Utility Room Tour

Welcome to our utility room tour, it’s a room that has had so much put into it and is one of the hardest working rooms of our family home. I wasn’t going to leave it looking plain, that’s not me, so come and take a look at what we did with it! One of the main reasons for our extension was to create a downstairs toilet, an extra shower and a room where I could let the dog dry off easily. I planned out our utility room so much, and at times it’s been a headache for various reasons! 

I have been really looking forward to sharing this utility room tour with you guys, it took a lot longer than planned, due to life taking over, Covid and then wonky walls that needed to be corrected! But it’s here and I love it! 

Before! 

As the utility room is a brand new room in the extension, I have a picture of the garage which is where the utility room went, and some during photos! 

Utility Room Tour 

I’ll start off with a few pictures to show you the full room, and then I will chat about all the bits and bobs! 

So what do you think of our new room? 

Video Tour Of Our Utility Room 

Layout 

The layout took a lot of planning and this was before I even had the room built. I needed to decide where everything was going on paper as the builders needed to be able to put in the utilities, walls needed to be built in the correct place and then electrics needed to be put in place. I wrote down everything that I wanted in this room, which I knew was going to be a hardworking room and had lots of functions! 

• Downstairs toilet
• Large shower 
• Mudroom 
• Washing machine 
• Sink for dirty washing 
• Storage for cleaning products 
• Boiler 
• Drying clothes 
• Drying the dog!

So as you can see I wanted a lot from the room, but it works great so far and I love having this extra room. I feel super lucky to have this space as it makes family life so much easier, and I can feel more organised. 

The room size is W254cm x L258cm 

Downstairs Toilet 

Early on in the build, the builders told me they didn’t think we could get the drainage right for us to have a toilet!! Imagine being told that after so many plans!! Our original drains are very high and close to the ground, the new drains needed the correct angle for a runoff to get to this point…..it was a tight squeeze! We also had to deal with a blocked toilet drain concern during planning, which made the whole drainage setup even more challenging than expected.

So we had to go for a Saniflow toilet instead, and if you’re like me and have no idea what that was, it basically chops all the waste up so it can fit down a small drainage tube instead. I expected them to be loud and I was worried it would be noisy, and as it was on the wall in between Tyler’s bedroom would it be really loud on his wall. However, we all needed another toilet in the house! So took this risk which we’re so glad we had. The first time we flushed it we were shocked! It was so quiet and went on for such a short time. 

We wanted a wall-hung toilet so that I could keep the floor clean and not too many nooks and crannies to keep clean. This meant the system needed to also boxed in, so we built a framework around the system.

As you need to give these Saniflow systems a service each year, you need to be able to gain access to this. So we made the worktop top removal for this access. 

Walk-In Shower 

I knew I wanted to go BIG, so I picked out this walk-in shower that measures 1400x900cm and worked the utility room around this! Having a large dog that needs washing after walks is super hard work and during the winter nearly all our walks involve mud. So it needed to fit him in and also the opening needed to be large enough that I wasn’t twisting or squeezing in. 

The tray is a stone tray which is super heavy, but I do recommend going for this over the acrylic one they have for sale as well. It feels super sturdy under our feet and very solid. We purchased shower tray feet and strips from eBay to raise the shower off the floor and fit in the drainage to run off into the Saniflow behind the toilet. 

I also love that it doesn’t have any doors, rollers or areas that I can’t keep clean! Each glass screen is a sheet of glass which is super easy to clean and there isn’t anywhere the dirt or limescale can build up easily. 

I really went around in circles about what colour shower to go for, I loved the idea of gold but all the ones at the time were out of our price range, although I’ve noticed some cheaper ones coming onto the market now as gold is becoming much more popular. I didn’t want chrome as we haven’t got any chrome now, so black it was! It nicely picked out the black in the screen and pulled it all together. I even had to find a black shower plug! 

