Home Improvement Ideas: Laundry

September 8, 2008

Hide the Washer and Dryer Behind Cabinet Doors

If you have a dedicated laundry room, then it's probably not a big deal if your washer and dryer are out in the open for all to see (who's going to go in your laundry room besides you anyway?). But if you live in a small house or a condominium, your washer and dryer may be sharing space in the kitchen or bathroom.

You don't necessarily want visitors who might be using your guest bathroom to have to watch your undies spinning around in the dryer. A solution is to get front-loading washers and dryers that can be hidden behind cabinet doors. When you look at the row of cabinets, you won't even be able to tell there's a laundry area there.

Other laundry room organization ideas (that can be implemented in a "hidden" fashion) include behind door ironing boards, cabinets to hold detergent and the like, and portable tables for folding clothes. If your washer and dryer are on the floor, you can incorporate counter space on top, adding to the natural cabinet look (just be prepared to bend low to put clothes in and out of the appliances).

For those of us living in small homes, it's important to make the best use of space, and if you can hide the fact that you even have laundry facilities, even better!

July 16, 2008

Laundry Sink Cleans Your Delicates with Bubbles

Luxury bathtubs with jets and effervescent bubble action aren't all that new, but now you can get such features on your laundry sink too. That's right, bubbles can even make your socks feel better.

The Delicair laundry basin from Aquatic Whirlpools offers "the perfect solution for delicate cleaning and care."

The gentle bubbles are supposed to "lift away" dirt on knits and other delicate clothing items that normally require hand washing.

The Delicair basin doesn't take up any more room than other laundry sinks, and features include an electronic control panel (what gadget fiend wouldn't love a sink with a control panel?), air jets, and an automatic purge and dry cycle.

Aquatic Whirlpools

March 22, 2008

"TouchProof" Stainless Steel Washers and Dryers from Asko

Front-loading washers are big in the laundry room these days, and most of the ones you've seen are probably the port-hole type where you can see your clothes spinning about inside. If that's an attraction you can live without, you may appreciate these stainless steel laundry appliances from Asko. You still get front-loading on the washer and dryer, but there are no windows.

The washer and dryer can fit behind full-length doors or custom cabinet panels if you prefer your laundry appliances not be out in the open. As an added perk, the stainless steel resists fingerprints ("TouchProof" the company calls it). After all, who wants to spend time wiping down the washer and dryer?

Other features include an LCD display that you program "in a simple, easy to understand, left to right sequence," delayed starts of up to 24 hours, and automatic load-balancing systems.

Asko

March 15, 2008

Laundry Rooms Get Sexier: Fire Engine Red Washers & Dryers

If you're looking to add some sex appeal to the laundry room, this might be the washing machine for you. Just imagine some bikini babes draped over it (just like on the hoods of sports cars in those magazines), or if babes don't float your boat, imagine speedo-clad hunks.

That's right folks: red isn't just for cars any more. Now you can get a fire engine red washer and dryer.

The washer model shown here is from Samsung and I saw a similar one from LG at Home Depot the other day. Both companies' models are front loading (washing machines and dryers) and have optional storage drawer pedestals available (which is nice for raising the height a bit when you're placing the washer and dryer side by side on the floor of the laundry room).

Prices start around $1,000.

February 25, 2008

Professional Home Steam Press Kicks the Iron to the Curb

If you like the look of freshly ironed clothes but wielding your little hand iron is too much of a chore (and you always feel dry cleaning is a bit expensive), then here's a laundry tool for you:

The Tailors Steam Press is a "the professional-grade digital steam press with a pressing surface that is more than seven times larger than most handheld irons." Not only is this bad boy bigger, it cuts your ironing time in half. Apparently you don't have to be a pro at ironing or dry cleaning either, since the pressing is controlled by an automatic digital monitoring system to "ensure consistent results based on the kind of fabric (nylon, silk, rayon, wool, cotton, or linen)". With digital monitoring, there shouldn't be any chance of catching your clothes on fire either.

I guess that means you can toss your old iron to the curb for the garbage collector.

$250 from Hammacher Shclemmer:

The Tailor's Steam Press.