The laundry room offers some great untapped opportunities for style and functionality! You can get sassy counters, or sparkling hardware! You can add tile with pizzazz and hide roll outs and bins in so many places! Since laundry rooms are typically pretty small, the cost is usually a lot less than a kitchen or bathroom renovation. And if you add this room into an existing renovation, it usually helps lower the cost. This gives you the power to add flourishes you wouldn’t normally be able to. There are so many things you can do with it!

Here are some things to consider when doing a laundry room renovation:

• Where in the home do you want to put it?: Do you want the laundry room upstairs or in a basement? Proximity to the kitchen/bedrooms can be great- you don’t need to carry your dirty laundry all over the house. You can also think about sharing the plumbing lines with the kitchen/bathroom to lower cost. But it also requires extra insulation to cancel out the noise and if there’s ever a leak it can cause damage to other rooms.

• What are your laundry habits?: How often you wash clothes and whether or not you fold them on a counter? Do you need a laundry room sink for soaking clothes? Do you generally hang things up to dry? Iron them? Do you need room for laundry baskets in the room? Or cleaning supplies? All of these questions are really going to effect how you lay out your space.

• Appliances?:  Do you want a front loader or a top loader?  Front loaders are more expensive (about $200-$400 more) but they clean more efficiently and are more energy efficient.  They also give you more options for space saving.  You can stack them one on top of the other, or put a counter on top for folding clothing.  Don’t forget to account for the hookups that will need to be added to the room.

  • The color of the appliances can also really change the tone of the room, so this is also something you should definitely keep in mind.

• Accessories?:  If you like doing your ironing in the laundry room, you can consider a built-in board that will save space.  There are also pull out and tilt out hampers which can make storing laundry easy.  You could also consider adding a drying rack.  Or a trash pull out.  You can also consider open shelving or shelving with curtains and bins for storage.  Some people also add televisions or stereos into their rooms to keep them busy while they’re folding and loading.

• Countertops?:  There are several nonporous engineered stone or laminate options out there for countertops.  These will involve less upkeep and will be more resistant to stains and damage.  Natural stone can also be used but it will require a sealant to prevent damage and they don’t absorb sound.

  -Posted by Jennifer Hubbard