With contestants on The Block teasing us with stylish yet functional laundries, it’s not surprising to learn that kitchens aren’t the only rooms enjoying a few tasteful remakes. The Good Guys Kitchens designer, Julie Hanover, shares the latest trends making waves in laundries.
Custom built cabinetry It is becoming increasingly popular to renovate laundries in conjunction with kitchens, and built-in cabinetry is at the top of the trend to maximise space. Using your kitchen company to also design your laundry means you’ll enjoy complementing joinery, as well as saving time and money.
Concealed storage Tall utility cupboards for ironing boards and built-in solutions like baskets and hampers mean you can enjoy a stylish and clutter-free laundry.
Benchtops Gone are the days of the freestanding steel tub. Sleek Silestone benchtops dominate with their seamless built-in sinks, providing plenty of space for sorting and folding. Laminate benchtops will also do the trick (and be softer on your wallet).
Details It’s the little things that count, right? Although you don’t generally show off your laundry, you might have a reason to with the abundance of feature tiles and smooth, shiny handles on offer. Decorative and under cabinet lighting would help show off those stylish features as well as provide some much needed lighting to a generally dim room.
Appliances The main reason for the existence of your laundry is, of course, to house your washing machine and dryer. These come in many different shapes and sizes, and feature plenty of different functions, so it’s important to find the ones that best suit the needs of your household.
Washing machines To front load or to top load? That is the question. To save space, front loaders can be stacked on top of one another. A stacking kit can help save space not only by stacking your washer and dryer, but also by incorporating a handy pull-out shelf to hold your laundry items. With modern technology comes a hoard of available features, from steam eco washes to live Twitter streams (ok, I may have made that one up). Don’t get too carried away with all the extra features – focus on the functions that will best suit your lifestyle, such as size and water efficiency.
Dryers Dryers are expensive to run, so keep an eye on those little energy star ratings stickers when buying. The capacity of your dryer is determined by how much you want to fit in each load, with a larger drum size suiting larger households. Obviously, you don’t want anything that impedes on the functionality of the rest of your laundry, so keep in mind the space you have set aside for your dryer. If you’re not much of an ironer like me, a smaller but faster dryer will result in fewer creases (as well as a smaller energy bill).
