Almost at the very top of my “must have” list when searching for our forever family home was a utility room. Or at least the ability to create one fairly sharpish in whichever house we decided to purchase.

Yes this is a post about a utility room. And later on in this post I’m going to be asking you about brands of washing machine – seriously, I am the most fascinating blogger to ever grace the internet. And you all missed out if you didn’t see my post on bins over on Rock My Family last year…

In our previous property, an Edwardian semi, we had a large “cupboard” of sorts, it housed a washing machine and we put up shelves which provided storage for exciting and sexy items like the iron. And my vanish stain removal stick. There was no room for hanging clothes to dry due to the boiler on the wall and the door which opened into the downstairs loo.

Once Mabel was born, the whole washing/drying thing drove both my husband and I bonkers. There just seemed to be dirty laundry or clean/un-ironed garments in every room. Either piled up or semi-sorted out or just flung in a corner due to the sleep deprivation and cloudy confusion that comes hand in hand with parenthood.

I vowed that one day. One day. We would have a room where all of our clothing could be stored and sorted in an orderly fashion. Ahem. Or at least somewhere we could throw it all and close the door.

Our new house has a utility room (hooray!) but it’s admittedly a fairly awkward narrow space and sort of on its own at the front of the property rather than anywhere near the kitchen. There is adequate cupboard storage, a sink and a gap for our washer/dryer (we bought a Hotpoint number in a panic when our old machine died a sudden death one inconvenient Saturday morning). But again, it doesn’t really have the right area to plonk one of those stand up drying maiden things. So I’m trying to think outside of the box with regards hanging options. I’ve seen this extending clothes dryer from Cox & Cox but I’m not sure the wall could take the weight if I’m honest. I quite fancy one of those hang-from-the-ceiling airer pulley-maid type contraptions but I’m not convinced one of those alone will offer the room we need for multiple wash loads.

We’ve already painted the beige laminate cupboards in Farrow & Ball’s “Downpipe” and it’s looking significantly more swish than it did before. I was going to add some kitsch/feminine accessories but it all went a bit twee and not very “me” at all. (Perhaps it’s going over board considering the decor of your utility room but I’ve waited a long time to own one so I’m bloody well going to walk into it and think “Yay what a lovely room to wash my husband’s pants in”).

I found my mojo recently when I discovered a selection of black and copper storage boxes at John Lewis and it’s going very masculine and well…..copper. We’ve also put up some industrial looking shelves and I plan on growing some herbs and whatnot as I think it’ll be a fun thing to do with Mabel – and hopefully boost my current lack of motivation when it comes to cooking.

I’ll of course share all of the results as soon as it’s finished. First though I have some questions for you all (apologies for the boring subject matter in advance).

Do you have any small space clever clothes hanging ideas/solutions that I can steal?

What is the best washing machine?! I can’t stand using ours as a dryer – the whole house smells of burning. And I’m not convinced it does as good a job as our old model at actually getting garments gleaming. I need something that has a hand wash cycle and a quick wash option but apart from that I’m really not fussy.

Do let me know of any other utility related advice and renovation experiences in the comments box below.

P.S THIS utility makeover is amazing.

P.P.S How immense is the “casual boot room” in the header image above?! One can dream!