Cloakroom/Utility Room

We don’t usually post a lot of our cloakrooms on our website since they are very simple projects that rarely have something special about them. This is slightly different: the whole area underneath the stairs was transformed into a storage solution.

You might have seen space underneath the stairs with cupboards built, but you haven’t seen many with a washing machine and dryer on top. This is where all the problems come when fitting this sort of stuff.

A simple unit won’t be able to sustain the weight or fit a normal dryer/washing machine. The integrated appliances you see with Howdens/Magnet are actually specially designed to fit a unit and they have to be floor mounted.

We had to build the structure for the washing machine/dryer with CLS and then make it look like a unit. Slightly larger doors for the nearby cupboards allowed us to mask underneath the CLS structure. The current dryer is a relatively small/light one, but the way we built this could hold a 100kg+ dryer there.

The two units under the sloped units were fitted with soft close drawers. At the bottom, the plinth was aligned with the doors, otherwise, the washing machine wouldn’t fit there (this also creates a seamless look from the ceiling to the flooring). Access to the stopcock was maintained through the cupboard close to the window, while access to the services (water, waste, electricity, ducting outside for the dryer) can be accessed through the space for washing machine/dryer. One more thing, the plinth has to be removable in order to get the washing machine out from its unit, this was sorted by fitting the plinth with magnets so the user can easily remove/refit the plinth.

There are a few other items we’ve done: flooring, painting,downlights, wall hung vanity unit, modern toilet. All these give the space a modern feel. We particularly like the vinyl click flooring in this room, a QuickStep option that is waterproof and imitates the marble.