How To Renovate

EP70 Utility Rooms–The Most Important Room In The House?

• Tash South

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Okay, confession time…
One of my favourite rooms to design in the home is the utility room. I know — it sounds boring. 
But trust me, it's one of the hardest-working and most overlooked spaces in a home.

In this week’s episode of How To Renovate, I’m making the case for why you need a utility space — even if it’s just a cupboard under the stairs.

We’ll chat about:
  Why a utility area can reduce stress and clutter
Planning tips to make it super functional
Clever ways to make it beautiful on a budget
How to squeeze one in any size home

If you’re not convinced yet — this one’s for you. Hit that play button!

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Hi I'm your host, Tash South I'm an Interior Designer and Renovation Consultant, and I'm here to help you design, renovate and style your home better. Let's create your dream home together.


Each episode of How To Renovate is short, but brimming with practical advice to help you manage your renovation project with confidence and success.

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TashSouth:

Hey everyone, I have a confession. I would like to say that I think one of my most favourite rooms to design in the house is the utility room. Now I know that's a little strange, but I just think utility rooms are one of those boring, I do admit, but also really, really underrated spaces in a home. So today I wanted to do a whole episode on utility rooms, my new favourite room in the house. Okay, let's get into the episode. So, utility rooms, here we go. When I first started talking about utility rooms to clients, I think some people thought they were a bit a waste of space. They would think, oh, why should I dedicate a space or a whole room to the laundry? It doesn't seem like a good use of space. But I can tell you that out of every project I've designed so far, the utility room is one of the most useful spaces you can add into your home and into your floor plan. So I really hope I can convince you in this episode and that I can encourage you to add a utility room into your home. I'm going to go through all the reasons why they are fantastic. I hope you agree with me at the end of the episode. But let's go through it. So I see utility rooms as the engine of the home, and it really doesn't have to take up too much space. I think I need to start with that because a lot of people think oh, I'd rather use that space for something else, a bigger kitchen, an extra toilet, or a slightly bigger living room, whatever, whatever the case may be. But I really want to argue the case for including a utility room. I've just found that they are so useful, almost vital in a busy home. It really is one of the hardest working rooms in the home if you dedicate it to not only a washing machine, if you think about it as kind of the engine room for the home, it can become many things. Just a really useful place to just absorb that chaos of daily life and all of those things and all of that clutter that you don't want to have elsewhere in the home, as long as it's well planned. I have a utility room in my home. I think it's a bit grand to be calling it a room, it's more of a cupboard, really. It's tiny, but I could not function properly without it. It has a washer dryer, it houses all of the cleaning products, it's got extra storage in there for things like garden sofa cushions, plastic bags, tote bags, overflow of toilet rolls, overflow of kitchen towels, those big um electrical cables that you don't know what to do with or where to put. It's all in there. It's such a useful space, and it really isn't big at all. But if you plan well, plan your storage well, which we'll get into, you can really make it such a functional space that's going to support the whole rest of your home and also take the pressure off the other areas of your home, like the kitchen and the hallway. You could have it as an overflow ladder, for example. You that it's got so many uses. It also can take the pressure off the hallway, so you don't always have to have all your coats hanging in the hallway or all the shoes. So it really is such a great space to integrate into your home. So I really do think that a well-planned utility room can really just reduce the stress of the home, it can take the pressure off other areas of the home, it can streamline your daily routines like the laundry. If you have pets and you have enough space in your utility room, you could add a place where you could wash them, you could make it into a joint boot room. There's so many things you could do with it. And for me, not to be too dramatic, but actually, I think my tiny utility cupboard just takes that mental load of running the household a bit because I really don't like having lots of clutter in the other more used areas of the home. And so I just like to have a place where all of that stuff can just be hidden and be out of sight, and so for me that really helps my kind of my mental load of not seeing all that stuff around, not thinking about where else to store it, because everything has a place and there's a bit of extra space. If you don't want clutter or you're having guests over, you can just shove it all in the utility room, which is what I do sometimes. So for me, I really think it's a priority when redesigning your home to include a utility if you don't have one. Just that kind of support, that extra storage place, just how having it makes the whole house function better just by having a small area somewhere that you can manage all of that stuff that you don't want to see anywhere else in the home. So let's get into it a bit more. Let's talk about number one carving out a space for a utility room in your home. So I do think that people used to think it was a bit of a luxury because space is at such a premium to have a utility room. But I actually tend to think the opposite. I almost think the smaller your home, the more you need a utility area to put all that stuff. And like I said, it doesn't have to be a whole room or a huge space. If you're clever with it and design it really well and really think through the storage, the clever fittings and storage options you can put in there, then you really are onto a winner, and you don't need to steal so much space off of the floor plan to create your utility area. You can create a compact version of it. You could even just have dedicated cupboards that you could put your washing machine in, you could put your overflow items in. If your home is tiny, you can still manage a cupboard or two to still be able to have that same effect of taking the stress and the pressure off of some other areas of your home. I've even seen people fit utility areas in places like under the stairs sometimes, you know, little nooks and places where there might otherwise be a bit of a waste of space. If you think about it cleverly and it works