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Relocating your laundry room can make a regular chore a lot easier

People are doing anything they can to make doing laundry more enjoyable, says an editor at Houzz. “And because it’s a small space, it might not be the biggest investment, but you can get a lot of bang for your buck.”

Joan Weiner and her husband, Gerald Kolpan, moved their laundry space from the basement of their Queen Village home to the second floor.
Joan Weiner and her husband, Gerald Kolpan, moved their laundry space from the basement of their Queen Village home to the second floor.Read moreELIZABETH ROBERTSON / Staff Photographer

When Gerald Kolpan and his wife, Joan Weiner, planned a renovation of their master bedroom closet about seven years ago, they realized there was space to include a dedicated laundry area. The time seemed right to stop walking the stairs to wash clothes in the basement.

“We’re not getting any younger, and you get a little tired of schlepping up and down between the basement and the second floor, where your clothes get put away,” said Kolpan, 68. “We decided to make our closet into a real dressing room. This way it’s all in the same spot.”

They’ve been in their home in Philadelphia’s Queen Village neighborhood since 1977 and would like to remain as long as they can. So they hired a professional closet designer to create a dressing room in the 10-by-10-foot room behind their bedroom and installed a new stacked washer and dryer in the corner.

“It’s really convenient,” said Weiner, 67. “I do lots of wash because I traded in a washer and dryer for ones much smaller. It’s a pleasure to be able to walk 10 feet to put in a wash instead of running down to the basement.”

The couple are part of a growing trend of homeowners giving their laundry rooms extra attention — whether renovating to age in place or simply to add some pizzazz to a room where a lot of time is spent.

“Laundry is not the most fun thing to do, so people are doing anything they can to make the experience more enjoyable,” said Gwendolyn Purdom, editor at the a home-design website Houzz. “And because it’s a small space, it might not be the biggest investment, but you can get a lot of bang for your buck.”

The 2020 Houzz home design trend predictions found that homeowners are becoming more creative with their laundry room décor, adding colorful cabinets, patterned floor tiles, more lighting, and hanging rods. Like Kolpan and Weiner, who merged their laundry room and a closet, folks are creating multi-use spaces that combine the laundry room with the mud room, craft room, or pet-washing area.

The median spent on laundry room renovations in Philadelphia from 2016 to 2018 was $1,500, the Houzz study found, though costs vary widely. For example, it can be pricey “getting gas to the third floor of a West Philly home, when the original laundry was in the basement,” said Stephanie Hoffmeier, architectural designer at Bellweather Design-Build in Philadelphia. “Electric dryers are a bit easier to work with since they only require an electrical connection.”

Her company charges $10,000 to $25,000 for a completely renovated laundry room, depending on the specific project. She noticed the recent uptick of laundry room renovations about a year ago, most often as part of a larger home renovation. Hoffmeier credited the added attention to a strong economy. Some homeowners go for a cosmetic refresh — updated finishes, added storage, providing an updated sink, and folding/storing countertop space while retaining their existing washers and dryers — while others relocate the laundry room completely.

Last year, Deborah Thomas added an addition to her South Philadelphia home that included moving her laundry room from the basement to the second floor. In the 5-by-10-foot space, she installed a sink, a stone countertop for folding clothes, drying racks that fold down from the wall, cherry wood cabinets for more storage, and an art deco gray-and-white tiled floor.

“The basement is grungy, so [the laundry room is] now part of the house,” said Thomas, 53. “It’s convenient to have everything in one place. We didn’t do it with the intention of staying until we are old and gray, but the things we did would be useful.”

Some of the useful additions in Weiner’s laundry room include a rolling laundry cart to alleviate carrying heavy loads of clothes and an ironing board that comes down from the wall to help avoid stooping or lifting to set it up. Her shelving is set within reach to store detergent and other supplies.

“You can have fun in your laundry room,” Hoffmeier said. “If you have money left over to splurge, I say go for the ceramic tile floor with a crazy pattern, install a fun backsplash, and even get crazy with a fun paint color. The laundry room is probably one of the least preferable places to be in a home. If it was more of an aesthetically pleasing space, I bet it would feel a little less daunting to do the laundry!”

Have you solved a decorating, remodeling, or renovation challenge in your home? Tell us your story by email (and send a few digital photographs) to properties@inquirer.com.