Do you mean cool as in "neat, stylish, in" or do you mean color temperature?

What kind of fixtures are there now and do you prefer to keep those or put in something new? Wall mounted fixtures, ceiling mount, recessed, track? What do you prefer? You could easily throw in a fixture to hold fluorescent tube lights. A few T8 daylight bulbs will be very bright and produce fairly nice light for a laundry room - you can get them at Home Depot, Lowes, etc.. Tri-phosphor bulbs (like Philips TLD) with a very high CRI would also be ideal as they'll really show off the true colours of the fabrics of your clothes. That is if you would value that in a laundry (I would).

Bruno

I recently installed a two lamp 48" long florsecent fixture with electronic ballast in our pantry. Be sure to properly ground the fixture. There is a variety of florescent lamps including so-called "cool" lamps.

The laundry is the only room where I like cold fluorescents. I would install a fixture with an electronic ballast and type 850 T8 lamps, either 2 or 4 lamps (4 in a small room may be too much). This gives a very bluish light similar to a clear blue sky and helps you distinguish black from blue when sorting laundry. Make sure the first # of the type code is an 8 (for 82+ CRI) so you get the best possible color rendering.

I might also install a second fixture for use when I'm not sorting clothes, one with a much warmer light such as type 830 lamps.