How to level up your laundry or mudroom

Heavy-duty areas of the home, like these, can easily become bogged down with things like grubby shoes and haven’t-had-a-chance-to-iron-them-yet piles of laundry. This traditional-style home shows how you can use storage to your advantage in these areas, with charming additions here and there to bring in a balance of both hard-working and good-looking.

Laundry, but make it country

A wall-mounted storage system does most of the laundry’s heavy lifting, combining shelves, rails and mesh basket drawers for maximum capacity with a minimal footprint. Adding a linen curtain softens up the space and hides everything behind with just a quick swish. Rattan laundry baskets and glass jars add to the room’s rustic appeal, while doubling as storage for the dirty laundry and detergent.

Folded away in different ways

Washing, drying, ironing, scrubbing, sewing: this little laundry takes on a lot! The key to fitting it all in – and finding that t-shirt you wore last Tuesday – is having everything packed away in a designated spot until needed. Drawers are ideal for the not-right-nows, while, on the opposite wall, hooks keep the ironing board ready and waiting for the next early morning, crinkly-trousered crisis.

The well-deserved mudroom makeover

Most people don’t spend more than a minute or two in this space, but putting in a bit of time and effort here can save you plenty more in the long run – and bring a smile to your face whenever you enter. From a sunshine-yellow door to space-optimising storage, let this mudroom show you how it's done.

No time or space wasted

It’s said that the average person will spend 5,000 hours in their lifetime looking for things. Thankfully, with good storage on your side, those rusty old keys for the garden shed should (hopefully) be right where you left them. Most mudrooms aren’t blessed with endless square metres, so multi-level shoe racks and wall hooks make for space optimising smartness and keep everything clearly visible.

Big storage, little organisers

Sometimes larger storage pieces make most sense, even in a small space like this one. This larger cabinet maximises the wall’s width and height but, at just 30 cm deep, barely makes a dent in the room. It’s an all-in-one home for games, sports gear, gardening tools and outdoor wear, organised inside with baskets and other containers.