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5 Essential Elements To Include In A Laundry Room Redesign

Whether you’ve lived in your home for years or have just moved in, there’s a good chance that a new and improved laundry room is on your home renovation checklist. Often, new builds are equipped with basic wire shelving and not much else, while older homes feature a dated, utilitarian space that could use a boost in style and function. Combined, these issues make a laundry room redesign a rather popular project.

If you are planning to redesign your laundry room, you want to do it right. This space should be both purposeful and aesthetically pleasing, since most of us spend hours each week washing and folding clothes. To ensure your laundry room redesign is well worth it, and to make laundry tasks less of a chore, be sure to include these five essential elements.

1.Custom cabinets to keep your cleaning supplies out of sight.

Most laundry rooms have a single open shelf above the washer and dryer, which tends to get filled with detergents, fabric softeners, and dryer sheets. Not only does this make the room look cluttered, but having to constantly wipe down this area to avoid a build up of lint and dust also creates more work.

Installing custom cabinets in your laundry room is the ultimate storage solution. You’ll be able to hide all of your cleaning supplies behind closed doors while also eliminating that pesky layer of debris that always seems to appear.

If you’re not sure which cabinet style would look best in your new room, we encourage you to order cabinet door samples from us before placing an order. All of our samples ship free of charge and only require a deposit. Once you return your cabinet door samples to us, we will return your deposit to you.

2. Additions that help you to streamline the clothes washing process.

If you’re guilty of having a huge pile of dirty clothes, or you feel like everything is always wrinkled, include some helpful additions to your laundry room redesign. Some great add-ons are a bottom mount hamper built right into a base cabinet, a rod positioned between wall cabinets for hanging clean clothes, and countertops installed above appliances that allow you to fold clothes straight from the dryer.

By consolidating all of your clothes cleaning steps into one room, you’ll feel more organized and waste less time. Even in smaller spaces, vertical wall space can be converted into storage for a fold down ironing board or drying rack. There are tons of ways you can streamline the clothes washing process with your laundry room redesign.

3. Energy efficient appliances that also save you time and money.

If it’s time to replace your washer and dryer, consider upgrading to energy efficient models. ENERGY STAR certified clothes washers use about 25% less energy and 33% less water than regular washers.

Not only will these newer appliances cut down your energy costs, but many also have time saving features. Some of our favorites include hand wash cycles for cleaning delicates and fast cycles when you need something washed in a pinch. They also have a greater tub capacity, so that you can clean the same amount of laundry in fewer loads.

4. Sink for tackling any wardrobe related messes.

Having a sink right in your laundry room is a game changer. Whether you need to quickly spot-treat after a spill, or you want to soak your sneakers to remove stubborn stains, a laundry room sink is a great place to do this.

If your laundry room can accommodate it, a farmhouse or apron style sink is ideal, because it’s more spacious and accessible. This popular style can also add charm and character to your laundry room’s theme.

5. Water-resistant flooring to catch puddles, drips, and muddy shoes.

Like a kitchen or bathroom, a laundry room is considered a wet area within the home. Therefore, you should always opt for floor materials that are impervious to water damage. Ceramic, porcelain and marble tile are not only beautiful flooring choices, but they are also water-resistant.

If you’re lucky enough to have a laundry room with space to spare, you could also consider adding more functionality in the form of a mudroom. A mudroom and a laundry room are the perfect complements, since many things from the mudroom end up going straight to the laundry room anyways!

If you need help checking your laundry room off your home renovation checklist, let our team of experts help. We would be happy to bring your dream to life through our free online room design service!

Welcome to Willow Lane Cabinetry — the #1 place to buy affordable, semi-custom cabinets online! Let us help you create the kitchen, home office, home bar, laundry room, closet, TV room or bath of your dreams with our 100% free room design tool. We offer all wood cabinetry, fully assembled and delivered for free, plus all the accessories needed to complete your remodel. Visit our website to see our products today!

