KBB - January 2009 - (Page 42)

Additions Laundry List Grow your business with a loaded design Anything that makes a necessary but boring task something to look forward to is welcome in any home. Consequently, laundry rooms that are both functional and appealing are quickly surpassing mudrooms as one of the hottest areas to design and sell to your customers. As with any major taskoriented space, creating a laundry room that makes your clients happy should rank high on your list and will require understanding their needs and habits, as well as how the space will be used. Green the laundry room and add some pizzazz with a colorful front-load washer/dryer duo, such as this one from LG, a countertop with 100-percent recycled content from 3form and Rejuvenation Lighting’s funky ﬂuorescent schoolhouse light. FUNCTION FIRST Let’s begin by deconstructing the laundry room. Function, of course, is critical. The prettiest laundry room in the world isn’t going to ﬂy if it doesn’t perform. For it to function properly, keep in mind the following steps involved in washing a load of clothes and how they will inform your design: • Dirty clothes are separated by color and material. Do they go on the floor, or is there enough room somewhere to separate on a counter or roll-out laundry bin? Minimizing bending over is also ideal. • Because clothes are checked for stains and spot-treated, provide adequate counter space. • After a load has been washed and dried, the clothes need to be folded. Make sure there’s an area at least as big as a bath towel to fold everything. • Once folded, the clothes are usually sorted. For this, consider adding a laundry center with large niches under the folding counter to store laundry baskets, one for each member of the family. The folded clothing goes directly into each user’s own basket for them to bring upstairs to their rooms. You may also want to include storage for those gigantic bottles of detergent and other laundry aids, as well as a sink to clean hands, soak delicates or even wash small pets. Equally important, make sure you provide even, shadowless lighting. And what about room for hanging up wet clothing that doesn’t go in the dryer? Ask your clients how much line-drying they do. If it’s a lot, you’ll need to allocate space on the ﬂoor or wall for a drying rack. Finally, If there’s room to build an in-the-wall ironing board center, check that the user can access both sides, depending on whether they are right or left handed. If that’s not an option, or the customer prefers a freestanding board, allow some room for that, plus a storage space, and the iron. Questioning the homeowners on exactly how they do their laundry and manage the day-to-day housekeeping dynamics is key. Ask your clients about their current routine, habits and what they’d like to see improved. Eliciting both positive and negative responses can bring the project into balance, and you can start to design a space customized to them. AESTHETIC CHOICES But functionality alone isn’t enough. Good looks are also important in today’s laundry rooms, especially those that are located adjacent to a kitchen. The increasingly popular front-load washers offer a great opportunity to design bold and stylish spaces that live up to their space-age style. And today’s top loaders are not only more water and energy efficient than their predecessors, but come in snappy colors that can give any room a pick-me-up. You may also want to incorporate sustainable materials into your design. In addition to a no-brainer such as specifying an energy-efficient washer with a high Energy Star rating, consider using products that are made from recycled products, like 3form’s 100 Percent countertop material, which is made from recycled plastic bottles and comes in both solid and bright confetti-type colors. If that doesn’t make you smile, a bright red sink from Kennesaw will add some punch. Rejuvenation Lighting in Portland, OR, makes a neat and colorful striped schoolhouse light with ﬂuorescent lamps at a very affordable price—under $100! Being able to offer your clients a perfect laundry room design adds another area in the home for you to remodel, expanding your business. If you own a showroom, set up a small, cheery laundry room display to draw in customers and get the word out. I —Patricia Gaylor is principal of Patricia Gaylor Interior Design in Little Falls, NJ. For more information, visit www.patriciagaylor.com. 42 + K BB January 2009 / www.kbbonline.com / The Ofﬁcial Sponsor of K/BIS www.kbis.com http://www.patriciagaylor.com http://www.kbbonline.com http://www.kbis.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of KBB - January 2009

K+BB - January 2009
Contents
Online Contents
Online News
Editorial
Focus
Consumer
Trends
Products
Options
Profile
Design
Green
Additions
Opinion
Editorial Index
Ad Index
Favorites

KBB - January 2009