It may sound strange, but one of the things I was desperate to have in this house was a utility room. Having not had an area to do laundry in LA, there were always clothes drying by the kitchen, which drove me mad! Especially now we’re about to have a second child, I’m under no illusion that the mess is going to double!
First on my list was practicality, but secondly, I wanted the laundry room to still feel stylish and interesting. We luckily inherited a pair of cane cupboards with built-in shelving and heating racks, which are brilliant for soggy hand-washing. We painted them in Deep Reddish Brown No.W101 by Farrow & Ball. The colour is bold and warm, looking more fiery in the sunshine and chocolatey-brown in the evening. The countertops were switched out to quartz by Caesarstone and we went for honed London Grey finish – exactly the same as our kitchen. The Belfast sink is traditional for this type of room, fitting in with the original Victorian floor tiles and Victorian cast iron radiator.
One of my favourite parts of the utility room is the Sheila Maid, which was already in the house and is so great I can’t believe I didn’t have one years ago. For anyone unfamiliar with this hilariously-named piece of traditional household genius, it’s a pulley rack that you lower from the ceiling and fold your laundry over…and then you pulley it right back up again. I love the nod to the history of the house; along with the floor tiles there’s a real old fashioned look to this room. My other favourite thing in the room is the shelf: it had effectively been thrown away in the shed but I rescued it because I loved the shape, sanded it down and gave it a new lease of life as a home for all my pots. I added some hooks underneath so we can add everyday bits and bobs like scissors…how many times a day do you find you need scissors and never have them to hand?!
The utility room is such a multifunctional little space. Mackenzie makes his coffee here every morning; it leads out into the garden so it’s where we keep all our wellies too.
