Planning Our Laundry Room Demo

We live in a split-level home that was built in 1984 when closet space wasn't plentiful to say the least and the builders didn't think that having ample space for a washer/dryer was a priority. Well I'm here to tell you that having a beautiful space for a full-size washer/dryer is a major priority for a family. Our laundry area closet barely fits a 24" washer/dryer which was made for apartments or other small spaces where you aren't doing a load of laundry a day. While we have nice front-loaders, they choices are limited and after having our washer repaired about 10 times (not kidding) we decided that we needed to figure out a way to get full-size washers and dryer in our house. When we have children, the small units just won't cut it.

Here comes my book club buddy Peg who is a contractor/decorator by day and fabulous friend, book club junky at night. I've seen her work and it's fabulous so I was jumping for joy when she didn't shy away from our small project. My husband kept saying that there was nothing we could do and that I just had to live with it but I knew Peg would come up with a solution or two. She came over today and had a ton of ideas on how to not only get more room for a full-size washer/dryer but also more closet space. It's nice to know that as our family grows there are options for gaining more closet space. That will have to wait for another day but it looks like the week of August 16th we will have a larger laundry area that will fit full-size appliances. It involves pushing out a wall in our family room but losing a couple inches there to gain more on the other side is something I'm not worried about. The added bonus - I get to shop for some fabulous new appliances and get rid of the puny-size one's we have now! The options are endless and I didn't know you could drool over appliances but that I am definitely doing.

Here's a few photos for inspiration:

A girl can dream of a bright and cheery room like this.

The appliances are a gorgeous color and the countertop has plenty of space for folding and a place for hanging clothes as well.

Pull out ironing board is lovely but not in our plans.

While the teal isn't my taste, we did see these on clearance today at Best Buy. It looks great in this room.

The metallic, steel look of this room really gets my motor running. So fresh and clean!

White, white, white - need I say more?

This is a total dream....3 appliances! No more waiting to put all of the clothes in the dryer when you have two of them! When I hit the lotto this will become a reality.

Now that I have had a moment to daydream, this one is more realistic - it fits in a closet and has full size units with storage for cleaning supplies in addition to only being for laundry. We decided we didn't want to purchase the pedestals that are commonplace with front-loaders because we needed to have a folding area on top of the units. I do want the units a bit higher so it's not so hard on the back and building a platform with drawers in the closet may be a better idea. We are looking forward to the project and I'll keep you posted on the progress.