Laundry rooms used to be hidden away in the basement, washer and dryer side by side on concrete floors. Functional - yes. Inspiring - no.
These days, they're increasingly moving upstairs and upscale. From walk-in closets to craft rooms, laundry machines are finding new, brighter and more inspiring digs in the house. Some look almost like kitchens, with high-end cabinetry and countertops. From large and luxurious to compact and convenient, the options seem limitless.
Here are some common trends:
SIZE
Laundry areas come in all sizes these days. In some new condos, the laundry area simply consists of a stacked washer and dryer behind bi-fold doors.
In more opulent digs, the laundry room sometimes shares space in a room that accommodates a homeowner's hobby. The idea is that you can spend time working at a hobby while waiting for laundry to finish being washed or dried.
The size of laundry machines has also changed. While the width has generally remained the same, older, top-load machines were typically 660 mm deep. New front-load washers are 762 mm deep. That extra depth, combined with a few millimetres for the intake and waste-water hose in the back, may result in spanking-new machines sticking out a lot more. Plus the doors swing out instead of up, sometimes causing clearance problems in small rooms.
LOCATION
Some homeowners find it convenient to have a laundry area on an upper floor rather than in the basement, so they don't have to lug linens, towels or clothes up and down stairs.
"It makes sense - over 90 per cent of the laundry is generated from this level," says Rus Collins, principal designer at Zebra Design and Interiors.
In some high-end homes, the laundry room might turn up in the master bedroom's walk-in closet, steps from the ensuite.
"It's simple enough to put a drain on the floor during construction," says Collins. "That way, there is a lot less damage if there is a water leak."
Some large families have more than one laundry pair, sometimes in more than one location. The parents may have one near their sleeping quarters, while teenagers have their own in the basement.
INNOVATION
The humble laundry chute has been around for decades but has never enjoyed widespread adoption. For some families, it's the height of convenience. Gone is the need to lug heavy laundry baskets down stairs. Chutes can save time and energy, with fewer trips up and down stairs.
"It's a good idea if you have the space to incorporate it in the design," says Collins.
For one of his clients, a major renovation offered an opportunity to integrate the time-saving feature into their home. By a happy coincidence, the laundry room is directly below the master bedroom's ensuite and another bathroom.
Other families have gone a step further, using a dumbwaiter to transport clean laundry to the upper floors.
NOISE
Nobody really took notice of noisy laundry machines in the past - after all, they were in the basement. With laundry rooms closer to living areas these days, quieter machines are valued.
The type of flooring where the washer sits is important. A concrete base is best because it can absorb the vibrations a working machine generates.
Try to distribute laundry loads, as an off-balance washer can make the whole house shake. Ninety per cent of noise - and machine vibration - problems can be traced back to an incorrect installation, says Brad Goodyear of Lansdowne Appliance on Douglas Street.
"People need to level a machine by adjusting the four feet," he says. "Give it a week to settle and check it once more. But remember that every bump or move can knock it out of alignment, which causes problems."
Some washers have shock absorbers to absorb some of the vibration. Others are cradled inside a cabinet, so movement is not transmitted to the frame of the machine.
ERGONOMICS
Traditionally, laundry pairs are found side-by-side. More people are buying front-loading (as opposed to older top-loading) machines because of their superior water efficiency.
While they may be more efficient, the openings of the machines are lower. For some people, bending each time to load and unload can put a strain on their backs.
A pedestal raises the level of the opening and makes it easier to get to the laundry. Unfortunately, that makes the top of the machine too high to fold laundry, necessitating the creation of a countertop elsewhere.
Laundry rooms are starting to emulate kitchen design, with a utility sink and countertops for working space, combined with upper and lower cabinets for the storage of detergent and other cleaning supplies.
Machines are now being offered with doors that swing on either side. Previously, washers opened only to the left and dryers to the right on front-load machines.
MULTI-FUNCTION
While room for a few laundry baskets is important, increasingly, homeowners are making laundry spaces work harder. The most common pairing is with a mud room. The idea is that kids coming in from outside with dirty clothes can simply put them in the nearby hamper. But designer Collins believes there is a flaw in that theory.
"Why would you want dirt in the same room you clean in?" he says.
For a house he designed on Transit Road in Oak Bay, he made the two rooms side-by-side. Vicky Ballan-tyne, the homeowner, doesn't seem to mind. "It does make the laundry room part look cleaner," she says. "It's almost clinically clean."
Even better, the laundry is "two steps" from the kitchen, where she spends more of her time. If she had to do it again, she would like the laundry room to be a bit bigger - perhaps with a higher ceiling so she could incorporate an indoor clothes-drying rack suspended from the ceiling.
STYLE
A laundry room isn't a place people are going to hang out, but that doesn't mean it can't have style.
Washers and dryers are no longer plain white - they come in red, green and even stainless. But while colours come and go, white is timeless. Expect to see manufacturers introduce more upscale variations on white for 2013.
TECHNOLOGY
While they all do the same thing, washers and dryers have gone higher-tech. Some machines can communicate with the manufacturer's service centre when they experience problems. While his company does sell the latest models, Goodyear sees a limit to all the bells and whistles the new machines come with.
"At the end of the day, we're just doing laundry."
parrais@timescolonist.com
