The Unexpected Laundry Room

Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.

00;00;02;01 – 00;00;19;14
Amy Chernoff
Welcome to AC Appliance Experts. A new podcast from AJ Madison Pro tackles the ins and outs of appliances making it often confusing and really technical topic approachable and dare we say, even fun. I’m Amy Chertoff, VP of Marketing here at AJ Madison.

00;00;19;14 – 00;00;49;26
Jessica Petrino-Ball
And I’m Jessica Petrino Ball editorial director at AJ Madison. We are the brand’s in-house experts and we’re on tap to interview installers, builders, renovation pros and other leaders in the field on all things appliances. We spend a lot of time chatting through the technicalities and function of appliances, but one of the most fun aspects of our industry is seeing the product in its intended environment.

00;00;50;00 – 00;01;19;24
Amy Chernoff
I love that to gas, especially laundry rooms. It’s like my personal favorite right now. Laundry room design has just skyrocketed in the last 2 to 3 years, and it’s a fun way to think about making one of the most mundane household tasks into something more enjoyable. When you’re in a beautiful, gorgeous laundry room, it makes it makes it less painful than all the folding and sorting that really has to go on.

00;01;20;02 – 00;01;30;06
Jessica Petrino-Ball
You know, at the end of the day, we’re just looking to make dirty clothes clean. But the amount of products and innovation available for homes of all shapes and sizes is super cool.

00;01;30;19 – 00;01;55;05
Amy Chernoff
I just also personally consider myself to be a laundry geek. I have to say I installed a stackable Meal unit my second floor last year and it was life changing seriously, a stackable unit that didn’t need to be vented that plugs into a standard outlet and I put it in the closet that backs up to a bathroom. So I already had water in the area.

00;01;55;17 – 00;02;22;08
Amy Chernoff
That’s a game changer. Really, really did change my life to not have to schlep the laundry down to the basement two floors and bring it all back up again to cut my time to do laundry probably in half. And I’m more apt to just throw a load in. Plus, it’s a pretty sophisticated machine. There’s been a lot more innovation in the laundry category than there has probably been in any other category of appliance.

00;02;22;08 – 00;02;39;26
Amy Chernoff
This is like my personal favorite right now. Well, I know our conversation today was not about the nuts and bolts of washers and dryers. It’s really about designing a laundry room that’s both efficient and beautiful at the same time. So let’s go do some laundry.

00;02;40;10 – 00;02;54;02
Jessica Petrino-Ball
Sounds good. Let’s take a spin. Today, we have a special guest from one of our favorite magazines here to chat about the unsung hero of the home, the once humble but now rising star. The laundry room.

00;02;54;14 – 00;02;56;03
Amy Chernoff
Drum roll, please.

00;02;56;14 – 00;03;23;09
Jessica Petrino-Ball
Today joining us is Grace Buckley Hunt and she gets to see all of the best laundry rooms that have ever been invented from the design community. She’s the home design editor at Lux Interiors and Design, where she specializes in covering luxury residential interior design and architecture. She writes a national column called The Report, which dives into design trends across the country.

00;03;23;24 – 00;03;29;27
Jessica Petrino-Ball
Grace was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, where she currently resides with her husband. Welcome, Grace.

00;03;30;05 – 00;03;32;07
Grace Beuley Hunt
Thanks so much, Jess. Happy to be here.

00;03;32;18 – 00;03;58;21
Jessica Petrino-Ball
We’re going to dive in and talk. Laundry room. This space was once perceived as utilitarian, kind of tucked out of sight space. And today we’re seeing these stylish laundry areas deliver tremendous value to homes. It’s super exciting to see what’s making waves in the world of laundry rooms. You know, we’re seeing so many more projects with these drop dead gorgeous rooms.

00;03;58;29 – 00;04;03;14
Jessica Petrino-Ball
What do you think has brought about this change? And is this a trend that you’re seeing as well?

00;04;03;24 – 00;04;27;23
Grace Beuley Hunt
1,000%. And it’s so much fun. I completely agree. We see hundreds if not thousands of home submissions every year at LUX between our 14 regional editions. And historically, we haven’t included laundry rooms in the layout because they were never the prettiest space. But the design has gotten so beautiful and so exciting in the past few years that we’ve taken to calling them a new powder room.