How To Design A More Functional Laundry Room This Fall

Cooler weather requires more layers of clothing — and, inevitably, more laundry. You may also have kids going back to school, which means (at least one) extra wardrobe change each day. This influx of laundry can be overwhelming, especially without the right system in place to keep things organized. Rather than let the hustle and bustle of fall leave you in a messy frenzy, consider designing a more functional laundry room that will keep your clothing and sanity in check.

Step 1: Start with quality cabinets.

Designing a solid foundation of all wood cabinetry to store everything from your laundry detergent to your iron is a great place to start. Most standard laundry rooms come with basic storage at best, leaving much to be desired.

A custom design that fits your space perfectly and offers an assortment of storage solutions is a total laundry room game changer. At Willow Lane Cabinetry, you’ll find a variety of styles to choose from. You also have the option of working one-on-one with one of our professional designers free of charge. Designing a functional laundry room doesn’t have to be difficult, especially when you have expert support on your side.

Step 2: Streamline laundry by easily sorting dirty clothes.

Doing laundry for even just one person can be difficult when you are constantly digging through hampers from this room or that room to sort colors or locate delicate pieces. The job gets even harder if you have more than one person in the home or kids that are going back to school this fall.

Rather than run yourself ragged, you can install pull out hampers right into your laundry room cabinets and streamline the process. Willow Lane Cabinetry offers both top mount and bottom mount hamper styles and these innovative systems fit right into an 18” base cabinet.

Depending on how many quality cabinets your laundry room can accomodate, you could even choose to install multiple pull out hampers. With this approach, you can simplify things one step further by sorting laundry in advance. Just designate one hamper for dark colors, one for lights or whites, and one for items that require a hand wash or delicate cycle.

Step 3: Make it a mudroom.

You can make your laundry room even more functional by having it double as a mud room. A mud room is a great place for organizing the odds and ends that are often dropped at your front door or discarded into your bedroom closet. As the official home of dirty clothes, the laundry room is the perfect place to take on the burden of the bags and outerwear that come and go.

Simply install hooks on a wall in your laundry room to make it an easy spot for hanging coats, backpacks, and purses at the end of the day. A bench with shelving or shoe cubbies adds an extra layer of ease for comfortably sitting down to remove and stow away sneakers or rain boots this fall.

Welcome to Willow Lane Cabinetry — the #1 place to buy affordable, semi-custom cabinets online! Let us help you create the kitchen, home office, home bar, laundry room, TV room or bath of your dreams with our 100% free room design tool. We offer all wood cabinetry, fully assembled and delivered for free, plus all the accessories needed to complete your remodel. Visit our website to see our products today!

How To Upgrade Your Laundry Room For Winter Weather

Winter can be a dreary time of year. When you’re out shoveling snow in the freezing cold, it’s all too easy to miss that bright sunshine of summer days gone by. And while you might not be able to find the warmth you crave outside, you can certainly add a touch of cheer to your home’s interior. With that said, be sure to include your laundry room on your winter home renovations checklist.

When was the last time you looked around and thought your laundry room could use some storage cabinets or a fresh coat of paint on the walls? If your Pinterest board is filled with magazine-quality laundry rooms, now is the time to make that much-needed change. After all, winter is the perfect season to upgrade your laundry room and utilize it to its fullest extent.

Here are a few ways to make your laundry room a warm and more functional space this winter and a spot in your home that’s an actual pleasure to be in.

Add Custom Cabinets For Storage

In the winter, you need to store a lot more than just laundry detergent, fabric softener, and an iron. When your laundry room also serves as a mud room, it becomes a place for keeping winter coats, hats, gloves, scarves, and boots, too!

Adding custom cabinets to your laundry room allows you to neatly store these essentials behind closed doors for a tidier and better organized space. Visit Willow Lane Cabinetry online to s elect a finish and style, and let our team of expert designers help you create that magazine-quality laundry room of your dreams.

Install a Hamper Top Mount Cabinet.

Speaking of custom cabinets, this top mount hamper is like a secret compartment to hide your dirty laundry. When you add smart storage solutions to your home renovations checklist, you get a space that is well organized and free of clutter.

