Contemporary Single-wall Utility Room Ideas and Designs
Mihaly SlocombeBrunswick Parlour transforms a Victorian cottage into a hard-working, personalised home for a family of four.
Our clients loved the character of their Brunswick terrace home, but not its inefficient floor plan and poor year-round thermal control. They didn't need more space, they just needed their space to work harder.
The front bedrooms remain largely untouched, retaining their Victorian features and only introducing new cabinetry. Meanwhile, the main bedroom’s previously pokey en suite and wardrobe have been expanded, adorned with custom cabinetry and illuminated via a generous skylight.
At the rear of the house, we reimagined the floor plan to establish shared spaces suited to the family’s lifestyle. Flanked by the dining and living rooms, the kitchen has been reoriented into a more efficient layout and features custom cabinetry that uses every available inch. In the dining room, the Swiss Army Knife of utility cabinets unfolds to reveal a laundry, more custom cabinetry, and a craft station with a retractable desk. Beautiful materiality throughout infuses the home with warmth and personality, featuring Blackbutt timber flooring and cabinetry, and selective pops of green and pink tones.
The house now works hard in a thermal sense too. Insulation and glazing were updated to best practice standard, and we’ve introduced several temperature control tools. Hydronic heating installed throughout the house is complemented by an evaporative cooling system and operable skylight.
The result is a lush, tactile home that increases the effectiveness of every existing inch to enhance daily life for our clients, proving that good design doesn’t need to add space to add value.
Drift Interiorsbeautiful laundry off the garage entrance is a practical feature of this home on a country block with loads of storage and pull-out hampers.
RoomfourThis laundry is a space savers dream! Machines stacked nicely with enough room to store whatever you need above (like that washing basket that just doesn't really GO anywhere). Fitted neatly is the laundry trough with a simple tap. The black tiles really do make the space it's own. Who said laundries had to be boring?
M.J.Harris GroupThe industrial feel carries from the bathroom into the laundry, with the same tiles used throughout creating a sleek finish to a commonly mundane space. With room for both the washing machine and dryer under the bench, there is plenty of space for sorting laundry. Unique to our client’s lifestyle, a second fridge also lives in the laundry for all their entertaining needs.
Jasmine McClelland DesignContemporary warehouse apartment in Collingwood.
Photography by Shania Shegedyn
Valet Custom Cabinets & ClosetsWe took all this in stride, and configured the washer and dryer, with a little fancy detailing to fit them into the tight space. We were able to provide access to the rear of the units for installation and venting while still enclosing them for a seamless integration into the room. Next to the “laundry room” we put the closet. The wardrobe is deep enough to accommodate hanging clothes, with room for adjustable shelves for folded items. Additional shelves were installed to the left of the wardrobe, making efficient use of the space between the window and the wardrobe, while allowing maximum light into the room. On the far right, tucked under the spiral staircase, we put the “mudroom.” Here the homeowner can store dog treats and leashes, hats and umbrellas, sunscreen and sunglasses, in handy pull-out bins.
CHEF D'OEUVREEste proyecto muestra la integración de varios espacios en la sala principal de la vivienda. Encontramos la cocina con una isla de cocción y barra, junto a salón con una zona de almacenaje y un banco. Detrás de la isla está una zona de columnas de servicio, así como la zona de ubicación de los electrodomésticos, y por medio de una puerta pivotante, encontramos una zona de almacenaje, lavadero y despensa, todo en uno y totalmente integrado la habitación principal.
Custom Design & ConstructionThe homeowners had just purchased this home in El Segundo and they had remodeled the kitchen and one of the bathrooms on their own. However, they had more work to do. They felt that the rest of the project was too big and complex to tackle on their own and so they retained us to take over where they left off. The main focus of the project was to create a master suite and take advantage of the rather large backyard as an extension of their home. They were looking to create a more fluid indoor outdoor space.
When adding the new master suite leaving the ceilings vaulted along with French doors give the space a feeling of openness. The window seat was originally designed as an architectural feature for the exterior but turned out to be a benefit to the interior! They wanted a spa feel for their master bathroom utilizing organic finishes. Since the plan is that this will be their forever home a curbless shower was an important feature to them. The glass barn door on the shower makes the space feel larger and allows for the travertine shower tile to show through. Floating shelves and vanity allow the space to feel larger while the natural tones of the porcelain tile floor are calming. The his and hers vessel sinks make the space functional for two people to use it at once. The walk-in closet is open while the master bathroom has a white pocket door for privacy.
Since a new master suite was added to the home we converted the existing master bedroom into a family room. Adding French Doors to the family room opened up the floorplan to the outdoors while increasing the amount of natural light in this room. The closet that was previously in the bedroom was converted to built in cabinetry and floating shelves in the family room. The French doors in the master suite and family room now both open to the same deck space.
The homes new open floor plan called for a kitchen island to bring the kitchen and dining / great room together. The island is a 3” countertop vs the standard inch and a half. This design feature gives the island a chunky look. It was important that the island look like it was always a part of the kitchen. Lastly, we added a skylight in the corner of the kitchen as it felt dark once we closed off the side door that was there previously.
Repurposing rooms and opening the floor plan led to creating a laundry closet out of an old coat closet (and borrowing a small space from the new family room).
The floors become an integral part of tying together an open floor plan like this. The home still had original oak floors and the homeowners wanted to maintain that character. We laced in new planks and refinished it all to bring the project together.
To add curb appeal we removed the carport which was blocking a lot of natural light from the outside of the house. We also re-stuccoed the home and added exterior trim.
Contemporary Single-wall Utility Room Ideas and Designs
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