Update Your Laundry Room for Efficiency and Style
Refresh your laundry room with a boost of energy and increase your home’s value.
Guest post by Michelle Lee
With the turn of the season, you’ll want to clean your laundry machines and surrounding area to make room for thick and heavy winter garments. Secondary rooms like these are often forgotten when styling a home, so here’s how to refresh your laundry room with a boost of energy and increase your home’s value.
Replace Your Hampers
If you’re still using plastic hampers that are cracking at the seams, it’s time to toss them out. Invest in a few high-quality woven baskets and line them with washable fabric liners. They add texture and style while being sturdy enough to last for years to come. If you have the budget, commission built-in laundry hampers for a streamlined and cleverly disguised look.
Add Paint or Wallpaper
If your laundry room resembles a dark and dreary cave, give the walls a fresh coat of paint or apply bold wallpaper to liven it up. White is generally considered a must-have hue to represent cleanliness while pale blues, greens and grays pair perfectly as complementary and calming accent colors.
If you’re craving a bolder look, use warm colors, such as yellow and orange, for a taste of summer and a cheerful, energetic vibe. Enhancing the room’s visual interest will make doing the laundry a happier experience.
Look to the Light
Dim or flickering lights can immediately put a damper on any space, especially when you’re trying to spot stains or read tiny care tags. Upgrade bulbs to a higher voltage and add lamps around the room to brighten things up. If possible, carve out a window or capitalize on all existing natural light sources. Research has shown it has significant health benefits by boosting mood and energy.
Create Warmth Underfoot
The floor of your laundry room is probably covered in dust bunnies, separated socks and empty detergent bottles. After giving it a thorough clean-out, lay down a new rug or tile for warmth and style. Indoor-outdoor rugs work best if you’re worried about water spills or damage while tile is water-resistant and highly durable.
Carve out Storage Space
Every room can always benefit from extra storage and the laundry room is no exception, especially if you tend to buy supplies in bulk. There’s more than what you might think to store in a laundry room from detergent and fabric softeners to sewing kits and lint rollers. Install open shelves to keep essentials at arm’s reach or recess cabinets for hidden storage.
Accommodate Gentle Garments
Install a utility sink next to your appliances if you have a lot of delicates that need to be washed by hand. And if you’re currently hanging them to dry off of every free doorknob you can find, upgrade to pull-out drying racks or simply suspend a tension rod overhead.
Make Room for Garment Steamers and Ironing Boards
These accessories can really come in handy when you find your favorite shirt wrinkled up in the back of your closet. They’re also much more compact than before and can be folded and stored away nicely in a pull-out drawer or cabinet.
Install a Laundry Chute
If you frequently drop socks on the walk from the bedroom to the laundry room, abandon the trip altogether with a chute system. Straight out of the classic board game Chutes and Ladders, you simply drop dirty clothes down one end and they make their way down to the laundry room without needing you to make an extra trip. They can be retrofitted into existing homes, so contact a professional to get started.
A Complete Do-Over
The last and arguably biggest upgrade is to replace your washer and dryer entirely. Front loaders are a rising trend and are more energy efficient than traditional top loaders.
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- Hang Crisply Ironed Clothes in a New Armoire
Sam Shalom
Sam is the Content and Multimedia Specialist for Coldwell Banker Real Estate. He is Jersey born and bred, and currently resides in Weehawken, NJ. He is an avid reader, loves Games of Thrones and is a New York Yankees die-hard.
You can follow him on Twitter @World_Shalom