00;04;27;28 – 00;04;58;01
Grace Beuley Hunt
Right. Like historically, the powder room is a small space. It’s a private space, it’s low risk. You can go for big impact, have some fun there. And also with a smaller space, you can splurge on the really nice wallpaper that you can’t put in your dining room. People are really, really going for it in these spaces. We have this beautiful house in Pelham, New York that we published a few issues back lacquered Hunter green dog wallpaper like crazy, so personal, so fun, so vibrant.

00;04;58;14 – 00;05;23;21
Grace Beuley Hunt
And even at the smaller scale, like in a New York City apartment where you have just your little galley laundry room, we have this gorgeous laundry room we did with all of these really beautiful multi-color Moroccan tile all over the walls and the floors. That is really just emblematic of the larger trend we’re seeing in design right now, which is exuberance and individuality and something nobody else has a really, really fun trend to observe.

00;05;24;14 – 00;05;41;16
Amy Chernoff
And we finally all climbed out of the basement, right? A lot of people not only are looking to make the space more esthetically pleasing, but the location of it, bringing it to a spot where the laundry actually happens, I think is life changing for a lot of families and homeowners as well.

00;05;41;26 – 00;05;52;27
Grace Beuley Hunt
Totally. We’re not trudging down to the basement anymore. We’re like designing smarter. It’s very helpful when you’re carrying heavy hampers to just have that ease of having it where you need it to be.

00;05;53;13 – 00;06;11;11
Jessica Petrino-Ball
We’re also seeing utility of the products themselves. Laundry is actually one of the more diverse appliance categories. You can even find washers and dryers today with a built in sink. So you could add that set to a space in the home and do your hand-washing all within the machine itself, which is pretty sweet.

00;06;11;19 – 00;06;13;24
Grace Beuley Hunt
I have never seen that, but that sounds incredible.

00;06;13;25 – 00;06;36;18
Jessica Petrino-Ball
The modalities are unreal, getting more and more advanced. We’re seeing a lot of the machines now taking technol AGI in a much more practical direction. It’s taking all that guesswork out and telling you what the best cycle is to be able to prolong the life of fabrics. Have you noticed are Pinterest and Instagram like influencing these growing trends?

00;06;36;18 – 00;06;46;15
Jessica Petrino-Ball
Do you think the customer is driving the customization in trends, or do you think that trade has taken this to the consumer market instead?

00;06;46;22 – 00;07;11;04
Grace Beuley Hunt
I think it’s the same idea as a design trend, starting with the fashion house and then trickling down, and then you’re getting the same outfit recreated on Pinterest ahead of budget price point. And I actually think that’s a really beautiful thing. But the long and short of it is that, yes, the designers are geniuses and they are the ones showing us that you can make these crazy ideas a reality and here’s what it looks like.

00;07;11;04 – 00;07;31;09
Grace Beuley Hunt
And now it’s photographed and sparkly and don’t you want that to top level? Yes, it is our design pros who have these fabulous ideas, who work with these wonderful contractors and wonderful vendors and bring these ideas to life. And then from there, it’s being shared on Instagram, it’s being shared on Pinterest, and then it’s all coming back to the design process to bring it to life again.

00;07;31;09 – 00;07;43;26
Grace Beuley Hunt
But I am all here for any inspiration. I think a print magazine is the best from there, just any avenue that inspires you to do creative things is totally a win, and I do think they’re very powerful tools.

00;07;44;12 – 00;08;06;28
Amy Chernoff
I agree. Grace. I’m just never going to get over print. I’m just not. I am a magazine reader and I hang on to the copies and I have dog eared pages. The web and social media, they have their places. Obviously, we all participate in all of those things. But print, I think, gives you the ability to capture an idea in a visually different way.

00;08;06;28 – 00;08;41;13
Amy Chernoff
Then you can do it on a digital landscape. I’m all about the print and I’m so excited that Lots is starting to cover laundry. What I love about this topic also is that it’s such a personal space. It’s not usually a space that you’re sharing with visitors to your home or guests at a party. It’s like almost the one room in the house where you’re going to create an environment just for you to make it more pleasant to be in that room, to do this task that no one really enjoys.

00;08;41;14 – 00;09;05;18
Amy Chernoff
We’ve seen a lot of laundry rooms that also incorporate dog washing stations, mudroom with your hosing off the kids potentially. I think the key here though, has been the upgrades to maybe cabinetry and to your point, wallpaper because it is usually a smaller space. You could really lock it up without breaking the budget, which I think is so fun.

