Kitchen extension ? To utility room, or not??

[mooncake]

Hello,

We?re about to have our kitchen done with both a side-return and 3m rear extension, so it?s going to be a VERY long room (but still only c. 5m wide). Our old dining room is going to be used as a snug and I wanted to keep the throughway from there into the kitchen ? as well as keeping a source of natural light in that room.

I?d ruled out having a utility room but I?m starting to have second thoughts!

Do / did you have one with your extension? Would you be looking for one in a new house? How do you use yours?

It?s a large 5 bed Vic terraced house and there is technically space to have one. But in the most obvious place to put it, it would mean longer hallways on either side of the kitchen, which seems wasteful of the space.

Alternatively we could create an extra room in a slightly random position somewhere within the big open plan room.

If we don?t have a ?proper sized? utility room, we were still planning to put the washer / dryer in its own soundproofed cupboard under the stairs anyway. Is doing laundry in the corridor weird?!

The boiler is in the bathroom but megaflow cylinder will also be on ground floor in a cupboard.

Thanks!

[Convex]

I would love a utility room but we def don't have the space.

I think good storage is more important personally.

[simonethebeaver]

We're having our kitchen done and are moving the back wall of the kitchen forward a bit to create a full bathroom out of our downstairs loo and a utility cupboard for washing machine/tumble dryer stacked, and cat food made out of our coat cupboard. We lose a little bit of big kitchen but it's going to be proper big still.

[MrsMcC]

If space allowed I would definitely have a utility room big enough to take the washing/drying machine, cleaning products, ironing board etc and still be able to move about in there to sort the laundry.

In our downstairs shower room/toilet we have a megaflow and boiler which were along the same wall so we had a sliding door cupboard built right across, top to bottom, to house them. There's just enough space inside to also have 2 clothes airers, we don't have a tumble dryer but someone could put one in if ever they wanted to. I'm able to dry my washing, after a good spin, with the warmth from the megaflow/boiler or on a rad if needed quicker! Our washing machine is in the kitchen next door.

[sb]

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[sb]

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[BellendenBear]

I'm with sb. A definite yes. Washer, cleaning products, piles of laundry, bags and wellies all behind a closed door.

We used an architect too. Maybe we just totally lack any imagination, but it was definitely worth it. They designed layout options that we wouldn't have thought of ourselves.

[mooncake]

Ahh.. So much to think about!! Thank you for the responses so far.

I suppose the thing is I have never lived in a house with a utility room. I have sorting baskets upstairs (dark, white, colours - and another place for delicates!), though admittedly do find having clothes drying in our living room or spare room quite infuriating.

All the utility rooms I've ever seen elsewhere seem to be such horribly unloved stuffy places that I'm not sure whether I would want to hang clean clothes in them! Usually quite good about putting clean clothes away as we'd run out too quick go otherwise - and erm.. We don't actually do any ironing! Guess that will change when mini mooncake goes to school though...

[sb]

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[sb]

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[ClareC]

If you have the space I would say definitely, if to add one is a bad use of space elsewhere I would say no.

Very useful to have but not at the expense of living space if it's one or other. Love the picture of the laundry cupboard above. :) we had one in our old kitchen with tumble dryer above washing machine, was great :)

Only downside was noise, and once where the tumble dryer needed the reset button pressed - button was at back which was very hard to get too!!!

[snowboarder]

We had a laundry cupboard similar to the one above in our old house in our kitchen side return extension (not that tidy I may add, but with the stacked washer and dryer) and it worked well. But I do love our utility room in our current house with a sink and some extra cupboards. Also I am very untidy - quite often things get taken off the kids downstairs - chucked in the utility room, washed and dried and they go straight back on without ever making it upstairs.... (should I admit this?!?)

[buggie]

sb Wrote:

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> http://www.houzz.com/photos/laundry-room

>

> See link above for laundry room porn, not a

> horrible stuffy room in sight!

Oh cripes... It's a Fri night & I'm getting excited by laundry rooms... what's become of me?!

[simonethebeaver]

Give in to it... I am currently staring at photos of identical looking tiles trying to work out which I find less dull. Laundry cupboards are the crazy side of life!

