Where to put the laundry room?

[CurrerBell]

We are just about to go through building regs for our extension, and I'm having last minute doubts about the layout...

I always envisaged a lovely futility room (have never had one before) when we started the plans. However, we've ended up with basically a cupboard off the hallway, which just fits the washing machine and tumble dryer side by side. Not much space in front, so to access it I'd have to stand in the doorway, blocking the corridor. It might be fine... but it's a compromise as we also want to fit in a decent sized playroom-cum-study downstairs. The only alternative really is having the white goods in the new kitchen diner.

After seeing it mentioned on a few threads, I am wondering about having an upstairs laundry room... It would mean sacrificing our small fifth bedroom (currently our study), but we would have the space for washing machine, tumble dryer, ironing board, clothes airers, extra wardrobe space... and it would save all the trips up and downstairs with dirty washing. Has anyone done this and got it to work for them?

We have no plumbing on this side of the house though, so I'm not sure how difficult it would be to sort that out? Please, help me make a decision before the plans are set in stone!

castlelough - good luck with yours too - it will be worth it in the end, for that dream kitchen! (Although I was a gibbering wreck earlier today, and nearly gave up on the whole idea!). I envy people who move into ready-made homes, but then we have a chance to create something that is totally for us.

Oh I think that is definitely the best. Maybe not a massive change from what you went to Planning with but at least now you have tossed up all the options, worked through them and have a fab plan that will suit how you live.

Oh and PigletJohn would be proud of me...make sure you get a door on your utility room and put a decent extractor fan in there....then you can hand clothes up to dry, shut the door and put the extractor on....thus saving all the damp from your clothes going into the rest of the house.

That last link does look good.
Couple of thoughts, do you really need double doors between the lounge and study? Seems a bit of a waste of wall space and cant see the need to connect these two rooms, but thats just my opinion of course!
Also, I'd move the loo in the downstairs loo so it isnt the first thing you see when you open the door, I'd swtich th eposition of the basin and loo.
Utility looks good and practical.

Are you happy with a TV and sofa in the kitchen? Might be quite noisy that way, ie the cook disturbing the tv viewing and vice versa...

Fishfingers - that's a good point about the door / extractor on the utility. Our ensuite will be directly above it... I'm having thoughts of laundry chutes now!!

Pannacotta - I'm sure you're right about the double doors; it's nice to have the connection between the lounge/study but may not be practical. I will swap the downstairs loo round as you've suggested - that would be much better. Not sure about the TV in the kitchen. We're not big TV watchers (I like to listen to music when I'm cooking, and we like to eat at the table). I thought we could put a small TV on the wall for the kids, but will have to think about this!

The electrician is on site now, moving the consumer unit. He can leave certain rooms till we've finally decided - but I think we're going with the four bedroom plan upstairs.

oh I LOVE the laundry chute idea! Brilliant!

Yes, yes, yes to the laundry chute!
I was desperate for one before we moved the washing machine upstairs - but DH was a bit worried about how often we'd lose the baby as her older siblings posted her down the chute!

Yorky - a good job you've got the washing machine upstairs! I can see how tempting the chute would be for the kids!

Currer, I agree, best so far! I like the door to outside from the utility.

yy to laundry chute - how luxurious!

I agree with Fishfinger about moving the toilet and basin around (or move the door).

I quite like the idea of doors from the lounge to the study / play area. It means someone can be working in the study, but still part of the action in the lounge at night-time. And if they don't want to be, they close the doors.

I'm sure by this stage you are dreaming of floorplanner!

Glad you like it Beryl! Moving the kitchen was a great idea - but we think we've found a way to recreate a similar idea on the other side of the house, and keep what we've got (parquet, woodburner, etc).

I would be sad to lose the double doors off the lounge - they are useful and I'd much rather block up the doorway off the hallway, which is in totally in the wrong place! Anyway we don't have to decide just yet...

The electricians have cut out the ceilings and wired up for the LED lights upstairs. So we've committed to the upstairs plan now... eek.

