Living The Laundry Life!
Whether you’re designing a laundry for your new home, undertaking a complete renovation of your current laundry space, or are updating your established laundry’s style, functionality should be foremost in your mind.
With the right inclusions in your laundry, washing clothes will suddenly become less of a chore – and everyone wants that!
The first question to ask is, what do you use or want to use your laundry for?
Washing clothes is on everyone’s list. But do you also need space to iron and fold clothes? Is your laundry a storage depot too? Perhaps a dumping ground for school bags, sporting equipment, or wet and dirty shoes and jackets. Is your laundry where the dog receives its weekly bath?
The possibilities are many. It’s only when you understand what those possibilities are that you can truly create the right laundry space for you.
Choosing the right laundry tub
From pre-soaking laundry to keeping bottles of beer and drinks cold, the laundry tub or laundry sink is the workhorse of your laundry. So, it’s critical that you get the right one.
PRE-BUILT LAUNDRY CABINETS VS. BENCH MOUNT SINKS
Pre-built laundry cabinets – such as the quality Australian Everhard range – are a great way to bring a large sink and storage combination unit into your laundry. They are available in a range of different sizes, with a stainless steel or blow-moulded tub, and the option to choose drawers or cupboards beneath the tub.
The alternative to a pre-built cabinet is to add a sink to a custom benchtop and cabinet design. Clark has a great range of laundry sinks to choose from. This gives you more flexibility to tailor the sink to suit your needs, and ensure you have sufficient space around the sink to suit the jobs you’ll be doing.
SIZE UP YOUR NEEDS
When it comes to the laundry sink – size does matter! Size your sink by sizing up what your needs are. For example, if you’re dealing with the occasional stains and blotches on your clothing, you don’t need a big laundry sink. But if you handle the laundry for the whole family, then you’ll need a big tub to make life easier.
Clark offers a range of quality laundry sinks, ranging in size from 35L to 45L.
KNOW YOUR SPACE
A large sink or tub provides plenty of room for soaking stubborn stains, but if your space is limited then perhaps something more compact is better for you. Don’t leave yourself short of space for appliances or a bench to hold folded clothes or for working on. A mini tub or cabinet could be just what you need!
EVERYTHING EXCEPT THE KITCHEN SINK!
While a kitchen or bathroom sink will certainly do the job in your laundry, laundry sinks and tubs are deeper and have a wider area to accommodate your needs. They’re designed for the use they’ll be put to in your laundry room and add to the function of your room.
Choosing the right laundry tap
A laundry tap doesn’t just have to be practical. It can look good too. These days, laundry taps come in a great range of shapes, styles and forms. Oliveri has an extensive range of laundry taps to suit every setting.
MIX THINGS UP
Large gooseneck designs. Wall-mounted swinging mixers. Pull-out mixers. There are plenty of laundry tap designs to choose from.
Which one is right for you? It depends on your needs and the space you have available. Gooseneck designs make a bold design statement, while wall-mounted mixers are great space savers. Pull-out mixers are useful for cleaning large items and filling buckets.
One critical function to tick off your list is, the tap’s spout must swivel so it can be moved aside to give full access to the sink, when needed.
Overall laundry design
Your laundry might be the place where chores are done, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less important to get the styling right.
MAKE IT MATCH
Look to the rest of your home and maintain a common thread for consistency. But with your appliances almost always only available in black or white, don’t be afraid to add a splash of colour to add a splash of life.
Introduce colour through the splashback tiles. Or bring it into your laundry through your choice of tapware and sink.
THINK STORAGE
Lastly – but by no means least – when you think laundry design, think storage. Incorporate as much useful storage into your laundry space as you can. This includes making sure you have as much varied storage as possible. Right now, you might think it’s only the laundry powders and stain removers that you need to store. Later, it could be much more than that.
The best modern laundry designs feature a combination of benchtop surfaces, cupboards, drawers, clothing poles, and open storage. Also consider who in your family will visit the laundry space. For example, the inclusion of high shelves provides the ability to store chemicals well out of the reach of children and pets.
More tips to help you to create a great laundry space
TIP 1
Choose your appliances first, or if you have appliances already know their dimensions and the dimensions of the appliances you’re likely to replace them with in the future should your current appliances fail. That way you can choose sinks and build benchtops that allow for them.
TIP 2
Include a rod or rail for hanging clothes on to dry in inclement weather, or to hang clothes on before and after ironing.
TIP 3
Introducing accessories – such as laundry hampers, detergent containers and soak buckets – that are themed to your colour palette and styling add life and style to your laundry.
TIP 4
The laundry is a great place for storing tall items, such as brooms, mops and vacuum cleaners. If space permits, ensure your laundry design includes a tall cupboard to house these items.
Still got questions? Tap into the Tradelink team’s expertise in laundry tubs and sinks and laundry taps when you contact us. We recently celebrated 150 years in the industry, and we’re here now to help you to make things happen.