t s e B
Design the Laundry Room for your life
Shutterstock.com
By Beth Anne Brink-Cox, House and Home Writer
Monday as “wash day” is a very old tradition. Imagine the old days of beating your clothes on a rock or heating every bit of water on the stove after you’d started the fire and maybe even split and carried the firewood. The first washing machines must have seemed like a dream come true and even clotheslines would have been an improvement. But we don’t do it that way anymore and, unless you send or take your laundry out to be done elsewhere, you’ve probably got a laundry room. FLOORING What if you don’t? Why don’t you? If you’re thinking there’s just no room, you may want to think outside the box and consider putting the machines in your bathroom, if it’s big enough, or your kitchen. A lot of laundry rooms used to be in the basement and now many of them are on enclosed back porches or in hallways, a good use of what might seem wasted space. What used to be commonly known as a utility room is anything but utilitarian these days. Kelly Weaver of Ideal Coatings in Middlebury said their epoxy flooring is a good way to go. “It differs from previous floor coverings because it’s a coating that is mixed on-site and applied directly over wood or concrete substrate. It is seamless, making cleaning much easier and faster.” Weaver mentioned the Amish families often choose these floors for their laundry rooms because their machines are different. 18 | Michiana House and Home | June 2021 |
Photo courtesy of Ideal Coatings, Middlebury
stated. Flakes or chips are popular as well, accenting the colors of your room. Epoxy tile, Weaver said, “looks like traditional tile but is completely seamless, too. You wouldn’t know it, though, looking at what appears to be grout between tile squares.” It lends thought to the idea of these floor finishes in kitchens or bathrooms, too. Photo courtesy of Ideal Coatings, Middlebury
Wringer washers can mean water on the floor and a fast mop would take care of the problem. And these floors are beautiful, with elements that can be added to your colors of choice. “You can have metallic pigment added to make the floor look like marble,” Weaver
APPLIANCES Now that your floor is in place, what kind of machines will you have, assuming you don’t want that wringer washer? Carol Miller, owner of North Side Appliance in Goshen, said the trend of high efficiency (HE) machines is lessening and a return to top loaders is often desired.
