8 Ways to Add a Load of Color to Your Laundry Room

Give a tedious task a boost by surrounding yourself with a bold, happy hue

Jennifer Ott April 13, 2016

San Francisco-based architectural color specialist and design writer. Jennifer's work has been featured in many print and online publications. Her recently-published book, "1000 Ideas for Color Schemes," is a beautifully illustrated and easy-to-navigate guide that takes the guesswork out of selecting the perfect color palette for your home or special event. For more information on Jennifer Ott Design, visit http://jenottdesign.com/.

San Francisco-based architectural color specialist and design writer. Jennifer's... More

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If you have a finished, designated area for laundry, have you ever considered what a great canvas you have for injecting personality into your home? Take a look at eight eye-catching examples of colorful laundry rooms for inspiration.

Berghuis Construction LLC

1. Be bold. Keep in mind that this isn’t your living room or bedroom, therefore you probably (hopefully!) won’t be be spending hours upon hours in the space. I’m also guessing it’s not where you do the bulk of your entertaining, so don’t be afraid to go for a vibrant color if you happen to be a fan of intense hues. A saturated, juicy orange is a terrific choice for revving up the room.

Highland Builders LLC

2. Borrow from the kitchen. Take your favorite elements from the kitchen — a floor or wall tile pattern, a nice light fixture — and crank it up with color for the laundry room. This black, white and deep green laundry room has an interesting graphic appeal because of the contrasting hues. The punches of green set it apart from ubiquitous mostly-white laundry rooms.

Närkekök

3. Go wild with wallcoverings. A hot-pink backsplash might not fly in your open-plan kitchen, but why not inject this unusual hue into your laundry room? Forget about what’s trendy and go ahead and select colors or patterns that speak to you, regardless of how bold they might be.

Cindy Aplanalp & Chairma Design Group

4. Look to the ceiling. Don’t forget the often-overlooked “fifth wall” when upgrading your laundry room. The ceiling can be a fantastic canvas for a fun color. This yellow ceiling really raises the eye upward and accentuates the handsome pendant light fixture.

Johann Grobler Architects

5. Consider colorful cabinetry. Fire-engine-red cabinetry might be a visually overwhelming choice for your kitchen, but in a laundry room it injects much-needed energy and personality. The colors we surround ourselves with can affect our mood and motivation level, so if you need to get revved up to do the laundry, hot hues such as red can get your motor running.

Great Neighborhood Homes

6. Add artwork. In addition to using a fetching wall color, think about installing artwork and other decorative elements, such as pretty window treatments. There’s no reason why the laundry room has to be a boring, utilitarian space. If you’re going to spend time in there, make it as comfortable and visually appealing as you can.

RODOLF NOEL Photographe

7. Have fun. I say don’t feel obligated to stick to safe neutrals for the laundry room. Go ahead and experiment with color combinations you wouldn’t normally consider. Color trends are constantly shifting, but paint is a relatively easy and affordable thing to change. Tile is a bit more labor-intensive to add or change out, but if you select a relatively inexpensive tile and the area to be tiled is not very large, you might be surprised by just how budget-friendly an option it can be. So have fun with it and don’t worry so much about trends or resale value.

Design Harmony

8. Be creative. Lest all the color fun be limited to those with separate and distinct laundry rooms, here’s a clever color upgrade for those of us living with laundry closets. I love this vibrant blue-green, but if you’re worried about a bold door color clashing with other decor in the room, you could always paint the eye-catching hue on the inside panel of the doors only, or just the interior walls of the closet. That way you’ll get an eyeful of gorgeous color whenever you open the doors to put in a load.

Your turn: How have you used color to jazz up your laundry room or closet?

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Kim Allman

Downsized 50% about 3 months ago, but the little ranch has a 5' x 8' segregated laundry room off the kitchen which I've never had before.

We've moved the connections to put our front loaders against the short wall, patching holes is in process... Next is to get rid of the shelves and add cabinets up top and a countertop for folding.