Give Your Room A Pop Of Cheerful Color

You may find yourself spending more time in the laundry room when the temperature drops outside. Custom cabinets and freshly painted walls can go a long way in making laundry seem less of a chore. Color most definitely influences your mood, so it only makes sense to choose a soothing, cheerful hue for your laundry room upgrade. Better yet, install a wall of colorful and easy to clean backsplash tile and beautiful tile flooring.

Imagine a warm and inviting laundry room that is not only stylish but also much more functional than it ever was before. Add your laundry room to your winter home renovations checklist, and let your beautiful new space provide that metaphorical ray of sunshine when you need it the most.

5 Details Buyers Look For When Purchasing A Home

When it comes to what buyers want when purchasing a new home, there are a few details that stand out the most. Whether you are the owner of an investment property or thinking of selling your home soon, here are five features that will help you sell your home faster.

1. High-End Kitchen

Buyers are quickly mesmerized when they walk into a home and find new all wood cabinetry and an updated high-end kitchen.

If your home is lacking kitchen appeal, consider making some cosmetic updates that will be more attractive to buyers. When a buyer feels like they are walking into a time machine, it is usually a turn off. Modern all wood cabinetry, solid surface countertops, and a fresh color palette can make a huge difference.

In addition to new cabinets, minor changes like painting walls, installing a kitchen backsplash, or replacing light fixtures and hardware can also improve the look and feel of your kitchen. There’s no need to embark on a complete demolition to make your kitchen feel like a high-end kitchen.

2. New Appliances

New appliances are another detail that today’s buyers want most. Old appliances date the home while new appliances will instantly make your property feel more modern. When homebuyers see shiny new appliances, they get a little sparkle in their eye as well.

Homebuyers also like to see that your home is energy efficient, because this will translate into lower utility bills. If you are going to replace your appliances before selling your property, opt for energy efficient models.

3. Separate Laundry Room

An organized place to sort, clean and fold clothes may seem insignificant compared to other details in the home — but it is actually one of the most wanted features for buyers. This is good news to homeowners, because updating a laundry room is a relatively small-scale project in terms of cost. Be sure to include cabinets for storing laundry essentials and a place to hang dry clothing.

If your home doesn’t already boast a separate laundry room, a basement or garage is a good place to set one up. First, these spaces are probably relatively empty. And second, you likely already have utility lines there. These logical perks can help make the project easy and inexpensive. Converting a hallway closet into a laundry room is another common way to achieve a private laundry room when you have limited space.

4. Well-Maintained Backyard

Does your home have a backyard with a deck or patio? This is a major selling point for potential homebuyers. Especially if the area is maintained and well landscaped. Before showing your property, make sure your yard is on par, whether that’s simply adding some new sod or a few flowers and plants.

Potential buyers will envision what life would be like with a backyard of their own to enjoy. They might dream up an outdoor kitchen for entertaining or a place for their kids to play. Either way, a little investment in your landscaping could help your home sell faster.

5. Wood-Look Floors

Most people prefer hardwood floors to carpeting, so having this feature in your home is definitely a plus. However, genuine hardwood floors can be expensive. Smart homeowners turn to wood-look tile or luxury vinyl to achieve the same look for less. In fact, many buyers prefer these options to genuine hardwood floors because they are more resistant to water, scratches, and stains.

Welcome to Willow Lane Cabinetry — the #1 place to buy affordable, semi-custom cabinets online! Let us help you create the kitchen, home office, home bar, laundry room, TV room, or bath of your dreams with our 100% free room design tool. We offer all wood cabinetry, fully assembled and delivered for free. Plus all the accessories you need to complete your remodel. Visit our website to see our products today!

How To Hand Wash And Hang Dry Your Summer Laundry

There is nothing like the fresh-air scent of clean laundry clipped to a clothesline on a hot summer day. If this thought makes you nostalgic for the sunny days of your childhood, when your family hand-washed bathing suits, linen shirts, and cotton dresses in a stainless farmhouse sink, you’re not alone! Get back to those classic summer days with these contemporary tips for hand washing and hang drying summer laundry.

