A laundry room – however large – is a wonderful thing to have in a house. They provide a dedicated space for washing, folding and sorting the endless piles of dirty clothes that seem to materialise overnight, without spilling out into the rest of the house. Even a teeny cupboard can make a difference, and there's no reason not to go all out with the decoration simply because it's a practical space. As the below examples prove, there's plenty you can do with a small laundry room to make it a place you'll want to spend time.
Laundry rooms are apt to get rather out of control, and cleaning products are never particularly attractive, so we adore this laundry room in an 18th-century workers' cottage in Greenwich, where owner Anna Rhodes has used a pretty fabric to hide away the storage space below the sink. Downstairs, in the cellar that was “filled with stuff” when Anna and Fred arrived, they have created a bright, airy space. Curtains are a great way to jazz this kind of space up – the fabric is from The Cloth Shop.
The tiny laundry room in interior designer Stella Weatherall's Notting Hill flat is papered in Pierre Frey's ‘La Pannonie’ (BP330002), paired with joinery in Sanderson's ‘Yacht Blue’. The splash back is made from Mosaic Factory Zellige tiles.
When it came to designing this London apartment, the room that most excited interior designer Beata Heuman, and which she designed first, was the utility room. The cabinetry is all custom designed with doors painted in ’Stone Blue’ from Farrow & Ball and BH Coin doorknobs. The flooring is a red and cream chequered lino and the counter top is custom stainless steel with an integrated sink. On the right is a pull out drying unit for smaller items like socks – a clever, space-saving addition to the laundry room.
After “years of drying laundry in [the] kitchen,” Lucy Williams knew she wanted to put a laundry room upstairs when she renovated her Victorian house. The nook is painted in Farrow & Ball's Dimity and the thin cupboard to the side conceals the ironing board. To make the “whole thing feel a bit less utilitarian and softer,” linen curtains and vintage wall plates were employed.
There is something about laundry rooms which interior designers really love when it comes to planning them; when Joanna Plant and her husband Nick upsized into a semi-detached 1920s house in Acton Town, it was the laundry room that swiftly became Joanna's favourite room to decorate. She went for a pretty, jolly feel, hiding the appliances behind curtains made from a vintage French mattress cover which she cut up and sewed herself. The tiles are from Bert & May and the hanger is a classic Pulleymaid.
Interior designer Lonika Chande has transformed an owner's rather dark childhood home in Holland Park into a light-filled oasis perfect for family. The laundry room was a necessary addition to the house. With LAB Architects, Lonika brought more natural light to the space by installing a skylight. The utility room's doors have a decorative fretwork that acts as ventilation – an important aspect if you plan on drying any laundry there too, with a clothes horse or Sheila Maid. Inside, cabinetry is painted in ‘Yellow-Pink’ by Little Greene and the worktop is a sky-blue Formica, while the flooring is a chequerboard linoleum which brings the primary colours front and centre and makes this a fun space.
In this Edwardian house in north-west London , the laundry room is built on to the back of the larder, creating two distinct, useful rooms. Here, appliances are hidden away behind curtains made from Buchanan Studio's ‘Stripe Two Vert’ linen, which complements the paint on the walls, stained glass and dark wooden, reclaimed countertops. The floor is polished concrete and runs into the adjacent kitchen too.
This first-floor laundry room in this London home is painted in Paint & Paper Library's 'Rouge II'. Tongue and groove panelling combines beautifully with the units, which were made by Howdens to interior designer Natasha Howard's design. Checkerboard lino lines the floor, while a frilly pendant from Retrouvius provides a pretty finishing touch.
Matilda Goad has also used panelling in the laundry room of her London house, painting it in Farrow & Ball's ‘Bancha’ green. As with other examples here, she's used a curtain to prettify the room. The fabric is an Ian Mankin ticking stripe. A rail runs above the countertops, providing ample space to hang clothing and air dry it.