00;09;05;19 – 00;09;11;14
Amy Chernoff
What’s one of the most over-the-top laundry rooms that you’ve seen in the past few years?

00;09;11;20 – 00;09;43;01
Grace Beuley Hunt
Yeah, I would actually say Lori Paranjpe. She submitted a incredible Nashville, Tennessee laundry room that was probably the size of my Brooklyn apartment. It had a full dog washing station. It had a huge mudroom area. It has a designated work from home. Setup was just this absolutely beautiful marble tiles. It was everything. And just when you have that kind of square footage, you can really go for it and put in everything you want and have it look super sleek.

00;09;43;10 – 00;09;47;29
Grace Beuley Hunt
So I feel like in terms of multi functionality, that one definitely stands out in my memory.

00;09;48;06 – 00;09;58;16
Jessica Petrino-Ball
If you were to design a laundry room from scratch, what are the important decisions or must haves the given all these homes that you’ve seen that you would incorporate into your dream space?

00;09;58;27 – 00;10;25;29
Grace Beuley Hunt
This is actually a hilarious ask for me because I have walked in full pickup service and I constantly dream about having a laundry room of my own, a unit, for starters. But I think that when it comes to like a New York apartment, it’s really all about customizing your closet space. I think the ease of having a stackable washer dryer next to your clothes so that you can treat that as a hamper is such a big win.

00;10;25;29 – 00;10;48;06
Grace Beuley Hunt
And just the loveliest thought. So I think it would start with like a beautiful custom closet with a lot of amazing storage, including storage for all your laundry gear. And you can see old bins for your dirty laundry. And then it would just be having that stackable right there and also must have a garment steamer. I feel like everybody is talking about those appliances now.

00;10;48;06 – 00;11;17;13
Grace Beuley Hunt
The are why, when you talk about your dry cleaning bill like it’s just such a great investment and the ease of having that right in your own home is total fantasyland. And then if we’re really playing fantasy land like my estate in the country, I think again, it’s personalizing it to your own design fantasy. Like I would do something that was like a cutting garden laundry room, like you have your porcelain sink and it’s skirted with a country floral and you have your little potting station, but then you also have your laundry on the other side.

00;11;17;13 – 00;11;21;09
Grace Beuley Hunt
I think that would be my multipurpose Martha Stewart vision of my laundry room.

00;11;22;23 – 00;11;30;22
Amy Chernoff
That’s a fantastic idea. And I think we all took a break from the dry cleaner during the pandemic, and we’re now all back full force with the dry cleaner.

00;11;31;01 – 00;11;32;01
Grace Beuley Hunt
And it is expensive.

00;11;32;05 – 00;11;34;12
Amy Chernoff
It is. It is expensive.

00;11;34;12 – 00;11;50;28
Jessica Petrino-Ball
And the great thing about the garment steamer is it’s one super reasonable, given what we spend in a year on dry cleaning, but also it’s chemical free and can handle all those hard to clean items like throw pillows and kids, stuffed animals and stuff like that. Well, it’s.

00;11;50;28 – 00;12;01;14
Amy Chernoff
Also the sanitization feature. It’s removing not only the odors but the germs as well. That’s, I think, one of the great things about steam, definitely.

00;12;01;14 – 00;12;21;22
Grace Beuley Hunt
And again today in our crazy, fast paced ever connected world, time is the ultimate luxury. And just anything that saves you time, you can just dry clean your dress before you go out to an event while you’re doing your emails at home. That’s just such a luxury. So I think that that is definitely on my must list for my my fantasy laundry room.

00;12;22;04 – 00;12;43;22
Amy Chernoff
I really like the idea about the potting table or like cutting garden. I think that’s that’s fantastic. We kind of mentioned apartment living that always has some interesting implications and there’s a few things that have happened over the last few years that have made it so much easier for apartment dwellers to actually have their own stackable washer and dryer.

00;12;43;22 – 00;13;05;22
Amy Chernoff
I mean, a lot of buildings because the dryers in the past need to be vented. I think that was impossible for most apartments. Now, with so many options of that list and also that amazing set for a meal that plugs into a standard outlet, really all you need is water, you need all outlet and you need water. That’s it.

00;13;05;22 – 00;13;28;18
Amy Chernoff
And you can put that 24 inch stacked set, which does have full load capacity right into a closet. I mean, super easy wherever you have water, you can have this stackable washer and dryer sets. There’s so much new technology and laundry that if you previously haven’t been able to accommodate it in your living space, now there’s so many options.