with your layout, that you could fit your utility area in to a space that may not have been so useful and just turn it into an amazingly useful space. And I really think you need to approach it in a way that it's not just for luxury homes, it's not just for huge homes. I really want to bring good design to everybody, and I think that bringing a utility area into your home is good design. It really thinks about how you will live, how you will use your space, how it will improve the way you enjoy your home. And so I just like you to keep that in mind is that we can all have good design regardless of our budget. Okay, so now let's get into the utility room design itself. So let's look at placement. So, of course, however your home is laid out or oriented might determine the placement of your utility area. If you are lucky enough to position it in a way where you can access it from the outside, then of course it becomes even more useful as a boot room, as an area for pets to be cleaned or wiped down. It becomes more functional if you can access it from outside. You'll be able to add even more uses to it. That doesn't mean to say that even if it's a cupboard like mine, or even if you don't have access to outside from the room itself, it still can be just as useful. So things to consider when you're planning your utility room is think about it in terms of zones and workflow. Think about how you do things, how you do the laundry, where do you take it out, what do you put it on, where does it go from there, where does it get hung out? That all thinking through all of those things is going to help you plan it really well. Also, in terms of the zoning, a great way to do it is to have different zones for different things, so that is just super organized, and then that will also help you plan your storage and your internal storage fittings. Because if you're zoning, so let's say, for example, you have your laundry zone, you can have your washing machine, your dryer, you can have all your laundry products above it, you could have a shelf for baskets, you could have a rail with hangers for hanging a few items out to dry. So all of that could be in one zone, and then the next zone perhaps could be for cleaning products for the rest of the home. The next zone could be for your overflow larder area, even if it's just one cupboard or one shelf, just having in mind what you want your utility room to be, all of the functions you want it to help with, and then zone an area for that because that is going to help you plan to have enough storage for everything that you want it to do for you. So, really have a think. Think about everything you want that room to be, everything you want to put into it, everything you need to do in it, and then plan from there. Don't just think about it as somewhere to put the washing machine. Make use of all of that space. Think about what else you can do with it, really make it function. Because if you are taking that space out of your home, you want it to work hard. So whether it's your pantry overflow, whether it's your linen storage, or whether it's your dog washing station or your shoe washing station, just think about everything you need to do in there and then zone it. Make sure there's a zone to perform that function. And then moving on, everybody, to one of my most favorite things to talk about storage. You know it. So when it comes to planning storage for small spaces like this, um, if I'm assuming your utility room is going to be quite small, even if it's big, you need to get intentional with your storage planning. It needs to be intentional, it needs to be efficient, and this is where the planning always comes in. So if you do what we've been talking about so far, you decide what it's going to do for you, what you need to do in that room, what do you want it to be for you, and then think about the storage that's going to support those functions. There are so many clever storage options and fittings out there now for utility rooms, and they don't need to be expensive. Even the famous Swedish flat pack shop has so many options for this. You can get so many different fixtures and fittings for your utility room, like fold-out iron boards, like fold out shelves that you pull out from underneath the washing machine, and then that holds the basket, and you can take your washing items straight out of your washing machine onto the basket and then slide the shelf back in again. Like tall cupboards for your mops and brooms with clever little fittings inside that keep everything organized and to the side. To overhead drying racks, which I actually installed in a client project last year, and not only was it so useful, but it was a Victorian property, and so the overhead drying rack really added this actually quite beautiful, quirky feature to this laundry room as well. And this wasn't a large laundry room, so we had to come up with really clever ideas. It was a long room, so it was about three meters long, but it was only about 1.2 meters wide. So we had a run of cabinetry along one side, and I packed that run of cabinetry full of the most useful storage you can imagine. It had the drying rack, it even had a sink and a tap, it had the washing machine and the dryer stacked, it had the tall cabinets for the brooms, it had overflow storage for the larder, it had overflow storage for toilet rolls, it had overflow storage for kitchen towels, tablecloths, napkins, buckets, mops, everything was packed very cleverly into that row of about six cabinets, and we just planned it so well, we're really intentional, really efficient with the storage planning, and it is such a functional space. And whenever I go to that client's home now, everything is really calm, there's no clutter, there's no mess because everything is in that storage in the utility room. I've been known to say before that, especially here in London, square footage is expensive, it's such an expensive city to buy property in. And so when you're using your floor plan and you're using your space, I want to max it out. And moving on to the next point, which is do not forget about your utility room when it comes to the interior design stage. You want it to be beautiful and a place that you want to be in because you're probably going to be spending quite a lot of time in there. I know I do. So design it with intention as well. Don't let it be an afterthought. When you're thinking about the interior design for the rest of your home, you know, include some elements into your utility room to make it beautiful, to make it a pleasant space to be in. Make it a little luxury. You're going to be spending a lot of time in there, and it has to be practical, and if it's pretty as well, well, that's just a bonus. Why shouldn't the utility room feel just as calm and beautiful as the rest of your home? So think about the materials you want to use in there, and you don't have to break the budget for it. You could use, for example, off cuts from your