Hi, back again with an update...

Although we loved the idea of a huge downstairs utility room, I think we have decided to put the laundry room upstairs! It just seems to make sense. The laundry room/cupboard will be large enough for the washing machine, tumble dryer, sink, a linen basket, and overhead cupboards. This will be our upstairs layout.

Downstairs though, I would still like some advice! I thought we had hit on the perfect plan before, but we are struggling to get the flow of the house to work. It left us with quite a bit of wasted space (rooms we had to walk through), and the kitchen wasn't very accessible from the main lounge.

What we really want is the flow between a connected kitchen / dining room / lounge - this would be our main family area. Then the extension could provide extra living space such as a second (quiet) sitting room and study. DH has his own business so we do have quite a bit of paperwork and computer equipment, so it would be best to have a room that we can shut off...

I was thinking this could work. What do you think?

I am not sure whether we'd want the second sitting room to be accessed through the kitchen or not. We do currently have a door off the kitchen (as shown). If we keep it, the house flows well, but it may be hard to stop the kids running through while we are cooking...

Also, I don't know if we'd need the downstairs shower or not... I was thinking of guests (e.g. elderly relatives).

Love the upstairs. V jealous of upstairs laundry room.

Downstairs, you do have an amazing loop for children to run around (they will - they find them in any house) hall, kitchen, sitting room, hall. This is not such a bad thing - and I definitely would not close off the kitchen/sitting room door - as this means you can all be in the same space- so if you are reading the papers, the DC are watching a film and DH is cooking you are not separated fully. I personally would try and open the space up more, not less to get more of an open plan space.

But you are all also right - the cooker position is an issue. Could you move the oven to where the hob is and put the hob on the other side next to the dining area? Or swap the kitchen/dining room spaces over?

Love the big sitting area (is this the planned "quieter/grown up" one? How do you get into it? And I think it sounds like a separate study like you have is perfect.

Wet room downstairs....hmmmm....just an extra shower to clean? And wet shoes/socks for you/DC/guests if they pop in for a wee and someone has just had a shower? Unless you have oodles of elderly guests or really need an 3rd bathroom I wouldn't bother. Another big storage cupboard would be better IMO.

Thanks for the reply Fishfingers. I think you are probably right about the downstairs shower! Storage is more important. That's interesting that you would keep the kitchen back door to access the new sitting room. I don't know how we'd open things up further though, without further compromising the kitchen! We had considered having the whole extension space (on the right of the house) as open plan family room / study.

The lounge and dining room on this plan are exactly as they are at present - connected by a square archway / folding doors. (We have already closed off the old door between the lounge and hallway.) We could just knock through the dining room wall and fit the kitchen now, then the main living space would be finished and we could just add the extension when we are ready.

This is the other plan we were going to go with. It does create a 'wow factor' kitchen, but we wonder if the two ends of the house (lounge and kitchen) would feel too separate from each other. It is annoying to keep doing a u-turn round the solid dividing wall (as we have to do at the moment). We'd want to open it up, but can't see how to make the central rooms usable as they are just walk-throughs.

I would want the play room sandwiched between the kitchen and the lounge, however you do it. If you have the playroom at one end and the lounge at the other with the kitchen in the middle I suspect (based on my children and the tons I've nannied) you will have toys dragged into the kitchen or the lounge (depending on where you are) and you will have to drag them back to the other end of the house or nag the kids to do so.

Also on Sunday morning when you are sitting in the lounge drinking tea and reading newspapers and wanting to relax the kids are either going to be suspiciously quiet at the other end of the house or playing in the lounge, not in the playroom.

If you want them to play in the playroom (instead of it being storage) then it needs to be very close to where you are, preferably with a line of sight afforded by open doors or archways.

I like the kitchen layout on floorplans (but the kitchen layout itself on Facebook) and would make it a study/guest room or a study/craftroom or a study/gym sort of room. I would have a door directly from the playroom/dining room to the lounge though, not the hall because I would not want the bombshell playroom visible from the front door and I would want more access to the kids than through the (cold in winter) hall.