Start by sorting your laundry.

In addition to hampers for your machine washables, keep baskets next to your laundry room cabinetry for the items you want to wash by hand. You’ll need at least two baskets to sort your laundry by color. Don’t mix dark and lights colors, unless you want that red bikini to bleed all over your favorite white sundress or t-shirt. Be mindful of care instructions on garment labels and color fastness before you begin. Check and empty all pockets, pretreat any stains, and check this handy pre-laundry checklist from Better Homes and Gardens.

Stock your laundry room cabinetry with summer essentials.

While washing your laundry by hand takes a little more time and effort, it’s well worth it to keep fabrics looking like new. When hand-washing delicate summer items like bathing suits, you should keep gentle detergents on hand in your laundry room cabinetry. Many brands are offering plant-based detergents in summery scents, like Tide Pureclean in Honey Lavender or Seventh Generation laundry detergent in Fresh Citrus. You can also opt for unscented soap and let Mother Nature sweetly scent your clothing, or make your own laundry detergent with this recipe from DIYNatural.

Follow the steps to hand wash and hang dry your summer laundry.

Fill a tub or stainless farmhouse sink with cool water and about a teaspoon of mild detergent. Once good and sudsy, submerge and soak your garments. With your hands, lightly swish the garments using an up and down and side to side motion. Once you are satisfied that the garments are clean, drain the water and rinse thoroughly until all the soap is gone, or repeat by soaking the garments again in clean water. Do not wring out delicate, “hand wash only” items. Instead, roll in a clean, dry towel to remove excess water. Lay flat to dry, or hang outside in the sunshine, and enjoy that fresh-air scent!

Welcome to Willow Lane Cabinetry — the #1 place to buy affordable, semi-custom cabinets online! Let us help you create the kitchen, home office, home bar, laundry room, TV room, or bath of your dreams with our 100% free room design tool. We offer all wood cabinetry, fully assembled and delivered for free. Plus all the accessories you need to complete your remodel. Visit our website to see our products today!

5 Great Tips For A More Organized Garage

The intent of a garage may be to park cars, but we all know they are used for much more. From doubling as a laundry room to serving as a storage unit, the garage can wear many hats in the home.

While utilizing the extra space to serve your needs is often necessary, leaving the garage in a constant state of disarray is not. Here, we’ll share five tips and storage solutions for a more organized garage.

Stop thinking of the laundry room as just “part of the garage,” and give it its own designated nook.

When a single space serves more than one purpose, it’s important to create clear divides. If you have a garage laundry room, you can do that by adding some laundry room cabinetry.

Not only will this laundry room cabinetry help create more division between your “laundry room” and “garage,” but it will also serve as additional storage solutions. You’ll now have a designated place for your detergent, dryer sheets, iron, clothespins, and any other laundry-related odds and ends.

Décor can also help you create division. Paint the section of the wall behind your washer and dryer a different color than the rest of the garage, and put a matching indoor/outdoor area rug in front of your appliances. These little touches will remind you to keep your laundry room out of your garage and your garage out of your laundry room.

Hang your tools up rather than lean them against the wall.

It’s likely you have a plethora of tools to keep your driveway and front lawn in pristine shape. You also probably prefer to have that broom, rake, and shovel in arm’s reach. But rather than rest these tools against the wall or pile them up in the corner, install an easy tool rail to hang them on.

Building a simple DIY rack with hooks can create an easy, organized option for storing your lawn and gardening tools. Pegboard can also be installed on walls for hanging smaller tools.

Let open shelving solve the mystery of missing things.

We’re all guilty of purchasing those oversized garage totes to store everything, from holiday decorations to old photo albums, and stacking them in the attic. They may be great for a quick pickup, but they’re pretty terrible storage solutions.

When it finally comes time to decorate, or you get that yearning to flip through old pictures, you have to get them down, and sort through at least three bins before you find what you’re looking for.

A more organized solution is keeping clear bins on open shelves in the garage, so that you can literally see through the clutter. You won’t have to do any heavy lifting either, looking from one bin to the next.