00;13;28;18 – 00;13;30;16
Amy Chernoff
So I think that’s game changing.

00;13;31;01 – 00;13;52;16
Jessica Petrino-Ball
We’re seeing that Fanless technology also translate to larger size machines too. You know, we’re seeing a lot of hype around heat pump lately, like the really energy efficient technology that’s that was and was previously just the thing in Europe that lists is the standard over there and now we’re starting to see just so much more yeah like.

00;13;52;20 – 00;13;54;11
Grace Beuley Hunt
What are we behind the curve here?

00;13;54;19 – 00;14;14;02
Jessica Petrino-Ball
So I mean Europe in general, they tend to be a little bit ahead of us when it comes to things that are like energy saving and so forth. And the standard size in Europe or really in the international market for a washer dryer sets only 24 inches. So that cityscape set that we think of as small space is actually normal over there.

00;14;14;15 – 00;14;34;04
Jessica Petrino-Ball
And so we had a lot of the luxury brands like Mila Bosch, ASCO, that had these sets over there, bring them over here. But now we’re starting to see a lot more American and Asian brands come forward with these technologies at an affordable price point, too. So I feel like laundry is just one of those categories that’s super attainable.

00;14;34;19 – 00;15;01;04
Amy Chernoff
Totally. It’s popped into the news recently also due to the Inflation Reduction Act, where they specifically called out heat pump dryers for rebate or tax credit savings, which I think is many consumers, if they hadn’t considered it in the past, might be now looking at, you know, an electric versus a gas option, the Northeast, where we’re all located, it’s definitely a gas market.

00;15;01;06 – 00;15;23;29
Amy Chernoff
And I think the the pressure to dial back the gas and switch over to electric appliances, especially with dryers, there’s a big push for that. It’s not just the equipment itself you have. If your house doesn’t have a 220 line, you’re going to have to have that installed to have one of the dryers. Unless you go with the meal, of course, which works with the standard outlet.

00;15;24;09 – 00;15;46;14
Amy Chernoff
But in a lot of markets, there’s a cost for that. It’s it just depends on how progressive the power companies are in your area. Con Edison, for example, which serves the New York metro area and a lot of New England will do the upgrade for free. So the extra cost to accommodate a 220 line in your home becomes a lot more affordable and feasible for households.

00;15;46;21 – 00;16;05;11
Amy Chernoff
I do have that. Miele Is that I’m sorry, I know it sounds like a meal, a commercial, but you first of all, you want to make sure you have a high speed machine that can wring out as much extra water as possible without damaging your clothing. That’s a good place to start, right? And then when you put it in the dryer, it collects the water as it’s drying.

00;16;05;20 – 00;16;28;24
Amy Chernoff
And then when I take the tank, I don’t know if this is an authorized or approve use of this, but I take the tank. I don’t know how many gallons of water it holds in that machine, but I water my plants with it so that’s really fine. I’m taking the water out of my laundry and just putting it back into my home environment because why waste the water?

00;16;29;01 – 00;16;31;08
Grace Beuley Hunt
Absolutely. I love that. Why not?

00;16;31;09 – 00;16;57;03
Jessica Petrino-Ball
In terms of laundry room design and functionality, silly with kitchens, bathrooms, you know, function is super important in the room. And then there’s always opportunities and there’s challenges. And we share some tips about kind of optimizing functionality and storage when it comes to laundry rooms and maybe even perhaps talking about like the the working triangle of the laundry space.

00;16;57;09 – 00;17;23;09
Grace Beuley Hunt
Definitely. Well, I think first of all, hire a great designer. And actually, if you are lucky enough to build a laundry room from scratch, like have all those conversations, get into the minutia of your life and what you have and the way you do laundry and or will be using this space and account for all that beforehand so that you have a beautiful concealed storage plan.

00;17;23;18 – 00;17;41;02
Grace Beuley Hunt
You know, nothing is worse than you have a beautiful laundry room and oh no, where are all of my ugly plastic is going to go? Nobody wants to look at a tide bottle out in the counter, you know? So it’s kind of like, don’t let those things be an afterthought. Let them guide your design and really just be super smart about your storage.

