Gone are the days of swinging on the hills hoist in the back yard, and using the laundry shoot as a slide. In the 21st century the laundry is no longer the dirty secret of a home. Australia is a fashion forward thinking country and Katie our in house designer believes “every beautiful shirt, pair of pants and jacket should be looked after and maintained in a room just as beautiful as the item”. When designing a home, the laundry is often the room that is forgotten and the first room to be sacrificed when it comes to budgets but in truth is essential to the holistic functionality of a home. We look at  how to maximise space and use natural light to get the best out of these rooms.We've broken down the difference between a laundry and a mudroom and also much more with pet friendly ideas and inspiration for these spaces as well as guides for appliance selection.

A cliche laundry is a narrow room with minimal cabinetry and a washer dryer set up, most homes built in the 80's 90's and 2000's had a door and window combo on the external wall. Over time people realised the window obstructs hanging space and or option of cabinetry from wall to wall. Having light in the room is not only a retirement with Australian standards, it is important part of the space design and contributes to the functionality of the room as we often use it during daylight hours and it provides a natural light. We looked into how to incorporate the natural light into laundry spaces in 2022.

Having glass in your door for sunlight to come through is the first go too option in a narrow space but if you are looking for more privacy why not go with a skylight.

Passive design utilises the direction of sunlight and maximise the heating and cooling of your home. Your home Australia says because the path of the sun in Australia is to the north, orientation is usually about whether the living areas of your home face north. This is because north-facing rooms receive sun for the longest period of the day in winter and are easily shaded by the eaves of the roof in summer.  If you’re a family that doesn’t always make it to the clothesline it’s good to have a warmer room to help with drying your clothes so a north facing room or a skylight would suit best in Australia. We don't always have the luxury of picking our homes orientation so looking into an option of heated floors as an alternative can make, washing, drying, folding and ironing clothes a chore you look forward to. This also turns your laundry into a dry room not a cold room.

The laundry is a room where dirty clothes are stored and washed containing the minimal luxuries of a home and is often the "shove room" of a busy household. In a modern home, a laundry room would be equipped with washing machine and clothes dryer, a large basin called a laundry tub for hand-washing delicate clothing and soaking last weekends cricket gear also have a broom cupboard for an ironing board, brooms , vacuum etc.

Mudrooms are the new "black" of a busy household. They act as a transition between outside and inside, used for holding all the items needed the face the outside world. This design has been becoming more and more  popular in Australia because home owners are getting sick and tired of the chaos of the iconic laundry. Creating a stop-gap between outside and inside to organise, shoes, school bags, dog leads, jackets and more is game changer to a house holds that is overwhelmed with the chaos of everyday life.

To put it simply a Laundry is for washing and drying and a mudroom is the stop-gap between outside to inside.

A mudroom/laundry which accommodates your pets is a great idea for those days when you come home from a rainy walk with your dogs and they are covered head to toe in dirt. Wash bays in this space it will help stop muddy paw prints all over the nice white tiles in your home. Mudrooms are a great place to store your pets’ items such as leads, food and toys to keep the clutter out of the main areas of your home.

These days washing is as easy as throwing your clothes into the washing machine and pushing go. This was not always the case, in the early days of Australia people often found themselves washing their clothes by hand in a bucket or by the river.

Having a small laundry doesn’t mean you can’t make the most of the space and turn it into something amazing. Hanging drying racks from the ceiling saves floor space when needing to dry clothes inside instead of having a clothes rack in the middle of your lounge room. Using baskets and hampers to store your supplies not only saves shelf space but can make your laundry look stylish as well and don’t forget about the storage space on your door. In small spaces all flat surfaces can be utilised. Simple hooks to hang items behind your door or an over the door hook basket unit works great for small laundry supplies. Utilising up your walls for storage also works a treat. Having shelves in reach to hold your items that you use daily, screw in hooks to hang any small clothing items to dry is an option as well as a classic fold away clothes line.

Being so bold to splurge on a second sink and upgrading to a bottleneck drainage in your laundry can bring you many benefits. A soaker sink is prime realestate in a laundry, running a washing machine 7 days a week is often not enough to combat the ongoing war of stubborn stain removal. from grass stains to a slip of a red wine glass and more, having a secondary sink allows options for multiple soaks and full functionality of your laundry at all times. A drying cabinet can also be a great addition and be an extremely useful component of a laundry, allowing you too quickly and effectively dry items that aren’t normally suitable for a conventional dryer alternatively heated floor as mentioned above heats the whole room and in turn anything in it.

While planning the layout of your laundry think about the tasks that you will need to undertake in this space eg; folding, drying, ironing, sorting clothes and actually washing them. You will need maximum bench space if you use an ironing mat instead of an ironing board. Bench space and also needed to hold laundry baskets when loading and unloading your machines and to fold your clothes as well. You can set out your bench space similar to your kitchen, keeping a few of your items that you use every day on the bench for easy access. The Picture below has both front load washer and dryer on the floor to maximise bench space.