kitchen if you're having your kitchen done at the same time. If there's an off-cut that's large enough, you could ask them to cut it for your utility room and use that as a countertop in there and have perhaps some marble or some quartz or whatever you're using in your kitchen in your utility area as well. And then pick some nice cabinetry, perhaps add some colour onto the doors to bring a bit of joy into the space. And then, of course, lighting. If you're lucky enough to have a utility area that has a window and some natural light, that's great. But if you don't, think about the task lighting you'll need. So think about where you'll need light and then plan your lighting accordingly. And it doesn't only have to be boring spotlights, get a bit creative. It doesn't cost any more money if you're renovating anyway and adding wiring anyway, to perhaps put in a pretty wall light or a sconce or a hidden LED just to make the lighting plan more functional and also more beautiful. And a design tip here, something I love to do with smaller spaces in the home. If your budget is tight and you're doing up a whole home or a large area of your home, and you've perhaps spotted something that you really love, but it's maybe too expensive to use in the larger areas. I love treating myself to that really gorgeous tile or finish or piece of marble that perhaps I wouldn't have been able to afford for a larger piece or larger room, but to use that in a smaller quantity in somewhere like an understairs guest toilet or a space like a utility room. Perhaps there's a beautiful tile that you spotted with a really gorgeous pattern, but it was going to be too much to spend to use it in a larger area, like a bigger bathroom or the kitchen floor, and so you'll need very few of them if your utility room is small. And so perhaps you can that's where you can splurge on something that you really, really love, just make it a little bit more special and somewhere that's a pleasure to spend time in. And then something that brings a little bit more joy is to accessorize. You can really go to town on utility rooms. I'm sure you've seen all the gorgeous ones on Pinterest and on Instagram. Pick some pretty baskets for your laundry, some beautiful jars for your detergents or some dispensers for your soap. Then when it comes to hooks and rails and the overhanging laundry dryer, all of those things you can pick to add some personality to the space and to just make it more beautiful and really a space that you enjoy spending time in. Because we're not fooling anybody. Doing the laundry is really not the most exciting thing in the world. So if you can make the space that you do it in a lot nicer to be in, why not? So just to end off this episode, everybody, or my absolute love for utility rooms, thinking about how you can fit one into your home, I really believe that you will not regret it. It's going to save you time, it's going to save you money, and it's going to save your sanity. So it will save you time because everything that you need to do is in that one place. Everything you need is right there. So it's all very organized. You're not going all around the house getting everything you need to do the laundry or to do whatever you need to do in there. Everything is zoned, everything is organized. So it's going to save you time in that way. And I also think it's a great investment in terms of saving you money because having a utility room, like I mentioned before, takes the pressure off of the other rooms. So taking the pressure off the kitchen, which is a very expensive room to renovate, if you're planning for a utility, you can take some of the kind of harder working items like washing machines and so on out of the kitchen area and into the utility room. So kitchens are the most used rooms in the home, so any pressure you can take off of it is great as well. And then also it will save your sanity because for me, I can talk from personal experience here, just having that room where everything has its place, everything can be hidden away, and it really takes the pressure off storage elsewhere in the home for any overflow items or any things you may not have space for in the rest of your home. It can all be put in the utility room, and I just love the kind of sense of calm my home has when there's not clutter everywhere. So I am definitely that way inclined. I know many people are where they just don't want to see lots of clutter around. The visual clutter really affects them badly. I'm definitely one of those people, and so it really does help me having somewhere to put all of that stuff that I don't want to see. And I think that wraps us up really nicely, everybody. I just really think that adding a utility into your home just really links to kind of my my ethos of design, which is that everyone deserves good design, and that our homes really should just bring ease to our daily lives. You need to make what you have work really hard for you so that you can go on to enjoy the rest of your home, have more time. You just I'm always thinking about how our homes can support that because everyone is just busy, everyone is short on time, and so I just think if there are things in a home that we can do to support the way we live and make our lives a little bit easier, then we should do them. We just need our homes to work with us and not against us. And that is the end of the episode. I hope you enjoyed it, everybody. If you found it useful and if you're thinking about now putting a utility room in your home, I'd love to hear about it. Send me a message, leave me a comment wherever you might be listening or watching. And if you're enjoying how to renovate, please just hit the subscribe button. It helps other renovators to find us, it helps us move up a little bit in the charts. It really is a great thing to do for us. If you don't mind, I would love it if you did that. It will only take a second. And if you have a couple of minutes to leave a review for the podcast, I would absolutely love that too. And if you leave a review, I love reading them and I will see it, and I will get in touch, and I will have a little special present for you. So please do leave us a review and I will be in touch. That's it for now. That's it for this week, everybody. I will see you in the next episode. Bye for now. For more information on my five-pillar process for successful renovation, you can go directly to southplacestudio.com forward slash pillars, where you'll find an introduction to the process which covers each of the pillars and what they cover. We also have a number of other free renovation resources. Go now to southplacestudio.com forward slash freebies. I have created some amazing freebies for you there. There is one on the process, like we just said. There is one on um planning permission, there is one on kitchen design, there is another one on lighting planning. Go and check those out. There's so much free information there to help you with your innovations.