Known as a ‘European laundry,’ tucking away a washing machine inside a kitchen cupboard isn’t exactly a new idea but it’s a trend with legs in Australia. With the quarter acre block a thing of the past in most capital cities, homeowners are always looking for ways to maximise space within an increasingly smaller footprint. To this end, we caught up with Dominique McAdam, founder of Provincial Kitchens Home, who talked us through the best ways to hide a laundry within the kitchen.
“A combined laundry and kitchen is a great option if you’re in a small terrace where the laundry might have been in an outhouse. It’s also a great option for apartments where there wasn’t a laundry originally,” says Dominique, who specialises in designing functional, multi-purpose spaces with unique storage solutions.
Conceal, conceal, conceal!
Dominique calls on an array of design techniques when designing a laundry to sit within a kitchen. “Firstly, you want to conceal the laundry so it’s not obvious. This can be done under the bench within a kitchen island, behind bifold doors, or at the end of a kitchen run with stacked washer and dryer behind bifold or sliding doors,” says Dominique.
Think laterally
When combining the two ‘rooms,’ Dominique says that you should consider adjacent spaces too. “If the room permits, we have located the washer and dryer under a separate bar area adjoining the kitchen,” says Dominique.
Practical considerations
From dirty laundry to ironing and hanging your clothes, locating a laundry in the kitchen brings with it a range of unique practical considerations. “I like to create somewhere for dirty laundry to go such as a twin pull-out laundry basket located within the cupboard,” says Dominique. Placing a pull-out ironing board inside a kitchen drawer is another one of the designer’s favourite techniques. “Where possible I put a hanging rod above a butlers’ sink and make it part of the design of the kitchen too.”
For more on Provincial Kitchens Home | Australian kitchen trends: Summer 2019 edition
