I keep mentioning on this blog that rushing into decisions and building plans doesn’t end up in a good result. This week we ventured off to Ikea to place our order for the utility room and we cannot wait to get it fitted. Getting to this point has been over two years in the making. With a toddler and another baby on the way, laundry is relentless. There’s nothing that gives me more anxiety then looking at a laundry horse full of wet clothes in my living room, or taking centre stage on the clothes line in the garden. With all of this in mind, there were several must-haves for the laundry room.
1. We need a separate laundry room with a tumble dryer.
2. A laundry chute from upstairs landing in the utility room.
3. It should be playful and colourful, and nice place to be.
Our architects Baillie + Baillie were great in working in the first two requirements into the final design that was approved by building control. With clever placement of the laundry chute next to the stairs upstairs, it lands conveniently in the laundry room next to the washing machine. Building control requires a 30min fire rated door, and the rest is put together by our builder using aluminium ducting.
As we started the build, the floor plan of the utility room slightly changed mainly because the cupboard in the downstairs spare room was so big, we thought we could have better utilised some of that space in the laundry room. Since the stringer from the stairs cuts into the head height, the new layout gave us just a bit more space to move around. We’ve also decided to add some built in storage underneath the stairs as an additional cupboard/pantry. This space isn’t entirely built yet so we are still working out how to make this nook as functional as possible.
We already had a washing machine and tumble dryer from before we started the renovation. If you’re interested in a tumble dryer, I know it may sound like a luxury but they’re really not that expensive from www.AO.com. You can get one for a couple hundred pounds and all you need is a socket. That left us with needing to supply the cabinets and laundry chute to complete the functional space. We decided to go with Ikea as the price was right, and they offered the cabinets in a fun green colour that I really liked. You can read about how we came to this decision by reading my Kitchen Supplier blog post here.
Ikea have a handy online planning tool that allows you to design your layout from home. We were pretty certain of what we were looking for, so we were able to complete our design. We went into Ikea and had a great experience. Our top tip for shopping at Ikea, is go at dinner time. Ikea is open til 9pm and if you go at dinner, family’s with children are at home eating or getting ready for bed or people are finishing up at the office, etc. We got there at 6:30 and the place was empty! The kitchen designer Steven we worked with was super knowledgeable and helped us edit our design slightly to make just a bit more room to slide the washer/dryer in and out of the space, not to mention just in case our walls aren’t perfectly square, which is pretty likely in our old cottage.
Here is our final design for the utility. There’s a small sink which will probably only be used to try and soak stains out of clothes now and then, a cabinet to hide the boiler, a pull out drawer and corner cabinet for extra storage. Steven from Ikea was able to recommend different cabinets than what we could find on the planner which will be more functional (note not all the correct end panels are shown here). We went for a wooden worktop which was just off the shelf and we’ll cut it to size on site. We got a little bit of extra worktop as the smaller size was out of stock for the foreseeable future - you know the excuses… Covid, Suez Canal, Brexit. We thought some open shelves next to the boiler cupboard would be a nice way to use the extra worktop.
For finishes, we’ve selected a pink and white hexagon tile that we will lay in an abstract design. I always love pink and green together as it reminds me of a watermelon. This concept keeps the laundry room feeling fresh. For now we are planning to paint it plain white, but I might consider some white patterned wallpaper down the line. I think we’ll also have some extra tiles from the bathroom upstairs that would look great as a backsplash, but will decide later!
The cabinets from Ikea get delivered next week, and hopefully our laundry chute will be fitted in due course. Check back for an update on everything you need for a DIY laundry chute.
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