When building or renovating, the laundry and garage area might be something of an afterthought — but don't make that mistake. These high-use, high-flow areas are often busy hubs in a family home, used for storage, washing clothes, car maintenance and over the last couple of years, even workouts.
This week on The Block NZ we saw Stacy and Adam take out the win, thanks to a chic space using clever storage design calls and maximised laundry space.
But all four teams proved there's much to consider when painting and stocking these high use spaces — which paints will work best battling the elements, which appliances will stand up to your family's laundry needs? The list goes on.
We spoke to the experts at Resene and Samsung to find out how best to style and stock the garage and laundry spaces in our own home.
Consider the wear and tear…
Resene Marketing Manager Karen Warman says first off, it's important to remember this area comes under a lot of wear and tear.
"Laundries are considered wet areas, which means they are prone to more moisture than most other rooms and need paint finishes, like Resene Kitchen & Bathroom paint, that are durable and easy to wipe clean."
All four teams went for basic colour schemes in their laundries this week, forsaking fancy detailing for simple clean lines and low maintenance finishing. Warman says that's a practical call in this extremely utility-focused area.
"Garages tend to withstand a lot of contamination and knocks – scuffs, dust, dirt and other windblown contamination, so a durable paint finish can help make it easier to keep clean," she says.
"You may find that to keep your garage in good condition, you need to paint this room more often than others as it is the most exposed to the exterior each time the garage door is opened and nature blows its debris inside."
… And use colour accordingly
This week Maree and James won big points for their use of Resene Half Blanc and Resene Half Bianca in their garage — muted tones the judges felt elevated it above a classic garage space. But this choice also has practical benefits. Warman says soft colours are great for garages, as bright whites tend to show up scuffs and marks.
"Usually light to mid colours are a little more forgiving and ones with a little grey in them can help to hide imperfections and reduce glare too. Garages can be very low light areas, so if you are choosing a darker colour, check your lighting to make sure it is sufficient at night," she advises.
Warman says that while garage colour palettes commonly continue a home's general colour palette, they'll often lean into greyer or blue hues, to reflect the mechanical nature of a garage.
"Hues like Resene Woodsmoke work well in a garage to add contrast as well as helping to hide marks and are best teamed with neutrals to avoid becoming too cave-like and hues like Resene Half Bokara Grey or Resene Cobblestone with trims in Resene Alabaster will help to add warmth to both spaces. For something warmer, opt for Resene Half Joss."
Make the space reflect you
Even in the garage we saw some teams make bold design choices this week — including Chloe and Ben's decision to include a movie projector on the wall of their garage, turning it into a cinema space. Sure, not all of us quite have that budget, but if you do want to experiment with something a bit different, the garage and laundry might be the best place to do it.
"Because of their size, laundries can be redecorated in a day, so you can afford to be bolder with your choices. Choose a favourite Resene colour or wallpaper to decorate with," says Warman.
And remember, just because it's predominantly a space for chores doesn't mean you can't have a little fun with it. Warman says some decorators deliberately choose very bright and energetic colours in their laundry — either as a feature strip or wall, or on all walls — to help with motivation to get the job done.
"Hues like bold pink Resene Scrumptious or racy orange Resene Daredevil are uplifting hues that work well with white laundry appliances."
For something to lift the spirits when it's time to fold socks, Warman suggests wallpapers from the new Resene Amazonia Wallpaper Collection — as most laundries are small, often only one to two rolls of wallpaper are needed to decorate the whole room.
"It’s best to avoid very light wallpapers as they are more likely to show marks in this busy workspace. Heavily patterned wallpapers help disguise wear and tear as your eyes are drawn to the design and distracted from any scuffs."
Storage, storage, storage
One thing many of the teams nailed this week was storage — a key part of any garage and laundry. Stacy and Adam impressed judge Jason Bonham thanks to their vertical Gladiator storage to hold a multitude of family possessions, while Quinn and Ben maximised the storage space in their laundry area by stacking their Samsung appliances vertically.
Warman has some top tips for making garage spaces even more usable by adding extra storage for shoes, freshly ironed washing and more.
"Garages get very personalised with the cars you drive and all the things you store in them. Decide what you need to store where — what you want to be visible and what you want behind closed doors," she advises.
"If your garage doubles as a tool shed, consider installing a painted pegboard to help keep everything where it belongs. Paint around each tool using a Resene testpot so you can quickly see where to return each tool… and which ones are missing!
"If you’re storing lots of things in drawers and containers, consider using Resene testpots to create a colour coding system so you can easily find things later. You could colour code by family member, item type or another system to suit how you want to find things."
Don't skimp on the whiteware
White walls may not be recommended in these practical spaces but whiteware? That's a different story. On average we spend 173 days of our lifetime doing laundry, so streamline the process with the right tools for the job.
All four teams used large, front-loading, state-of-the art Samsung appliances in their laundry areas this week, echoing the trend Samsung New Zealand's Head of Retail for Consumer Electronics Angus Macmillan has seen from consumers.
If you're stocking a large, family home like The Block NZ houses, Macmillan recommends opting for one of Samsung's purpose built machines catering to larger families, which have capacities starting at 12kgs with a matching 9kg dryer — going up to a mammoth 16KG with a matching 10kg dryer.
And if you want to free up some of those precious days from laundry? It's all in the tech.
"Using the Smart Things features on the Samsung Washing Machines and Dryers can be a game changer for customers," says Macmillan.
"It allows them to track and change things from their phone while being able to download a range of additional feature sets. For the new machines, an innovative feature is Auto Cycle Link — once you have connected your Samsung Washer and Samsung Dryer the washing machine will send the cycle information to the dryer on completion, so the dryer is all set up with the optimal settings for the load."
That means less time in the laundry and more time enjoying some of the other relaxing spaces around the house — like the lounge or master bedroom.
