Planning the Laundry Room

So now we are finally in our "forever home" we've made the first step to making it truly ours by completing the Living Room - the whole house is a project and the kitchen terrifies me so next on my list is the Utility Room - we have this small cluttered room with the washing machine in it - a space for a tumble dryer and a sink (I'd love to replace it with a belfast sink!) 

So I've got my thinking cap on (or rather pinterest open!) to gather some inspiration and thoughts. With a very active busy family life, I have to get the utility room spot on - it needs to have space for drying clothes - I have a number of pieces that can't be tumbled and I also like to consider the environment.  Although we are currently without a tumble dryer - I'm hoping to squeeze one in somewhere! 

And I need to be able to store things such as the ironing board, vacuums cleaner and steam mop. 

The boiler cupboard is in this space so I have to consider working around that and the door to the back garden is in here so it's going to have a mudroom edge to it!

Most of all, it needs to look fantastic - I have this thing with floors so I really want a stunning floor too - did I say it's a small room? my expectations may need to come back down to earth a little bit!

I'm starting with a look at the basics...

Laundry Baskets

Being a working family home, I think it's important to have plenty of laundry baskets handy so I'm planning on installing one in each bedroom as well as one in the bathroom. We currently have one super huge laundry hamper on the upstairs landing between us all and it's always overflowing no matter how often our washing machine is running! (hmmmm would it be wrong to have two washing machines!!!)

I love the idea of a bench with baskets below, such as this White Storage Bench  £160 from http://www.thewhitelighthousefurniture.co.uk to use in the bathroom - the baskets are so handy to just pull out and carry down to the utility room.

For the master bedroom, I'd love something neat such as the Mala rattan drum hamper £199 from http://www.artisanti.com

Or I'd love something more unusual such as the elevated apple crate stool (with the most beautiful fabric cushion cover choices - I couldn't decide which one was my favourite) £140 from http://tiffanyjayne.co.uk

The children should have something fun as well as functional in their rooms and I love bright colours and animals for them:

Maegan's favourite animals are giraffes so I know she would love this beautiful lidded giraffe basket £75 from http://sistersguild.co.uk

Whist I know Blake would prefer the King of the jungle to guard his socks! £30 from 

http://www.takatomo.de

Drying Racks 

Our utility room is a small space so I love the idea of these laundry ladders from https://www.juluhome.co.uk starting from £175 they come in a choice of sizes and colours and you can buy additional brackets so you can move the ladder to another room or outdoors. 

Finishing touches

Of course my utility room will just have to have some pretty details! I absolutely adore apothecary jars to fill with laundry items such as these ones £18 from https://www.montysvintageshop.co.uk

The print on this small washing bag is just great isn't it! £8 from http://www.tch.net

Do you have a utility room? - what are your top tips for controlling family laundry? 

Emma xx

Little House Lovely