By interiors expert Liz Dennys, March 2010
Utility rooms are a brilliant area for storage and for hiding ugly appliances like the washing machine, tumble drier, ironing board, vacuum cleaner etc
They don’t actually have to be that big, just well planned and organised. I have my washing machine in mine and above it I have shelves where I keep lots of different items, I go to a cash and carry place so buy in bulk and this is where I keep things like washing powder, kitchen rolls, dishwasher tablets, house cleaning bits and bobs etc. I have pegs on one side where I keep shopping bags, clothes pegs, maybe a couple of coats. I also have an ironing board bracket so it hangs on the wall out of the way.
I also keep swimming towels in mine so that in the summer when our children are messing around in the garden with hose pipes and water toys I can just grab a towel for them. I have baskets too with sun cream in, first aid things - you don’t always want to be rushing upstairs when there is an accident in the garden! When we moved in we didn’t have a utility room but had a back door with a porch and this is what we converted to the utility room. I couldn’t live without mine now!