I don't like the little bitty rooms plan and would not want to devote more room than necessary for a hall unless that extra room included extra storage.

You can always switch the study/dining room/playrooms around at a later date when kids are older or invalid mother comes to stay

Oh and I don't particularly want the kitchen near the lounge, I like it separate from cooking smells and dishwasher noise.

BigBird, thanks. That's a good point about having toys dragged through the kitchen. I'm just a bit confused as to which plans you are looking at... are you saying you prefer the 'Downstairs Utility' one, where we've got the big separate kitchen (family) space?

I still haven't given up on getting the kitchen to work in the extension... but with a study space at the front instead of utility. Just wish I could get the flow right!

can't figure out how to link it to the right plan, but it is the last one in the list under "ground" labelled "kitchen". I like the layout of the actual kitchen better in this photo

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I think you need to close your eyes and work out in your mind what you want the ideal flow to be. How do you want to live in the space? Where do you want the DCs to be playing whilst you are cooking? Playing music? In the adult sitting room.

I personally would want to separate. The study from the living/relaxing space. I would not want to have to walk through it (or guests to walk through it) to get to the sitting room. But I am messy. If it is going to be a music room too and you want that more accessible then that is a different focus. But I would vs leaning towards having the study in the front right. Separate. Accessible from hall only. Shutawayable.

The left grown up sitting room. I personally would have a door directly from the hall for the reasons above...you can keep this room tidy and grown up and shut away the remnants of the day in other rooms...and not have to walk through other rooms to get to it.

Then, rest of house...through double doors from lounge into family area/play room/kitchen/dining. DCs play between the 2 areas you will be in.

However, this is how I would live. This may not work for you. What about the music are (is there room for the piano in the big sitting room). Would hiding the study away mean you don't use it (as you didn't use your upstairs one?) In which case would just having it open to the dining area solve it?

When we reconfigured our house we worked out what we wanted to be the focus. We wanted a separate grown up sitting room. And then an open plan area with a cast iron range at the heart of it. Having this as the focus helped. Yes we did a fair bit of scribbling on the bad of an envelope but now we are about to move into the most amazing (for us) space.

Is the heart of yours the music? The kitchen? Every weekend morning drinking your 11am tea where do you see yourself standing, looking round, and thinking "wow, what fantastic home"?

Will stop waffling. And 'xcuse typing. On phone.

BigBird - ah, I understand now. The 'Kitchen' plan involves moving the kitchen into our current lounge, which we've discounted for various reasons... though if we were starting the house from scratch that plan would probably make sense!

FishFingers - I've shown your post to DH and actually shut my eyes and really tried to visualise how it will work. For us, the kitchen and piano are central. We think having the lounge / dining room / kitchen all connected would work best for us. We have already blocked up the doorway between the lounge and hallway and it's feeling much better. We just need to open the kitchen up to the dining room.

On the other side, we'd like a shut-offable room, which could be multi-purpose and evolve its use as the children grow. We are excited about the idea of having a games room (not just for the kids!), perhaps with a pool table that tranforms into a large dining table for occasional entertaining (have seen them online!) or even a cinema room in years to come. We would need a study area for the PC/printer/storage, but not necessary shut off from the rest of the house. I think that would make us use it less. This is what we are thinking. If we don't break through the downstairs cloakroom we could use it for built-in utility storage as it's quite large.

Anyway, we've gone round in circles many times but feel like we're working out what is most important to us! Thanks again for all the really helpful input.

I really like this plan - wow - great space and kind of quirky too (not sure why - and I mean quirky in the right way) And it looks like a "This is how we want to live" space. Your space. Love the big family room and on the right and the slight partition to the study. You can work and still be part of everything.

One of my friends has got one of the pool/dining tables - is amazing.

Now just awaiting the invitation to come and enjoy some time there