can add to the floor is a rug. As with rugs, the larger the better. Don’t go for a tea towel-size rug, it will just float in the space and make the room look smaller. Instead, invest in a large one that gives you a small border of floor between the rug and the skirting board.
If a rug doesn’t take your fancy and you’re looking to change up the flooring, then look at going for a large tile print. A black and white checkerboard is a classic, and going for large slabs will not only save you money but will make the space look bigger than it is.
Take Advantage of Vertical Square Footage & Ceiling Space.
When you lacking in a floor plan, look up. Your walls will provide valuable square footage that you can take advantage of. This can be as simple as adding shelving and hooks, much like I did. You can also add ways of hanging mops, brooms and hoovers to truly clear things off the floor. All this will give you additional space that otherwise would go to waste.
When it comes to vertical storage, do not forget design. Too much utilisation will make the space feel stiff and too functional. Embrace a bit of artwork, and small decor pieces on the shelves. If you want to go crazy, why not look at adding board and batten or perhaps wallpaper to really take the room to the next level.
Finally, your ceilings. As you can see from the pictures, we were really lacking space and I wanted somewhere to hang some clothing without it taking over our home. A way to solve this was to hang something from the ceiling and this is where my DIY ceiling clothes dryer came into play. It’s one of the most popular videos on my YouTube channel also.
Get Rid of the Clutter.
If it’s not obvious by now, a lot of my tips involve removing visual clutter. Now, in a small laundry room, you will need to keep some stuff out on display. After all, it becomes tedious when you have to constantly keep hiding things that you are using on a weekly or daily basis. So when it comes to those items you have a few choices. You can either decant your items into pretty jars or you can use baskets to curate, display and be discreet. Woven baskets are my go-to when it comes to getting things organised.
For items that are not needed that often, then you can store these higher or in cupboards. Out of sight, out of mind. Now for us when designing a small laundry room, I knew that we would have not a lot of counters and not a lot of cupboard storage if any. So I made sure to take advantage of every nook and cranny by designing a cubby for concealed storage.
In addition, as I wanted to cover our ugly boiler, I made sure the screens I designed were magnetic. This allows access to the boiler if we need it but also hidden storage for additional items that we do not always need to have on hand.