00;17;41;02 – 00;18;15;03
Grace Beuley Hunt
And, you know, if that’s not your jam, call somebody who’s a designer and get their opinion. Just really being mindful of that so that you don’t have a costly second renovation to your space. Once you get in there and realize where am I going to put all my stuff? So I think that’s number one. And then, you know, the other thing, it’s not just so cute as the working triangle that we have in kitchen design, but I can’t tell you how many Airbnbs I’ve stayed in and or homes I visited where like the washer door opens into the dryer and you have to do a jig around the door to get to the laundry and

00;18;15;03 – 00;18;29;19
Grace Beuley Hunt
put it on the washing machine. So I think making sure your doors open in a way that flows so you just pick up the laundry to put it in the dryer, that’s like a no brainer that so many people make a mistake on for whatever reason.

00;18;29;19 – 00;18;30;17
Jessica Petrino-Ball
You know why that is?

00;18;30;25 – 00;18;31;28
Grace Beuley Hunt
I don’t know why that is.

00;18;31;28 – 00;18;53;05
Jessica Petrino-Ball
In the past in the New England market specifically, I’m a I’m New England based. The standard hook ups are on the wrong side, huh? How about that? Yeah. So in most of the country, when you’re facing your washer and dryer, they build the machines so that the washer is on the left and the dryer is on the right, so that when you’re facing them, the doors are supposed to open away from each other.

00;18;53;25 – 00;19;17;27
Jessica Petrino-Ball
Now, that presents a challenge. If you stack the machines, one is going to probably swing to the left and the other is probably going to swing to the right. Kind of annoying. But that’s what will happen unless you unless your first door dryers are reversible, about 95% of the time are washers are rarely reversible. So it’s a little bit annoying.

00;19;17;27 – 00;19;40;18
Jessica Petrino-Ball
Like you could get into a home in New England and say, okay, you know what? I’m going to put my dryer on the left of my washer on the right and flip my dryer door. But then the two machines are opening one way, but there’s select brands and Electrolux come to mind as two companies where they do make a reversible washer door so that instead of moving the hookups around, you could move the doors.

00;19;40;28 – 00;20;04;10
Grace Beuley Hunt
Think about your doors, reverse your doors. That’s my tip. I think the other one that I’ve seen a lot of more recently is putting your appliances side by side on a platform so you’re not bending over so much. Just again, making it less arduous on your body as you age, I think is a trend. We could say It’s those little things.

00;20;04;10 – 00;20;10;07
Grace Beuley Hunt
Just thinking about those details, which you never think of unless you really immersed yourself in it and learned the hard way, right?

00;20;10;16 – 00;20;29;21
Jessica Petrino-Ball
Yeah. Plus there’s the pedestals underneath. The machines can sometimes double as storage. Yeah. So finding space for that tight bottle in those dryer sheets or whatever people want to store. Some cases like LG makes a pedestal that’s a second washer. So you could have double washers, which is pretty wild.

00;20;30;00 – 00;20;37;13
Amy Chernoff
I think also when you think about the space, I mean, LG has that. What is the LG with the controls in the middle.

00;20;37;20 – 00;20;38;20
Jessica Petrino-Ball
The Watchtower, The.

00;20;38;20 – 00;21;08;16
Amy Chernoff
Watchtower, which, you know, if you think about it, stacking, if you have full sized machines and you want to stack them because maybe you have a small space and you’re trying to squeeze a laundry room in somewhere, it’s pretty difficult to reach the dryer controls on the top. It’s almost like your own laundromat in your house, right? For families that have a lot of lot of kids or dirty laundry or pet laundry, whatever it is, but trying to reach the controls at the top, you know, you don’t want to have to use a step stool for that.

00;21;08;16 – 00;21;13;15
Amy Chernoff
LG has a really innovative product that has the controls for both right in the center.

00;21;14;01 – 00;21;16;10
Grace Beuley Hunt
Love that. That makes so much sense.

00;21;16;10 – 00;21;25;03
Amy Chernoff
For someone that has a small apartment in a small kitchen. They do have all in one machines or any of those all in ones. Jess That list as well.

00;21;25;12 – 00;21;26;24
Jessica Petrino-Ball
Yes, they all are.

00;21;27;02 – 00;21;31;18
Amy Chernoff
Oh, perfect. You could tuck it under the counter just like your dishwasher.

00;21;32;04 – 00;21;35;24
Grace Beuley Hunt
Could I literally do that in my apartment where I don’t have a washer dryer?

00;21;35;24 – 00;21;37;22
Amy Chernoff
You can. Yes.

