I wanted to hang a chandelier in my laundry room, but the ceiling wouldn't allow it. So instead I put in a foo-foo sconce.

My LR is actually a tiny corner of the garage that I was able to secure from my DH (the entire garage is his work area for his business). It's tiny and windowless, but I did it up all girly, since I'm the one who does the majority of the laundry.

My WD are white, and I got white cabinets but put on beautiful hardware. I hung a curtain to hide the pipes and I installed a folding table that I used gorgeous tiles I found for pennies on the dollar from a very high end tile manufacturer. I also used white trim. I am a bold color girl, too...but this room worked well with the color scheme (dark aqua & pale celery green).

So I guess what I'm saying is don't worry about what works for lighting...think about it...you have SIX kids and TWO sets of W/D...make that room something that will make YOU smile! But I do think the cherry cabs might be too dark...but pick a color theme and go with it. Use mirrors if you need to add light. I'm envious about being able to design a huge LR. Good luck!

Your new home sounds like it'll be just the place for your family to have a wonderful time together. Here are a few inspiration pictures that might give you ideas. I love the gray cabinets on this first one and the light. Without windows though, you might want to use pot lights as well. The last 3 are from a GW'er here I think, and their room really turned out well. Personally I'd shy away from white floors there--love the tile in the last ones or some other similar hues would be warm and hide lots of traffic.

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Please show us your finished room someday!

Here is a link that might be useful: Previous post with red washer/dryer pics

Check out the link below (from the Gallery) for lots of ideas. Also take a notice of the lighting. If you scroll down the page half way to fairytalebaby's post, you'll see red W/D with dark cabinets.

I have hickory in my laundry with white W/D, off-white tile floor and counter. Also have the drain in the floor (single story home). The builder had put in 2 large fluorescents but I hated the light. I replaced them with fixtures that hold 3 incandescent lights and now have lots of bright light!

If you go with the cherry cabs, I'd suggest recessed lighting along with a decorative pendant or two. How high is the ceiling?

Here is a link that might be useful: Laundry gallery

I LOVE that first inspiration picture.

We don't have a window in our either. Ours is about 8' by 9' We only have "stuff" on 2 walls.

Really love the look of the inspiration pic with the grey cabinets. Looks so nice with that particular color W/D.

I am not a lover of white, however, I've seen quite a few L/R's done in the crimson appliances with white cabinets and counters. I just think it would be a royal pain to keep clean. I have the old fashioned W/D in white still limping along and I have to wipe them down a couple times a week. Among other things, the cats' food bowls sit on top of my dryer, so along with the dust, I get to clean up paw prints, cat hair, etc.

You're going to love your new set up. Laundry is no fun, but it is alot easier to take when you have the proper set up. With a room designated specifically for handling the amount of laundry I suspect you must process, your life will be a bit brighter in that regard. It is so nice to have a room where everything needed to do laundry and more, can be stored and easily accessed.

Our L/R is now situated on the back side of the house. While it does have a nice sized window, our L/R gets very little natural light as that part of the house is pretty well shaded. When I was picking out lighting, I wanted a nice fancy ceiling mount light fixture. Both DH and our electrician convinced me to at least try the cloud lighting (think that is what it is called). Glad I did. The rest of our addition has the recessed canned lighting which is nice, but not bright enough for a room designated for laundry and things of that sort.

Post some after pics once you get in there are and make your final choices. I am sure it will look great!

My sister has the new washer and dryer and claims she has cut her laundry time in half. She use to wash and dry clothes daily, with the new machines she can do larger loads faster so she's only washing and drying two days a week now.
I hope it works out the same for you with that many in the house.
With it being a second floor what about doing skylights. They have tube style ones that you can do even with a attic space above where you want your light. That would help cut the cave feeling.
Whatever surfaces you put in there should be easy to clean. Lighting should be as bright as possible. This is the room where you are going to find and treat stains. If you don't see them you can't treat them.
The other big issue to me would be where is all the dirty clothing going to be sorted and stored before it goes into the wash.
I hate piles of clothing sitting on the floor. With the size family you have having a place to sort and dump the laundry is going to be major both before and after cleaning it.
I'd also think about putting in a battery operated or hard wired alarm so if that drain ever clogs you will know about it sooner rather than later. I have a second floor laundry too and the washer over flowed one day I knew about it before any real damage was done thanks to the alarm we set in there.

I don't know what to be more excited about -- your new home or your new baby! I'm just excited about everything for you.

