Dreading laundry day? You’re not alone. Doing laundry can be a chore, but it’s a necessary one. A few days of dirty clothes and your BO would be through the roof. So, clean clothes are a must.
However, when your laundry room is the size of two dryers stacked on top of each other, laundry can feel like going on a run after two days awake. It’s not the greatest.
So what can you do? How can you get through your mountain of laundry without getting buried under the inevitable avalanche caused by the door opening? Sit tight. We’ve got some ideas.
1. Get a Washer-Dryer
Instead of a washing and drying unit, purchase a single-unit washer-dryer appliance from any brand you like.
You can buy a vertical unit with the dryer stacked on top of the washer or a washer with a drying mode. Just keep in mind the latter isn’t going to give the actual effect of a dryer.
2. Go Neutral
Darker colors add depth to spaces and make them look smaller. In contrast, neutrals make spaces look wider and lighter.
So, if your laundry room is the size of a bean, think about painting it a nice and neutral gray, white, or beige. Not only will the neutral colors make your laundry room look larger, but they will also make it look airier and lighter, which is the effect you want in a stuffy room.
3. Hang Your Drying Racks
In a small laundry room, surface space is premium. So, to keep your surface space free, use your walls and ceilings to keep things out of the way. For instance, you could suspend a drying rack from the ceiling and sell your floor drying rack on eBay.
You could also hand a drying rack over your sink. That’d be great for hand-washed items like lingerie, knitted wear, etc.
4. Go for Frosted Glass Doors
Ever wonder why designers put glass doors in small spaces? Because glass lets light through, making it seem as if the door takes up less space.
So, if your new headache is a cubicle-sized laundry room, try putting in frosted glass cabinet doors instead of wooden doors. You could even put your washing machine behind a glass door. That way, your laundry room will look even bigger than it is.
5. Add Vertical Cabinets
Instead of placing cabinets near the floor, stack them up high. For instance, if you have a wall beside your counter, think about building a ceiling-high cabinet against it.
The cabinet will hide all your laundry essentials, and you could even install a dirty clothes chute in the lowest drawer! A solid win-win!
6. Try Open Shelving
If you’re looking to add space but don’t want full cabinets, you could try open shelving. You could get open shelves from IKEA or hire interior renovation experts to make them for you.
Your shelves can be any color, but high-gloss wood will work best because it’ll give the most “open” look.
7. Hide Machines Behind Curtains
If building new cabinets or getting frosted glass doors isn’t in the cards, hide your machines behind curtains. You could make them at home or buy short skirt curtains in a thrift store or online.
Just keep the curtain color neutral. Colors like white, gray, blue, and beige will do. Don’t go bold. That’ll make your space look too small, which is not the effect you want.
8. Use Wallpaper
If you don’t have time to paint your laundry room, plaster your walls with neutral wallpaper. Of course, you can get patterned wallpaper but keep the colors light.
Light colors are better when trying to create an open look in your laundry room because they’re more “open.” For instance, white wallpaper with colorful vertical stripes will add height to your laundry room while giving it some character.
You could also put the wallpaper on one wall to create a statement effect. Most people choose to put wallpaper on the narrowest wall because it makes their laundry room look longer.
9. Put in High-gloss Tiles and Wood
Always choose a durable and easy-to-clean surface material for the counters in a laundry room. Why? Because you’ll be using alkaline and acidic agents in your laundry, and these can penetrate and destroy marble or granite counters.
So, anything high-gloss, whether it’s a laminate material or lacquer paint over wood, will do the trick. Plus, if you go for a neutral-toned wood or laminate material, it will make the laundry room feel bigger while being easy to wipe down.
10. Utilize All Available Walls
If you’ve got cabinets and a sink on one side and your washing machine and a flat counter on the opposite side, you still have one wall left. If your laundry room is tiny, you could also use that wall for your laundry purposes.
For instance, mount a bar onto the wall to hang pressed shirts or dresses. You could also put floating shelves a little above head height to put your laundry essentials.
The Takeaway
There are a million and one ways to add more space to your laundry room, but if your laundry room is a cubicle, those options shrink to barely a handful. But that’s not a cause for despair.
You can make your laundry room look as big as possible with just a few tips, and ten of those have been described above. So, choose whichever option catches your fancy and go to town on your laundry room.