00;21;38;00 – 00;21;40;07
Grace Beuley Hunt
No construction needed. Just do it.

00;21;40;10 – 00;21;42;10
Amy Chernoff
Grace. Call us if.

00;21;42;10 – 00;21;46;24
Jessica Petrino-Ball
It’s like a dishwasher opening. So the 24 inch base cabinet. Take it out.

00;21;47;01 – 00;21;48;05
Grace Beuley Hunt
That is awesome.

00;21;48;05 – 00;21;48;20
Jessica Petrino-Ball
Yeah.

00;21;48;24 – 00;21;50;01
Grace Beuley Hunt
Okay, on my way.

00;21;50;25 – 00;21;53;04
Amy Chernoff
That’s it. You could do it today.

00;21;53;04 – 00;21;56;03
Jessica Petrino-Ball
We are team get Grace washers.

00;21;56;10 – 00;21;57;21
Amy Chernoff
Okay, let’s talk.

00;21;57;21 – 00;22;10;29
Jessica Petrino-Ball
Let’s talk terms of design. Are you seeing a lot more color? I feel like since it’s such a personalized space, there’s just so much more room for for creativity and like, it’s almost a place where you can take more design risks.

00;22;11;00 – 00;22;35;16
Grace Beuley Hunt
1,000%. Yeah, it’s a private space. Oftentimes in a household, one person is kind of like the laundry person. I unabashedly love doing laundry, you know, it’s really just an opportunity to make it a space you really love and want to be in. And I think in general, design is kind of moving out of this gray and or like all neutral world that we’ve lived in across the board.

00;22;35;16 – 00;22;46;27
Grace Beuley Hunt
It’s like exuberance. And I love that because it’s so much more personal and color makes you feel wonderful feelings and you know, anything you can do to lift your spirits when you’re doing chores, this is a win.

00;22;47;03 – 00;23;06;26
Jessica Petrino-Ball
Oh, it’s way more fun. Plus, like Samsung recently came out with their bespoke collection, which you’ve probably seen the commercials for the refrigerators where you can change out the color panels. Yes. And that bespoke idea is translating to other categories as well, you know, where people can kind of pick a color. We’ve we’ve seen colors on the machines for a very long time.

00;23;06;26 – 00;23;28;19
Jessica Petrino-Ball
And then we went through a long period of time where kind of the options were white and gray, which nothing wrong with that. But there was a lot of a lot of like mass produced neutral white and gray. And I think we’re we’re kind of coming out of that with these feelings of customers and, you know, folks wanting to obviously customize the look of the room, but also the functionality of the products.

00;23;30;00 – 00;23;39;08
Jessica Petrino-Ball
You know, people can download cycles or order special soaps for their outerwear or cashmere or whatever it is that they’re looking to launder.

00;23;40;18 – 00;23;56;13
Amy Chernoff
So appliance designers, if you’re listening to this podcast, we want more color choices. Bring us the color. Bring us. Yes, I mean, there’s so many opportunities in kitchen appliances. Why not in the laundry room appliances as well? You know what?

00;23;56;16 – 00;24;18;11
Jessica Petrino-Ball
I want to see more like esthetic products designs. Yes, right. Like I would love to see a traditional looking washer and dryer versus the transitional versus like a super contemporary. And we see it in stoves all the time. But I would love to see a little bit more variety, especially if someone’s doing a laundry room and kind of like an old Victorian.

00;24;18;11 – 00;24;19;00
Amy Chernoff
Yes.

00;24;19;17 – 00;24;36;10
Grace Beuley Hunt
Do you guys remember that? Like Smeg and Dolce and Gabbana collaboration where all the kitchen appliances were like these beautiful Italian like dreamscapes? Like, can you imagine if you could just go super high design and do patterns, laundry, appliances that re so much fun?

00;24;36;16 – 00;24;56;16
Jessica Petrino-Ball
I even think back to like sneaker culture. There’s companies that do all kinds of really cool collaborations and we’re starting to see it a little bit in the world of appliances. Like, great to your point about Dolce Gabbana and Snag, but I would love to see more collaborations in Laundry specifically because it’s a category where you can take more risks.

00;24;56;18 – 00;24;57;09
Grace Beuley Hunt
Absolutely.

00;24;57;09 – 00;25;00;10
Jessica Petrino-Ball
Because it’s not like the centerpiece of your home.

