Mud & Laundry Room Design

The mud & laundry room is becoming more important to the overall function of modern homes, and the design of this space is no longer just an afterthought. We’ve been seeing a trend for several years now, as the mud & laundry room ups it’s status and the trajectory has become so prominent that it makes a useful topic for today’s post. No doubt, it’s on the duller side of design coverage, but when you’ve got to put pencil to paper (or mouse click to screen) it’s helpful to have guidelines, drawings, specs, and photos of the real deal — even if it’s just the laundry room. While often dismissed as mere service space, we’d like to point out that these rooms are only ugly when architects don’t design them thoughtfully.

The primary design factor of most mud & laundry rooms is children. If the homeowners don’t have kids (or if the kiddos have grown up and moved out) the space can be streamlined and minimal. However, if children are in the picture, the space takes the full range of tasks such as drop sort, locker room (for losing the dirty sports gear before entering the house), gear storage, sorting, washing, and keeping the dirt confined. For a young family, the mud & laundry room might just be the hardest working room in the house. And for all that, it gets very little credit (until now).

Today’s post reviews three different scenarios and spells out all the details about the design and construction of mud & laundry rooms. Enjoy and, you know, don’t track any dirt in the house.



The example of a simple room that includes a wall to wall bank of open cubby-style cabinets to tackle the sports gear needs of two boys as well as coats, shoes, and the household cleaning equipment (vacuum, brooms, etc.).




On the opposite side of the room are wall to wall cabinets with door and drawer faces that house the washer, dryer, sink, and household storage in addition to providing plenty of countertop space.



Because the cabinets at a mud & laundry room need to take a bit more abuse, we used an apple-ply with exposed edges. The highly durable and easily cleanable rubber floor is from Commercial Interiors.



A more simplified version of the laundry & mud room can be seen above. A simple 11’-4” line of cabinets is constructed of gray Nevamar laminate on Europly. Once again, we expose the edges so that the cabinets don’t become too precious.



The floor is a concrete topping which is as durable as a floor can get. The application is cost effective and because the product is self-leveling, gravity takes care of any irregularities with the slab on grade below. Walls are painted with an eggshell acrylic to handle the additional moisture.



A single cabinet bay is faced with gray laminate doors to match the cabinets, the remaining cabinets are open cubby-style. The continuous line of upper offer four bays of hanging rods.