Not too long ago, gardener, writer and florist Arthur Parkinson told me how his most popular Instagram posts were not floriferous displays or fluffy feathered chickens, but snaps of his laundry hanging out to dry on a line in the courtyard garden that he shares with designer James Mackie. ‘People love it,’ he told me, thrilled but a little bemused by the response. Quite why these attract more attention than tubs of frothy flowers isn’t entirely clear, but perhaps it sheds light on what fresh laundry signals to us. Is there anything more satisfying than a line of billowing washing drying in the sun? In those hanging sheets, tea towels and pants is a ton of comfort and order.
Perhaps it also says something about why everyone from city-dwellers to those living in country houses are hankering for laundry rooms. A room once given little thought and often hidden away in a dingy corner, has now become an object of desire – a space that can be as beautiful as it is practical and has a scent in-built that is so heavenly that it has been emulated by countless fragrance brands. ‘In the past, clients often didn’t really use them and so didn’t care about them, but that seems to be changing,’ explains interior designer Rita Konig, who has long been a fan of a laundry room and even converted her own cellar shower room into one, complete with a walk-in-linen cupboard. ‘There has been a bit of a snowball effect: a few designers created laundry rooms nice enough to photograph and then more people want to enjoy making it a good room.’ And as Rita is quick to stress, they needn’t swallow the budget either – ‘it’s not that we spend so much money on decorating these rooms, but we take care over the colours and the function,’ she says.
For many, a laundry room might be seen as the marker of becoming a “proper” grown up. ‘I think a laundry room represents something to do with personal growth,’ explains interior designer Isabella Worsley, who recently put a particularly pretty one in for her clients at a seaside newbuild. ‘It signifies a waving goodbye to memories of laundry racks hazordously balanced in the kitchens of university flats.’ Perhaps that explains why I found myself getting quite so excited when I came across @houseobsessed’s heated drying cupboard hack on Instagram, which niftily dries your laundry behind closed doors thanks to a well-placed dehumidifier. I certainly found the urge for a proper laundry room grew when I hit 30. That fantasy became an urgent need when I had a child – not just because I required a dedicated room where I could close off piles of baby-gros, but also because it felt like it might bring me some calm – or at least the illusion of it. ‘In a busy family home, a dedicated laundry room symbolises order where there are often many spinning plates,’ explains interior designer Lonika Chande. ‘It’s the ultimate luxury to free the kitchen of the washing machine, the dryer and the unsightly clothes horse.’
So what are the key ingredients for creating the dream laundry room? ‘A good laundry room is a lesson in both function and form,’ explains Lonika. In other words, get the practical bits right and then start weaving in charm and beauty. Storage, suggests designer Anna Haines, is absolutely crucial to ensuring peak functionality: ‘it’s good to create clever concealed storage for washing detergents, cleaning products and laundry baskets,’ she explains. ‘If space allows, it makes sense to have the laundry room as something of a hybrid and to include an airing cupboard, bed linen and towel storage,’ adds Lonika. A worktop – wide enough to set down a laundry basket – and a decent sink are also non-negotiables, ensuring the space will have a good flow. If a worktop is hard to squeeze in then a pull-out-shelf next to the washing machine might be a useful addition, suggests Isabella Worsley.
‘The ergonomics of a laundry room are just as important as in a kitchen,’ suggests Isabella Worsley. ‘The space needs to work as an assembly line for laundry to move through.’ Integral to this is some kind of hanging rail. Sheila Maids – traditional airers mounted on a pulley system – are a particularly popular option. ‘Almost without fail, we will install one above the worktop in a laundry room where we have enough height,’ explains Anna Haines, who recently installed one with bright red cast iron ends to add a pop of colour to a little laundry room. Rita is a huge fan of Julu’s wall-mounted drying racks, which are perhaps a better option if you have low ceilings or little available space for vertical hanging. If you’re keen to hide your laundry away in a tall cupboard – as per @houseobsessed’s – take Anna Haines’s advice and install a compact tubular heater mounted inside said cupboard, with rows of hanging rails above to make the most of the vertical height. ‘It’s perfect for warming the space without taking up floor room,’ she says. Just make sure to add air vents into cupboard doors to stop moisture building up inside.
Give some thought to the location of your laundry room. Traditionally, they might have been hidden away on the ground floor and it can make perfect sense to combine them with another back-of-house utility space. ‘I often combine them and recently did a laundry room in the US that doubles as a flower and boot room, which you pass through when coming from the garage to the house,’ says Rita. Equally, it might make much more sense – especially if space is limited downstairs – to carve out an area for a laundry room upstairs, which Rita is also a big fan of. ‘It is so much more useful to have the laundry near the bedrooms,’ she says. Interior designer Natasha Quick agrees: ‘I prefer to put them near the bedrooms for convenience.’ She also suggests trying to create a laundry room with a window to ensure the room has natural light. ‘Let’s face it, we all spend a lot of time in there, so a window is important.’ If that’s impossible, at least ensure that you have proper task lighting – perhaps articulated wall lights – to create a well-lit environment.
Charm, of course, can be worked into these practical considerations. Lonika makes a good point that since this room is likely to be much smaller than a kitchen, you might be able to afford the tiles or wallpaper that you couldn’t justify elsewhere. ‘It’s an opportunity to lean into colour and pattern and to make it a happy space to be in,’ says Lonika. Natasha Quick suggests adding panelling, painted in an eggshell finish so the walls are wipeable and bounce the light, to create warmth and durability. ‘I prefer lighter colours with warmer undertones, such as soft blues, yellows, pinks and greens,’ she suggests. ‘I avoid greys and dark blues, as they can feel quite heavy.’ Even the more utilitatian elements can be pretty, such as hooks, which Anna Haines describes as ‘laundry room heroes’. ‘We install all varieties and sizes to hang everything from ironing boards to cloth bags,’ she says. ‘Mark Lewis hooks are brilliant, because they are beautifully crafted and made in warm cast bronze finishes.’
Of course, some of a laundry room’s appeal is that it provides a place that allows for an out-of-sight, out-of-mind mentality when it comes to laundry. And when done well, it makes mundane tasks infinitely more enjoyable. ‘I get a thrill from turning what is a utilitarian space, into something that is in equal measure, playful, beautiful, and charming,’ says Lonika. But, perhaps laundry rooms are also about something much bigger than detergent and white washes – they’re about order and calm. And we all need a bit of that in our lives.