00;25;00;12 – 00;25;02;03
Grace Beuley Hunt
Now, we have that on our wish list.

00;25;03;00 – 00;25;29;28
Amy Chernoff
So I’m going to shift gears for just a minute. You know, laundry room may not be something that designers originally pitched their clients on creating, whether they were remodeling or designing a new home or maybe they just did a kitchen remodel or a bath remodel. Do you think it’s an opportunity for them to go back to their client base and really upmarket laundry room design?

00;25;30;02 – 00;25;59;14
Grace Beuley Hunt
Yeah, I will say when I’m being submitted a project that has a full design team and it is a soup to nuts renovation the laundry room is 1,000% being accounted for. I think at the luxury end of the market, the super, super high end that I am so lucky to see every day because it’s so beautiful, you know, everything down to the storage for your spices and your utensils in the kitchen is accounted for.

00;25;59;22 – 00;26;19;18
Grace Beuley Hunt
So I would say that one, two rooms are being designed already as far as pitching a renovation of one to a project that was in the past. I think that’s a fantastic idea because I really think there’s an appetite for it, and especially as we’ve discussed, as these appliances are getting smarter and better for the environment and better for your bills.

00;26;19;23 – 00;26;25;13
Grace Beuley Hunt
It’s a good opportunity to upgrade. Maybe we need like a enhance your laundry room campaign.

00;26;26;04 – 00;27;01;25
Amy Chernoff
The whole country’s crazy right now for organization, right? The home edit team has helped us all realize how we need to organize our lives. And I think closet projects are taking place, whether it’s in a guest suite or a primary suite. I mean, this is a perfect opportunity to incorporate your dream set up right from a when you think about your, you know, urban homestead and how you would like to incorporate it into your home, like I think the primary suite is the perfect spot to think about laundry in addition to all the shoe cubbies that we all need.

00;27;01;25 – 00;27;10;26
Grace Beuley Hunt
Absolutely concealed storage. That is the two words you have to live by for for making an apartment work.

00;27;10;26 – 00;27;20;00
Amy Chernoff
I think you’ve given us so many great tips today and a lot of great trend insight. You know, anything else you want to add?

00;27;20;05 – 00;27;39;23
Grace Beuley Hunt
Oh, I just want to thank you, guys, because your wealth of knowledge on the subject, the technical nuances and what’s new to market is so fascinating to know about. And it’s a privilege to get inside a conversation with you both on the topic. I don’t know. I would say just like be brave with your laundry room. I think that we’re in a place right now where we can really just go for it.

00;27;39;23 – 00;27;47;07
Grace Beuley Hunt
Why have a boring space? Make sure the space you love, hang some art, put a beautiful color on the wall, put a comfy chair. Why not?

00;27;47;14 – 00;27;50;12
Amy Chernoff
Why not? Why be boring? Don’t do it.

00;27;50;18 – 00;27;51;06
Grace Beuley Hunt
Exactly.

00;27;51;10 – 00;28;18;14
Jessica Petrino-Ball
And now for our ask the appliance expert takeaways. One When it comes to laundry room design, get creative. There are no rules. The laundry room is the perfect space to add color art or that beautiful wallpaper you’ve been crushing on. Plus, think outside the box. It’s possible to add laundry to many locations throughout the home for medium to large homes.

00;28;18;14 – 00;28;49;24
Jessica Petrino-Ball
Consider more than one set to the best laundry spaces incorporate both functionality and design, adding ample space for storage drying ironing enfolding will make laundry day a breeze. Consider additional activities or hobbies to turn the laundry area into a multipurpose oasis. Three washers, dryers and laundry appliances come in all shapes, sizes and designs, while all machines offer basic functions.

00;28;50;03 – 00;29;18;24
Jessica Petrino-Ball
Consider a washer dryer with features that best care for your client’s wardrobe and lifestyle. Four We’re seeing much innovation in the laundry category. Laundry companion products like a garment steamer are a go to addition to new laundry spaces for fabric care and sanitization. In five go to AJ Madison dot com slash guides to check out our latest laundry guide about washers, dryers and laundry appliances.

00;29;19;14 – 00;29;43;20
Jessica Petrino-Ball
Thanks so much for listening. Make sure you follow the show so you never miss an episode. A.J. Madison is part of the Surround Podcast Network. Check out her show notes and discover other architecture and design shows at Surround podcast Starcom. That’s podcasts with the and ‘S’.