[Belle]

snowboarder Wrote:

Also I am

> very untidy - quite often things get taken off the

> kids downstairs - chucked in the utility room,

> washed and dried and they go straight back on

> without ever making it upstairs.... (should I

> admit this?!?)

This is normal in our house! And re the post above - nope, don't iron any school clothes here...

We have our washing machine & tumble drier in the basemewnt which works fairly well. Although the dry stuff does often end up in the spare room if it needs an extra airing, so that can be annoying. It does mean that this sketch from the brilliant Parenting, Illustrated by Crappy Pictures blog is a good representation of what happens when I disappear to put a wash on though.

[amydown]

Definitely yes!!!! We have just done a big refurbishment and have a good sized utility room/ larder. I "think" it's nicely decorated there but we did it cheaply (reclaimed butler sink unit, IKEA wall units) etc.

It holds washing machine, dryer, utility sink, 3 tall wall units for all kitchen larder stuff and shelves to hold everything else. I absolutely love it!!!

[mooncake]

OK - so I'm pretty sold that a utility room would be a useful addition... The choice is whether to a) go for broke and build a proper sized room that does fit everything in (with some jiggery pokery elsewhere and the extra costs involved) - or b) make do with an oversized cupboard along the wall under the stairs - where you would go in and the washing machine and dryer would be stacked to your left and the sink would be on the right - i.e. sink facing the machines. The current plan has the machines facing out into the corridor with a bit of space to the side for ironing board etc. Room would only be about 70cm wide though!

The latter would mean hanging laundry and building in some storage elsewhere, but we could prob manage that.. Not sure we would use as a boot room - maybe get a low level shed out the front for all those sorts of bits as otherwise you'll be traipsing 9 metres or so through the house to get to the utility room from either the back or the front!

The embarassing thing of course was that there did use to be a massive utility room right there which we already knocked down because I thought it was too big, made the kitchen too far from the rest of the house, and was overall a wasted space.. We never lived there though as started renovating soon after we bought.

(This crisis has all been brought on by latest attempt at potty training and a somewhat traumatic washing event for me after my toddler had been at nursery!)

[pebbles]

Yes yes yes

It wasn't on our wish list when we moved here but we got one and now I wouldn't want to live anywhere without one. Go for it :)

[Bonfire2010]

Yes! Just back from a trip to Australia where Utility rooms seem to be the norm. My (Aussie) husband still can't quite believe we have the washing machine etc in the kitchen. We are planning to relocate there early next year and if we do, a Utility room is on my 'deal-breaker' list!

[Pickle]

They're the norm in New Zealand too, I would definitely go for it. My Mum has one the size of a decent sized bedroom!

[womanofdulwich]

If you have a keen cyclist in the house ,is it possible to make the utility room the bike repair room too?? I am sick of puncture repairs at the kitchen table..................

[iclaudia]

Random futility room thought - WHY do people seem to think it's a good idea to have them in the lowest part of the house? I would say the best ones I've seen have had a utility space upstairs - where clothes are stored in the first place. We're in a 4 storey house and our utility is at the lowest level and carting clothes up and down three flights of stairs is a real pain.

Since you have lots of space upstairs, is there any way you can allocate half a bathroom or bedroom and make it a clever little utility area? We almost bought a house with a large bathroom and half of it given over (very elegantly too) to a utility area. It was right next to the master and second bedroom and at the time I wondered why more houses don't have something similar.

[Pickle]

I guess that would make sense if you don't utilise an outside line to dry clothes... But I'd find it just as much of a nuisance having to cart a basket load of wet washing downstairs to hang it outside.

For me, it gets washed, hung outside, brought in and ironed (in front of tv to make it less boring), then taken upstairs and put away.

[pebbles]

Very good question Iclaudia.

We are just about to move and the house needs total restoration and I'm currently wondering whether to have a utility downstairs or upstairs. Still undecided to be honest.

I am a tumble dryer lover though for about 9 months of the year!!!

Just thought though - I do a lot of my washing and drying at night and I don't think I could cope with the noise being upstairs so I think that might have just answered my query - downstairs utility it will be :)

[iclaudia]

Good point Pickle, although I too am a tumble drier lover... :)