I Could Really Use some Help with my Mud Room/Laundry Room (vinyl, floor)
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I have this huge room in my house that serves as a mud room, utility room, and laundry room. I want to make it look nice but not sure where to start and how to hide that huge ugly furnace and water heater. I would love to hear any advice as I would like to have this project finished within 4 weeks. In the picture I dont have a washer and dryer but there is currently a set under the window. The floor is not level so tile may not be an option. But this is a high traffic area as we come in the house this way and with the current weather it sees a lot of mud and snow.
View when entering from garage. Washer and Dryer are currently under the window but not pictured. Door shown goes to bottom floor family room/media room and home gym. You cant see it but all the way to the right, next to the window is a utility sink.
This is the view from the family room/media room and door on the left is the garage.
Furances can be enclosed in a closet. I'm not sure if you'll have enough of a hallway from the family room if you do enclose it.
Tile is very forgiving on uneven surfaces. Your other option is to pull up the linoleum and finish the concrete with one of those high gloss specked paint finishes.
Build open coat racks and shelving for shoes and boots along the wall between the garage door and the furnace. Or build an enclosed closet with double doors there to keep the clutter to a minimum.
Not sure how much you want to spend. You could add a lenght of cabinets and counter space between the garage door and the furnace and put your coat/shoe area along the other wall near the garage door.
Pick a color you like and paint your walls to compliment whatever floor color you choose so it all ties together.
From a practical standpoint, I don't see a drain on the floor. What are you going to do if the washer overflows? Maybe it's not visible in the picture since I can't see the one corner of the room. You have a finished basement so it would be a disaster if it flooded. I once put in a load of laundry before going to bed. The washer got stuck on FILL when it was switching to the rinse cycle because the washer had become unbalanced. The end result was that we woke up to 4 feet of water in our entire basement. And we had two floor drains in our basement. I think you should seriously consider at least having ONE drain.
Your idea with the shelves is exactly what I was thinking. There is a drain behind the water heater. Also we have stump pump in the corner down from the window. This is not a basement its the first floor of my house. You actually walk up stairs from the entry way to get to the main living area. Some people call this a split level, but none of the 1st floor is under ground.
I'm very interested in learning more about painting the concrete. Sounds like it could save a lot of money.
I'm wondering if I could build some sort of floor to ceiling accordion door made of wood to hide the furnace and water heater, so that it could be easily opened for maintenance and paint it the same as the wall color, thinking a nice beige?
I'm wanting to keep this room neutral so color, so a pop of color can be added and changed with accessories. I was thinking of building a bench that has shoe storage underneath that takes up most of the wall between the door and the water heater, and have cabinets above that, with hooks on the wall for guest coats. Just not sure how to even start building something like this.
Then make an L shape with counter space that goes form the garage entry door to the utility sink, and over the washer and dryer with cabinets above and below. If that makes any sense! :-)
Was also thinking of finding old cabinets on a site like Craigslist and painting them white to keep cost down, and then just adding a linoleum counter top.
Hope all this makes some sense! It's 4 am here, and I cant sleep so trying to get some ideas started. :-) Insomnia is a B*tch!
Is there any way to move the door by the furnace to another wall? If you could do that you could easily close off the furnace.
For the floor-there are a lot of vinyls out there that look VERY much like tile. It would be an easy update and not very expensive.
Depending on the budget, I would almost treat the room like a kitchen putting nice deep cabinets around the walls and a BIG island in the middle of the room for folding clothes. For the cabinets in the island I would put pull out bins to sort clothes into.
To save money you could look at a salvage shop for cabinets to use if you have one near you.
Theres no where to move the door to. To the left of the door is a bathroom, and to the right is the garage. And if I put cabinets up like I described earlier there would be no room for a island, and I rather have a clear path since this is how I bring in everything to the house. An island would just get in the way.
I've been playing around with a program Ikea has and I measured the room to scale. What do ya'll think of this?
The cabinets that end with one tall one I stopped there because there is a soffit that runs down the room that is about 2 feet wide, and hangs down about 8 inches. So a cabinet could not go any closer to the garage door. Also I need lots of space to move large items threw.
The sink in this image is where the current ugly utility sink is. Maybe I could some how move it to the left side if I dont have to mess with pluming. The bottom corner cabinet would be of no use as I would have to cut the bottom out because this is the location the stump pup is at, but I do want to cover the ugly thing! The "fuse box" is under the short cabinet closest to the W&D, but I figure when I have clothes hanging no one would see it.
I was also thinking about building some sort of pedestal for the washer and dryer that I could have baskets under to hold detergent and other washing cleaners since I cant put a cabinet above the w&d due to the window. And with a front load W&D its a pain to do laundry with them sitting on the floor.
Last edited by FutureBettyCrocker; 02-11-2010 at 07:23 AM..
wow, that plan looks neat. Do you have a place to hang coats somewhere, maybe over the bench where you sit to take off your shoes? I love the area with the cabinets and counter and sink next to the laundry for a nice work station, I'd also want a lot of storage for shoes/coats, etc. since it's an entryway/mudroom. Looks like it could become a really functional room! I'm excited for ya!
I would like to do something like this for the bench area.
This all would probably be great for re sell if I ever decide to move, or for after I have children some day.
I have some ugly oak cabinets left over from a kitchen remodel I was thinking about using, but I dont have any corner pieces, and I would need more cabinets then what I currently have. I would paint them bright white. I'm trying to find a way to do this on the cheap.
I know I need pedestals for my washer and dryer, I've been having a hard time doing laundry since my car accident and raising them about 15" would really help, and maybe I would not have about 8 loads of laundry on the mud room floor waiting to be cleaned. What do ya'll think is better; home made or store bought. Time is not an issue, I have all the time in the world for little projects.
Cost wise, a homemade pedestal will be better. Considering that the store bought ones can run $100 plus each, and all the materials to build a pedestal that will hold both of them would probably run under $50, I would definitely be building my own.
If you diy, make sure you build the frame to support the weight of a full washer. I'd recommend 2x4 framing with cross braces and 3/4" plywood or osb for the cover. If you use plywood, make sure to cover it with good primer and a couple coats of exterior paint. This is to keep the moisture from causing the ply to warp.
If you have kids at home I love this idea...I wish we had a space like yours to do something. You have a really large/great space to work with. Don't be afraid to do some dramatic color!!!
edited to add: just read you don't have kids yet..I still love the idea above for when you do and they start school. We have backpacks, sports gear, rain boots etc all over!!!
Well, I found 2 that will work with mine but they are graphite steel color. I would need to paint them white to match my W&D. They want $100 but I'm going to see if they will go even lower then that. They are 13" tall so that would be okay, what do ya'll think I should offer? Do LG pedestal fit all all washers and dryers?
So any ideas on how to close of that ugly furnace and water heater?
Has anyone bought basic pre-made cabinets from the big box stores? Wondering what cost might be for a project like this.
It's just me right now, no kids any time soon. But I think it would be very easy to add "dividers" to make cubbies. I also have a guest closet on the main floor at the top of the stairs.
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