I am also a big fan of making an oft-dreary space fun, personal, happy-feeling for you. I love that you're thinking so seriously about the laundry room and how to do it so that it makes you feel good.

On its way to us from Cuba are the most fantastic encaustic tiles, ultimate destination: our laundry room floor. Our current laundry room is still builder grade and totally serviceable, of course. But not peppy. Not happy. Not us. I knew I'd want to do something with it and finally I found IT (these tiles) and I'm going for it. I am tap dancing with excitement!

And I love peasky1 for her frou-frou sconce -- you are so my kind o' gal! If I can figure it out I have an old tole chandelier (looks like a bouquet of flowers) I want to hang in there -- just need to make sure it'll give off enough light.

Anyway, my point is that I think you should find a tile with which you're happy, don't worry about what others say. If you're not a WHITE kind of person then don't use it. I hear you -- I'm not a natural / stained wood kind of person, so it's not here. (Well it is, as the current cabs are oak, but I'm good with a paintbrush.)

You're fun for getting red apps, continue to have fun with your floor / countertop / lighting choices. I really am so excited for you and look forward to watching your progress.

Congratulations on your new baby. Happy New Year. xo

I have 4 children who were once all under 5, so I relate. I would never, never put in a white floor downstairs, but I think since your laundry is upstairs you would probably be fine. Most likely muddy shoes will never reach that room. Not sure how you feel about the black and white checked tile floor, but they are so cheerful and would cut the white a bit.

I have a pineapple chandelier hanging in my laundry room and painted the room a fairly electric green. That chandelier still makes me happy after 5 years. I watched Craigslist ~ there are some interesting options out there.

I am a big believer in the laundry room being a happy place. Love that you have red appliances!

fiveunderfive,

I myself am the mother of 5 kids (I had 4 under 5 at one time) so I understand your laundry pain. It's awesome when they do it all on their own!

As far as your lighting issue goes, have you considered a skylight? There is a velux skylight showroom not 2 miles down the road from me. We looked on their website to see if they had anything to help with our poorly lit kitchen. We found something called a "sun tunnel" skylight that can carry light into a room from the roof. While it can't work for our kitchen, it may work for your 2nd floor laundry room. I have no idea how much one of these costs, but the sample picture on their site shows a laundry room. Click on the photo to get more info...

BTW, I am NOT affiliated with velux in any way.

Here is a link that might be useful: sky light

Sujafr - I absolutely LOVE the first pic you posted. I have that exact one (or very similar) saved in my picture file, and it is actually the one that pushed me to get the red w/d. The color on my monitor looks nearly identical to the color of my bravos - a deep cranberry color - though mine are TL, not FL. I DO like the tile floor you posted in the GW LR pics too. That is very similar to the slate looking tile we have picked for the mudroom downstairs (what used to also be the laundry rm) and possibly even for the cross-shaped intersecting walkway throughout our entire downstairs, from front entry dividing living rm and kitchen to french doors out back, and from living rm stairs down hallway diving kitchen and open DR, past pantry and mudroom to garage. I am just not sure if it will be light enough for the upstairs laundry.

For those of you who mentioned a skylight, I thought about that, but we have a HUGE gable roof. I've enclosed a pic below - some of you may recognize it as the 1999 Life Mag Dream House. We are adapting their basic floor plan to our needs and adopting many of Sarah Susanka's Not-so-big principles. If you look at the pic of the exterior, which is fairly similar to our design, you'll see that unless the laundry room happens to line up under a portion of the roof that we could get one of those tube skylights in, it may work. I am not sure how long those things can be...

Annz - I think the upstairs has 8 ft ceilings, except for the portions that are under the gables, but I think those are limited to bedrooms. Downstairs 9ft. Thanks for the gallery link. I will be studying those rooms for more inspiration

pps7 - I am generally not a fan of black and white. It reminds me of a retro diner. However, I really like what you have done. You make it look very classy, and I would definitely reconsider it for us after looking at your pics.

I also agree with all of you about the white. Ugh. I am just not a fan of it. Though I DO LOVE all of the gorgeous white kitchens here. Since I do like the gray so much, maybe we can do a lighter painted gray cabinet, with a white/gray solid surface counter. I think lighting is going to be the big deal, so I will spend lots of time on that.

Thanks for all your input. I will def post pics, though it will be a while coming. We live in upstate NY, so even though we are getting permits now, our builder has tentatively set a date of early March to break ground, and I think we are looking at around 9 mos or more to finish. Sigh. It seems so far away.

Here is a link that might be useful: