How big is your utility? Bonus points for pictures!

[FrothyCothy]

Laboriously planning an extension and want to work in a utility. On the original plan from the architect the room seemed small (would probably have fit a stacked washer/dryer, a sink and a bit of sideboard) so we asked for it to be bigger but now I’m doubting myself as does eat into the kitchen space. We don’t have a huge amount of storage currently so would want it to take the washer and dryer, a second fridge, space for all those occasional use appliances, as well as somewhere to dump the hoover and mops and be able to close the door on them. So it feels like it needs to be a bit more substantial than the original plan.

So tell me about your lovely utility! What size did you go for? Do you regret going bigger, or smaller? And if you want to show off a picture of it, even better!

14.2x11.3
I support make space useable. Yes a compromise in one room but an asset in the other

11'8" x 10'3" fantastic amount of space

Tiny. our shitty neighbours objectes to our initial plans, got their parents to submit objections and somehiw we ended up with the smallest room imaginable. Room for a small freezer, washing machine, dryer stacked on top and an insey little sink all squashed up together..

Mine's in the kitchen! 🤣

We’re not going fully open plan but are opening things up a bit to the kitchen and I was hoping sticking the washing machine behind a door will help keep the noise down!

8ft by 8ft, fits washer, dryer and fridge next to each other, and has space for mops, buckets etc under the boiler and a small corner for scooters and the smaller outdoor toys you don’t want to keep outside. It is rather lacking in the shelf department, but I think that’s due to having doors on three sides (not my design!) rather than the size. Yes we should probably stack the washer and dryer but never got round to it.

2.3 x 2.9m it's absolutely great. First utility I ever had and the happiness of getting washing machine out of kitchen was.... Probably bigger than getting the house😂

About 2.5m by 3m. Stacked washer dryer, a few cupboards with a sink in the middle and a full height cupboard for mops and hoovers. No fridges or other things.

Have you thought about drying space? That’s what takes up most of the space on a day to day basis in mine.

10m x 7m - room for clothes horses, clothes maid on the ceiling for towels and sheets and all coats and shoes/boots go in there. Tumble, washer, sink, seating bench, cupboards and room for a couple of bikes if bits need fixing (useful for tyre changes in winter).

Ours is 2.6 x 2.6. We have a stacked washing machine/ boiler and space for the washing basket, sink and cupboard under, tall cupboard for hoover x 2, ironing board, iron etc, tall shoe cupboard, coat rail and baskets for hats/ gloves and summer hats. We shelled out for a carpenter to build the units and I’m so glad we did - exactly what we wanted and makes the most of the small space.

Oh and we have space for a wall mounted drying rack and free standing clothes horse, and dehumidifier in the corner without cupboards!

Some of these utilities sound bigger than our whole downstairs 😆 but the 2.5x2.5ish ones sound in line with what we’re thinking which is helpful. Thanks all.

In terms of drying we have a heat pump dryer now so I tend to bung everything in that, but we also have the original ceiling rack on a pulley which I’d love to restore and move in there.

Mine is 6' × 6'6 doesn't have the washer in as no access for water (I'm in a council flat) just room for heat pump tumble dryer & American Fridge Freezer plus coat pegs & mop bucket.

Pretty small - it fits a washer under the counter, annoyingly the boiler is above as would have liked to stack a dryer on top, a sink, cupboard under the sink and then worktop to the other side of sink the width of an appliance with cupboard underneath (so the breadmaker and coffee machine sit on that bit of worktop). Whilst I would have loved to have also had room for a dryer, and a spare fridge freezer (which instead we stuck in the garage and with plans to also get a dryer which we’ll put in there - obvs less convenient but even just having a spare fridge freezer at all is a game changer), having utility room full stop is amazing - I can honestly eulogise about my utility room as I’ve never had one before. We have a tall clothes horse in there with a spare one and the ironing board hanging on hooks on the end wall, it’s got a fully glazed door and we also have a dehumidifier in there. So it’s cramped and I have to move the clothes horse around to open the washing machine, but being a small room which gets a lot of sun plus dehumidifier and my laundry dries so quickly I love it.

this is how I feel! I mean, I really love the house, but I REALLY love the utility room.

Size is 8x12. Washer, dryer, utility sink, chest freezer, countertop fridge

I love my utility. We have floor to ceiling cupboards for anything and everything, including a spare wardrobe for coats and one for shoes.
We also have space for a separate dryer and a spare freezer. I will never be able to move house now….

Mine is about 15 by 6 feet including a loo, sink, storage cabinets for cleaning equipment, hoover on charger, drying rack, coat hooks, shoe racks, cat bowls, washer and dryer. Every inch is used and helps unclutter kitchen and hall. I could iron in it but prefer ironing upstairs. I would go as big as possible with yours, it won't be wasted.

A spare cupboard for coats! What a great idea, DH has a coat obsession and would be handy for change of seasons.

I’m definitely hearing bigger is better but think I need to play about with the imaginary set up inside to work out how best to use the space.

Luckily we can fit in a small downstairs shower room and loo (bit of future proofing the house) next door to where the utility will be.

Room for washer, dryer and a floor srabding cupboard with 3 cupboards above. Only thing that would gave made a massive difference would have been a pocket or sliding door into kitchen as we have 3 doors going into utility (back, loo, kitchen).

2 x 3m off the kitchen, washer & dryer, 2m of extra height wall cupboards (6no cupboards), full sized sink & worktops, under sink cupboards, full height pantry cupboard housing boiler and hoover/mop etc, towel rail for the dog towels and the back door.

Lots of space, BUT in hindsight I wish I would have gone about 600mm wider on the 2m side so I could fit the old fridge freezer in there as extra, which has now been relegated to the garage.

Not as big as I would have liked but certainly better than not having one.

Room for washing machine & tumble (not stacked), decent sized sink with good counter space either side. Floor standing & wall mounted cupboards (for cleaning materials, ironing basket & board, dog food etc). Boiler. A row of hooks for coats, dog leads, hats etc and space for all the shoes, boots etc.

Very handy being able to come straight in with Ddogs and get out of wet gear, put Ddogs in the sink, dry them off etc before going into the kitchen.
Wish there was room to do the ironing in there and stacking clothes before putting away but that is the compromise.

Mine's quite small, was originally a single skin with windows all round and a flat roof. It currently holds, a tumble dryer (small one), fridge/freezer and a storage unit with baskets in that I bought to fill the gap next to the f/f. Roughly 8ft. x 4ft.

I did start the process of having it knocked down and a much bigger room built but the thought of the chaos it would bring as the back of the house would need to be boarded up for security so no light at all in the kitchen, put me off so much I called it off before it really got off the ground in the planning stage.

Part of me regrets it but hey ho, I can put up with the smaller room, I've got used to it now.

Can you add a diagram with the total space, and proposed utility space? I don’t have a utility, a bathroom is kind of a crossover. However I have stayed in a lot of Airbnbs and the utility rooms are almost as important as anything else, I’m obsessed!

One thing I’ll say is if you wash a LOT like me, have every pull out line and rack option as well as the tumble dryer, make the whole room work for its money. Have a little window if you can, that’s opposite the entrance door so that if you want proper airflow it can all be opened up, you need to be able to blast it through often and not become dank. A place we stayed in in Japan had the pull out lines that could stretch across the room and then a wall heater fan and extractor. Absolutely brilliant. You could hang about two wash loads and the room itself became almost a giant dryer. That was one of my faves.

If you can fit an extra, or a couple of extra, tall cupboards for things that are seasonal then so much the better. Fans and heaters, big coats, Christmas stuff. My friend has a cupboard in her utility with tubes of wrapping paper, cards and gifts, and she uses the bit of worktop as a wrapping station. Makes it easier when next door’s postman’s daughter has a baby or whatever, you’ve got all your cards and bits in one place and can pull together a card and gift in minutes.

God I’d love a utility 🥹

Same, we had the option of:

1. a big kitchen (which I hate, big kitchens become dumping grounds for clutter)
2. a midsize kitchen and small utility
3. a midsize kitchen and small shower room

The shower room won hands down and is frankly the best room in the house, washer and dryer are just fine in the kitchen.