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Original poster

Which 2 of these 3 things would you choose?

50 replies

BauerTime · 18/01/2015 12:15

We are moving to a new house which we want to make into the house we stay in for the long term, probably until our children move out. We only have one at the moment but will hopefully have one more DC.

At the moment the original galley kitchen opens out into a kitchen diner extension which we are incorporating into the original dining room to make a kitchen/diner/family room and the galley will be put to other uses. It already houses the boiler and washing machine.

In an ideal world I'd turn it into a downstairs toilet, laundry room and walk in pantry. Trouble is we only have room for 2 of these. I'd LOVE to a walk in pantry and it is the stuff of my dreams, but my head is telling me that a downstairs lav and a laundry room are the 2 most practical and 'necessary'. Downstairs loo as otherwise we'd only have one toilet in the whole house, and laundry room as otherwise the washing machine would be in the family room and the noise would likely drive me mad and I also like the idea of being able to hang washing and store piles of clean stuff somewhere out of sight.

Which two would you choose?

OP posts:
Izzy24 · 18/01/2015 12:17

Lav and pantry.

iklboo · 18/01/2015 12:18

As much as I'd love a walk in pantry (and if we did some serious re jigging, got rid of BIL's dishwasher we could kind of squeeze one in. It's certainly cold enough) I'd go for lav & laundry room.

SantasLittleMonkeyButler · 18/01/2015 12:21

Toilet & utility room.

Eastpoint · 18/01/2015 12:23

Do you live somewhere remote or where online shopping is unavailable? If not I don't see the need for a pantry - why stockpile groceries when your supermarket can store them for you?

magimedi · 18/01/2015 12:30

Loo & utility room.

As Eastpoint said you don't need piles & piles of groceries anymore, unless you live somewhere remote.

CreamSubstitute · 18/01/2015 12:31

Toilet and utility room. I do love a walk in pantry but the toilet & utility room are more practical. You really don't want the washing machine and tumble dryer in a kitchen / family room. Food doesn't make noise.

BumWad · 18/01/2015 12:32

Toilet and utility room

crapcrapcrapcarp · 18/01/2015 12:35

No doubt at all - loo and laundry room. Clever storage in kitchen would do the trick - in fact there's no reason you couldn't incorporate some kitchen storage into the laundry room surely? A cupboard where you can keep food processor/slow cooker/bulk and dry goods etc?

IssyStark · 18/01/2015 12:35

Loo and laundry. And I say this as someone who's always wanted a proper larder but having a downstairs loo and a separate room for the washing machine are the two most practical things.

Blu · 18/01/2015 12:40

With young children and a family, toilet and utility / laundry space.

Those 2 are seriously practical - a walk in pantry is a nice idea and a nice to have but with good cupboard and storage design the lack of one won't affect the quality of your life as much as the lack of the other 2 will.

DesperatelySeekingSanity · 18/01/2015 12:41

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
BauerTime · 18/01/2015 12:50

Desperately I have toyed with having a door to the laundry through the toilet but there still won't be enough room for all threr and the pantry would then end up being a big cupboard which defeats the object of having one.

No way am I putting a toilet in a pantry though!

OP posts:
SophieBarringtonWard · 18/01/2015 12:55

Toilet and lots of storage in the utility room for pantry like use.

LesleyKnopeFan · 18/01/2015 14:45

Downstairs loo is an absolute must and almost as important, is a utility room. I waited for 18 years to have one and it makes me happy every time I use it. Good luck with all the work.

RaphaellaTheSpanishWaterDog · 18/01/2015 14:50

If I had to choose - loo and laundry.....last few houses we've had that kind of set up and the house we just sold we added a 'loo-tility' when we extended.....but, we do have a large free-standing larder cupboard, plus our last kitchen was ginormous so we were fortunate to have plenty of space for additional storage.

I agree that on the whole we don't keep such vast quantities of food anymore....even when DS was small and we bought a house that did still have its original walk-in pantry, we mainly used it to store other stuff - small appliances, cat litter etc.....

This house we're converting one of the reception rooms to a kitchen and the current kitchen will become the utility/laundry complete with our fre-standing larder and dresser. There's already a separate d/s loo so no need to incorporate that too.

MuscatBouschet · 18/01/2015 14:50

All these people who wish they had a walk in pantry, have you ever had one? It's a hugely inefficient use of space - you could easily store the food in ours in 2 pull outs. They are also often not located where you'd ideally store the food. Ours is a long way from our fridge. Every time I realise I have to walk over to get something from the pantry I raise a little sigh.

Can't wait to pull ours down and configure the kitchen in a sensible way, but it requires a steel beam.

RaphaellaTheSpanishWaterDog · 18/01/2015 14:51

free standing, not fre, lol!

ToBeeOrNot · 18/01/2015 15:00

I'm sort of the opposite in that I would never have really had any thoughts positive or negative about a pantry until I had one. We've got one and I love it, any food stuff that's not in the fridge is in the pantry. We've got a big kitchen diner and it's meant that we haven't had to have any wall cupboards. It also houses our microwave and washing machine. The latter will be moved out when we do the utility.

So for me I think I'd opt for downstairs toilet, walk in pantry and put the washing machine in the pantry. Or can you do a downstairs toilet plus washing machine and walk in pantry. I like the idea of a laundry room, but unless you have the space (and warmth) for the laundry room to also be a drying area I'm not sold on the advantages.

OnePlanOnHouzz · 18/01/2015 15:16

Why can't you have all three ?! Is it only one persons opinion that you can't ?! Do you want a second opinion ?!

mandy214 · 18/01/2015 16:19

Mother of 3 here (including very sporty boy). I would just not consider a house without a utility room now. I can't tell you how much smelly crap washing they generate.

So much as I would love a pantry, it surely has to be loo and utility space every time.

VivaLeBeaver · 18/01/2015 16:25

Definitely a loo.

Can't you combine a pantry and utility?

I've got a room with a tunble dryer and washing machine and freezer. Above them ive got cupboards with glasses, food mixer, choppers, etc. then the other side ive got shelves with mainly cleaning stuff. Then at the end there are really deep shelves filled with tins, wine, bags of rice, pasta, etc.

HexBramble · 18/01/2015 16:29

Loo and laundry. Definitely.
But as pp said, I have a tall cupboard in the corner of my utility and I stockpile all BOGOF's, extra tins, bulk buy, all the pet food goes there etc. it doesn't take up much floor space but it reaches the ceiling so lots is stored. Worth thinking about?

SanityClause · 18/01/2015 16:34

I think you're right.

A second loo will get even more useful as your DC get older, and a washing machine in a living room sounds ghastly.

A walk in pantry is a luxury, but one I think you'd end up regretting every time you had to sit and listen to the washing machine spin out, as you were watching television, or chatting to your friends.

Eastpoint · 18/01/2015 17:01

Can you move your laundry upstairs? We have our tumble drier & washing machine in the bathroom closest to the children's room (but they are teens so at school & don't go to bed early).

Theveryhungrycaterpillar123 · 18/01/2015 17:33

Loo and laundry. You would regret not having two toilets.