Tall Cabinets, Thoughtful Layout Can Help Keep Laundry Room Clean

Q DEAR TIM: It is time for new laundry room cabinets at my home, but after looking at several designs, I have decided that my current laundry room layout is bad. I don't want to order new cabinets until I am sure the floor plan will work. What is involved in remodeling a laundry room? Do you have any decor ideas that would make working in this space more pleasant? What type of cabinets would you consider if this were your home? -- Cindy S., Kinnelton, N.J.

ADEAR CINDY: I have to admit that for all the years I built, I pretty much neglected the laundry room in the houses I worked on. My guess is that's because when I was a kid, our washer and dryer were in the basement. Laundry seemed pretty insignificant.

But when I built my own home more than 20 years ago, I moved the laundry room to the first floor, by my garage. My wife and I thought we had the perfect laundry room design, layout and cabinets. We were wrong. I am remodeling the room, and our choice of cabinets was greatly influenced by the mistakes we made.

Our laundry room became the overflow for all sorts of items beyond detergent and fabric softener. There are pet supplies, light bulbs, picnic supplies and children's sports equipment. They were all visible on top of the few cabinets we had and some open shelves I built a few years ago in a last-ditch effort to control the accumulation.

The new laundry-room wall cabinets are 42 inches tall. Standard cabinets are 30 inches high. We decided to take the cabinets to the ceiling so that every square foot of available space is used for storage. These extra-tall cabinets are gorgeous, and do not overpower the room.

As for the layout, you may be able to move things with a little bit of work. In my case, we changed the location of the dryer, washing machine and 48-inch sink base cabinet. The old layout had the washing machine and dryer next to the main pathway leading from the garage to the rest of the house. When laundry was being done, baskets and piles of clothes were in the way as you moved about the house.

If your laundry room is large enough, consider a folding surface for clothes, as well as a sink to rinse things before you wash them. We use the deep stainless-steel sink next to our washing machine to clean all sorts of things that would be a hassle in our regular kitchen sink.

You want superior lighting and a bright color scheme. Doing laundry is work, and you should make the environment as pleasant as possible. If you spend lots of time in the room folding clothes, make sure you have convenient power for a radio or maybe a small television.

You want flooring material that is durable and will not show dirt. We have a ceramic tile floor that is a light mottled brown. It does a magnificent job of hiding dirt, and when it is time to clean it, a mop makes it look like new in minutes.

If you are relocating your dryer-vent pipe, place the top of it 42 inches off the floor directly behind the dryer. This will allow you to easily connect the smooth metal pipe as you slide the dryer into position. The building code requires that smooth metal pipe be used to vent dryers. Avoid using the collapsible plastic piping, as it can be easily crushed as you slide the dryer back against the wall. If this happens, your dryer will not work properly and you will waste energy dollars.

Tim Carter can be contacted via his Web site,http://www.askthebuilder.com/printer_Submit_Question.shtml.

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