Unlike the typical 10-foot by 10-foot kitchen or the 5-foot by 8-foot bathroom, laundry rooms have no standard size. That’s why many laundry rooms end up in awkward places or banished to a dark and dingy basement. “They become afterthoughts,” says designer Amber Linse.
But if you’re lucky enough to have space for a washer and dryer in your home, it makes a job that everyone hates a bit more manageable. So homeowners and designers are always looking for the best solutions for where to put the laundry room. Should it be near the bedrooms? Or should it be off the kitchen? What about in a bathroom?
The truth is, it depends on a variety of factors, including your lifestyle, how much laundry you do and whether you care if guests see your piles of dirty clothes come laundry day. “There’s never one be-all, end-all best spot,” says designer Joanne Padvaiskas.
With that in mind, we wanted to explore the pros and cons of putting the laundry room in the kitchen, bedroom, closet, bathroom and more. Here’s what to know to help you decide where you should put yours.
Off the KitchenLet’s start with what many designers say is the best location for a laundry room: off the kitchen in its own room.
Pros: The logic is that most people spend the bulk of their time in the kitchen, and kitchens tend to be on the main level of the house — also where most of our time is spent. So locating the washer and dryer near the kitchen makes sense. That way if you’re cooking, cleaning, watching TV or helping your kids do homework, you’re within earshot of that dryer buzzer and can quickly stay on top of the loads. “You do it where people live, so you can actually use it,” Padvaiskas says.
The laundry room shown here is right off a kitchen and includes a pantry, mudroom and powder room.
See more of this laundry room
Cons: If your home has two or more stories, then putting your laundry room on the main floor off the kitchen means that you’re a flight of stairs away from the bedrooms and hampers. On a busy laundry day, that means a lot of trips up and down. A laundry chute could cut down on some of those trips. But you’ll still have to carry the clothes back up. (Why haven’t more people turned those laundry chutes into dumbwaiters?)
Also, washers and dryers make a lot of noise. If your kitchen is near a room where you enjoy quiet time, watching movies or entertaining with friends, you could have some noise issues. To get around that, you could install sound-insulation batting.
In the KitchenIn a small home, you don’t always have the luxury of adding an entire room off a kitchen for laundry. So some homeowners who want the convenience of the location are looking directly to their kitchen for a solution.
For this Los Angeles bungalow, the homeowners didn’t have the budget for a laundry room addition, but they did have an awkward breakfast alcove that they never used (seen here). Working with designer
Daniella Carter, they transformed the space into a walk-in laundry room with stacked washer and dryer units.
Carter estimates that a similar project like this might run $3,000 to $5,000, including appliances.
This owner of the home shown here, a single mom with a toddler, also put her washer and dryer in the kitchen, to the left of the refrigerator. A gourmet cook and frequent entertainer, she hired designer
Dawn Hearn to enlarge her kitchen by absorbing a nearby laundry room and breakfast room. And that left them wondering where to put the laundry.
“We looked into moving the laundry room to another part of the house or garage, but this is the hub of the home for her,” Hearn says. “It’s where her toddler plays at the table, eats breakfast; where she cooks. It made sense to put the laundry right there.”
Pros: This can be a relatively easy upgrade, because water lines are already routed into the space. This option is great for condos, single people or couples without kids. Stackable units and smaller European models can make the best use of a small cabinet space.
Cons: For designer
Laurie Stubbs, this option is the last choice on her list. “The kitchen is almost a sacred place, where most people spend their time, always eating and gathering,” she says. “Laundry is a job that nobody wants to do. It’s not fun. It deserves its own space. It needs to go away behind closed doors or in its own room.”
Another downside is that putting a washer and dryer inside kitchen cabinets usually means you’re going to lose storage space. Plus, you’re not likely to have any extra space for folding. The last thing you want to do is toss a pile of clean clothes on that messy kitchen island.
Also keep in mind that you’ll probably have to buy smaller units or spend money customizing cabinets. Countertops are generally 36 inches high, which is too low to fit most washing and drying machines under. Cabinets, meanwhile, are generally 24 inches deep, much shallower than most machines.
And if you’re having guests over on laundry day, you might find it hard to keep things tidy around the machines. This option probably isn’t very efficient for a large family.
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