Cloakroom or Utility Room?

Splatfoot

I had a long kitchen in the house we've just sold. We sectioned off a bit at the end to create a walk in pantry, it was brilliant. And definitely helped to sell the house. 

Teapot55

DayDreamerandGeneralWaster said:

Utility rooms are becoming more of a must for families rather than the novelty they were years ago. I have one and a separate shower room on the ground floor. It's a big selling point. 

I agree that a utility with a loo is a good compromise. Some people don't like them but many would not mind them being combined.

Actually that’s what sort of prompted me to post on this subject in the first place. Looking for houses online to help my relative I was astonished at the number of houses with only one toilet upstairs or tiny kitchens remote from the other downstairs rooms, even in £500k+ houses let alone utility rooms. Some houses on the market have clearly not been touched for decades.

I agree that a combined cloakroom is a reasonable compromise if space is short. But I certainly wouldn’t store  all my clean towels (like you often see in illustrations) near the ‘bog’ 😳

Teapot55

DayDreamerandGeneralWaster said:

On the subject of pantries they seem to be growing in popularity, l have seen a few people mention them recently. I'm not sure if they mean it in the traditional sense..more like a large walk in cupboard for all non-perishable foods.

My Auntie in a really large, posh and old Victorian house had a pantry 8’x4’ at least back in the day. 

The one I had constructed was just wide enough for me to lean in and browse (maybe 700mm?) and not that much deeper than the run of units it was on the end of (again, maybe 700mm). But with the full height floor to ceiling I had ample room to keep all food that wasn’t in the fridge/freezer (next to the pantry). 

phoebe1989seb

Teapot55 said:

DayDreamerandGeneralWaster said:

On the subject of pantries they seem to be growing in popularity, l have seen a few people mention them recently. I'm not sure if they mean it in the traditional sense..more like a large walk in cupboard for all non-perishable foods.

My Auntie in a really large, posh and old Victorian house had a pantry 8’x4’ at least back in the day. 

The one I had constructed was just wide enough for me to lean in and browse (maybe 700mm?) and not that much deeper than the run of units it was on the end of (again, maybe 700mm). But with the full height floor to ceiling I had ample room to keep all food that wasn’t in the fridge/freezer (next to the pantry). 

We had a couple of those when we lived in larger, Victorian houses. In the larger property (six beds, 3500 sq ft) the walk-in larder was a similar size to the one you mention. It had the marble shelves for storing perishable stuff on one wall. There was also a huge ground floor toilet that we turned into a loo-tility and whilst we didn't keep towels in there, it did house our washing machine and dishwasher 🙄 Not sure why we put the latter there - as there was ample space in the kitchen, lol!

By the front door there was another massive walk-in cupboard that we used for storing coats, hats, shoes as well as having a tall chest for odds and ends...... you've got to love grand old Victorian places 😊

In our current, considerably smaller 400 year old cottage we bought a vintage Victorian freestanding larder cupboard (approximately 5' wide x 7'+ high) and incorporated it into a run of cabinets so it looks built in. It's amazing for storing all our non-perishable food, drink, small appliances, brooms etc 😉

tim_london

The logistical 'first world problem' is that we don't want the washing machine in the kitchen anymore.  If the house have enough space for a utility room then great, but from what I've seen being on the market recently it's more common for 4 beds + but not for 3 bed and below.

For 3 beds, the solution I've seen is:

• Put washing machine into the ground floor toilet if it's big enough.  So it becomes a hybrid cloak/utility room.
• Put washing machine into the ground floor closet/cupboard.
• Add an utility shed in garden.

I don't think I'm ever desperate enough to remove the ground floor toilet ever.

moneysavinghero

tim_london said:

The logistical 'first world problem' is that we don't want the washing machine in the kitchen anymore.  If the house have enough space for a utility room then great, but from what I've seen being on the market recently it's more common for 4 beds + but not for 3 bed and below.

For 3 beds, the solution I've seen is:

• Put washing machine into the ground floor toilet if it's big enough.  So it becomes a hybrid cloak/utility room.
• Put washing machine into the ground floor closet/cupboard.
• Add an utility shed in garden.

I don't think I'm ever desperate enough to remove the ground floor toilet ever.

If you're desperate you would want the toilet, not to remove it