Assign children their own locker for sports equipment.

If your children play sports, your garage may feel like a locker room already. Assigning each child their own locker to keep cleats, uniforms, and other gear is one of the best storage solutions, because it will encourage them to put their things away at the end of each day — rather than drop it on the garage floor.

Put a makeshift mudroom near your door.

Not all homes have a mudroom, and the garage can become the place to leave muddy rain boots and wet coats. Prepare for the inevitable by setting up a shoe and coat rack near the door to your home, and make it the first stop before heading inside.

Welcome to Willow Lane Cabinetry — the #1 place to buy affordable, semi-custom cabinets online! Let us help you create the kitchen, home office, bar room, laundry room, TV room, or bath of your dreams with our 100% free room design tool. We offer all wood, semi-custom cabinets, fully assembled and delivered for free. Plus all the accessories you need to complete your remodel. Visit our website to see our products today!

5 Simple Laundry Room Solutions

Feeling like your laundry room needs a little TLC? Unsure of what you can do to better organize and decorate such a small but important space? There are a number of ways you can take control and utilize your space to the fullest extent. Here are a few simple laundry room solutions to help you get started:

The Right Appliances

If you are still at the point where you are looking for a washer and dryer, or are overdue for a new one soon, then consider installing a stackable or all-in-one machine. This will leave open space available for adding vertical shelves, storage towers, ironing boards, and more. You could also install flip-down drying racks or drop-down utility tables. If you opt for contemporary side-by-side units, upper cabinetry is a great solution to house detergents, your iron, and other household needs. For front loaders, you can even install a floating countertop above, for folding clean clothes.

Smart Shelving

Open wall shelving combined with bins and baskets can be a lifesaver when it comes to keeping your laundry room organized and accessible. If you prefer to hide necessities neatly behind closed doors, consider hanging a pair of upper kitchen cabinets above the washer and dryer. This space-saving solution also keeps your items dust and lint-free. If you have a traditional top-loading washer, and a little bit of room to spare, a portable island or cart can be a clever addition to your laundry room. Perfect for storing baskets and cleaning supplies on the open shelves or inside cabinets, the top can also double as a folding area for clothes coming right out of the dryer.

Simple Storage Solution

Have extra floor space you’re not sure what to do with? As an alternative to large and unattractive laundry baskets on the floor, add two or three pretty hampers with lids to coral dirty clothes instead. Designating separate laundry bins for colors, whites and darks helps make washing time more efficient, and hides those unsightly (and not-so-pleasant smelling) piles of worn clothing.

Designated Drying

Keep in mind that some clothing needs to avoid the heat of the dryer. Take advantage of extra wall space, and install pretty and functional bars and hooks for hanging damp clothing to dry, or add an open shelf with a bar that allows for hangers to slide.

Play Up the Pretty

Give your laundry room a fresh coat of paint in a cheerful color. Search online sites like Pinterest and Houzz for ideas as to how to organize your laundry room in pretty and creative ways. If you’re good at crafting, create DIY signs with fun slogans, such as “lonely socks seeking soulmates” with clothespins for lost socks. Store pods and powder detergents in glass penny candy jars. Keep a piggy bank on hand for lost coins, or a small decorative trashcan for containing lint and used dryer sheets. Family photographs or childrens’ artwork also instantly add personality to a workspace.

When it comes to freshening up your laundry room, there are a variety of small steps you can take to help you get started. Consider these simple solutions to give your space the makeover it needs and deserves.

Welcome to Willow Lane Cabinetry — the #1 place to buy affordable, semi-custom cabinets online! Let us help you create the kitchen of your dreams with our 100% free kitchen design service. We offer all wood, semi-custom kitchen cabinets, fully assembled and delivered for free, with standard features like soft closing doors and drawers, and 6-way adjustable steel hinges. We give you more and save you money! Visit our website to see our beautiful products today!

Written by Bridgette. Bridgette Wagner is a freelance writer and English M.A. student with an interest in writing on DIY, travel, and family fun. She loves reading, spending time with her two kiddos and living near the beach in Wilmington, N.C.