Laundry renovation ideas appreciated

Our PPOR was built in 1984, which probably tells you a good deal about the laundry.

The rest of the house over the years has been renovated (kitchen, bathrooms, paint, flooring etc), but the poor old laundry is still original condition.

Beige square floor tiles (in perfect unchipped condition). Beige splashback and skirting tiles (about every third one has a gumleaf design). A huge metal laundry sink with (very rusty) metal cupboard underneath. Brown handled taps.

The laundry is galley shaped, doors at each end, toilet and linen cupboard off of one long wall. Plumbing and electrical on other long wall. Small window near the door.

We have nice modern laundry appliances - front load washer and condenser drier and a budget of about 2k (max) to do improvements. My thoughts are get rid of trough, build cupboards and bench along wall with washer, drier under with a clothes hamper cupboard and one storage cupboard. Small ceramic sink with nice taps (bit bigger than bathroom sink, but not the massive bath-the-dog thing that is there now). Either some nice shelving or cupboards over. Glass splashback instead of tiles, paint doors and window frame, buy nice taps, and a nice bright rug for the floor as we can always change the tiles at a later date when I can no longer look at them.

What do you think? Can you think of any ideas? Are there any current trends you would recommend or avoid?

By the way, Mr Minx is a glazier (amongst other things) so the splashback will be at cost with no fitting charge. He is also capable of fitting kit cupboards as he did our kitchen so we should save some cash there. We do need to allow a bit for plumbing/electrical as I want to hide the washer taps and power points and add a power point for the iron etc.

Would love some ideas, or if anyone has done a laundry reno some photos would be great.

Thanks for any help you can give.
 
I actually like renovating laundries as they are easy to do and you can gain a lot from them. Usuually, there is a lot of wasted space in a laundry and you can really tap into this.

The standrd configuration for a laundry has a standalone metal sink, a number of taps, a drain hole and thats about it. The metal sink usually doesn't last very long as they get kicked, go rusty, get all bent up etc. I usally rip this out and then build a full length bench with cupboards underneath and also space for front loader washer and drier under neath. I would build in a sink into the bench so that it all becomes one unit. You have already mentioned a glass splashback and over head cupboards - these are on my usual list as well.

So basically, i'e added all the extra cupbaord space and a full length bench.

Plus if there is enough room, i also add a full height cupboard and inside that, have a fold up ironing board with iron attached to the inside of this full height cupbaord.

I would also add spare double power pointsm maybe 2 doubles if possible. Extra well placed power points are always a bonus.

Finally, i would also put in a skylight and brighten the room up as well. Stick some green plants in there and the skylight will reinforce those plants too.

To sum up, there is plenty of wasted space in a standrd laundry. Get rid of the metal sink, build a big bench with built in sink and washer and dryer undeneath. Glass splashback, 2 x double powerpoints installed on the splashback. overhead cupboards. Full height cupboard with built in, fold up ironing boad and iron. Skylight and a couple of plants. Turn the wasted space into a bright room for storage and cleannig.


thanks

g
 
We have just renovated out Laundry. I am very happy with it.
We went to Bunnings and got all the flatpac laundry cupboards, large Linen cupboard and overhead cupboards, nice new large laundry trough with flick mixer and bench top.
All up about $2000 including tiler
I will take some pictures when we put the doors and kickboards on, but very happy with how it's come up now, better than the 1989 laundry that was there before!!

I have just added 2 pictures to the gallery, very basic laundry, but 1000% better then what was there before!
 
Last edited:
Back
Top