I decided to just go for a lower range of black shower from the one I found, and I am more than happy with it. The Orchard Wye Black Mixer Shower from Victoria Plum is £179 but keep a lookout for offers on it, as I got it cheaper than this. I love having the option of either the head waterfall or using a handheld showerhead. It also has a smooth tube which is great for keeping clean and no limescale build up. The black shower caddy is from Homesense, which is perfect for holding all the shower bits and bobs, like our gold and glass bottles, that can either be used for hand soap or shower gels. 

Tiling 

I hope you like the tiling! We decided to go for something a little different, Herringbone straight. I kept seeing the Herringbone style but diagonal layout, we wanted something a little different so went for the straight style and were really pleased with it. I feel it goes nicely with the black shower lines. 

Also, we had to decide if we went right up into the vault or cut it off at the shower line, it was harder tiling for us to do, but it finished it off so nicely taking it up to the ceiling. 

If you notice the tiling colours, they’re slightly different tones. The Wickes Soho Green tiles have a different colour tone throughout the packets, so you need to be aware of this when tiling. But I really liked this about these tiles and one of the main reasons why I liked them. It’s just nice not having a flat colour throughout this large area. 

Sink Area 

A few years ago we installed a new kitchen in our old kitchen, at the time we didn’t think we would be extending our house at all! So it was still in really good condition, and so we saved the units and worktop and stored them during the build. Well, for the sink unit, the builders just had to walk around and move when it was in the way!! 

We cut the worktop down, made the units fit, added some panels and cut the edging to fit around the units which made them look like they were made for this room. Being able to have this extra sink is fantastic, as I have a pretty gold sink in the kitchen, so any messy jobs, dirty items, water the houseplants and the animal stuff get washed in this sink now. 

I’ve filled the cupboards with all my cleaning products, dog items, tea towels and the washing stuff. It’s so good having this room as I can keep the kitchen units free of these items. It’s great to have the washing machine in this room, as it’s so much quieter and when you have an open-plan room, you don’t need to listen to the washing machine! The black tap was from Amazon, it has a couple of spray options and can be pulled out of the tap to extend it. 

Boiler Area 

The boiler area gets on my nerves!! When the plumbers installed it there were a couple of mistakes. First of all, they put the flue straight out the sidewall, it was something we had been aware of right from designing the room. It cannot do this, it points the vent right out into my neighbour’s front garden. It was in the plans and something even I had thought of, I was so angry.  We had to wait a week for them to correct it due to not having the part to take it out through the roof. But once it was done they had to do it at an angle, due to the roof tiles. So if they had done it correctly in the first place, the builders and the plumbers could have planned it together so the roof tiles laid correctly. 

So it’s now too tricky for us to box in the boiler like planned. It hangs over the worktop area, so wouldn’t sit right. It’s very frustrating! So I decided to just go with it and spray up the ugly pipes with black spray paint. They look so much better now. 

Solatube Sun Tunnel 

If you’ve spotted the bright circle on the roof, that is my Solatube! I didn’t want a Velux window in this room as my neighbour looks right down on top of this roof and would have seen right down on my loo! If we had a blind on the Velux we would have to shut it every time we went into the loo or shower, and as the ceiling is so high up due to the vaulted ceiling it would have had to be electric and more and more cost! 

I will do a full review of this in another blog post, but I am so impressed with it. These photos were taken with just the daylight coming in through this. It’s so clever and has been a perfect solution to our window issue. 

Heating and Ventilation 

As this room doesn’t have any windows, I needed to be aware of the ventilation and heating in this room. So we had an extractor fan installed which we can control with a switch and had a heated towel rail installed. 

This is run off the central heating when it’s on, but we got one that was dual fuel, This can then be switched on and run as electric during the months when the heating isn’t on, or wet days when I can’t dry the washing on the line. But also it gives this room some warmth and dries it out when the shower has been on. 

Also, do you like my gold valves?! I think I gave the young plumber a shock when I said I wanted gold valves on all my radiators!! 

Art Work and Accessories 

As the ceiling is vaulted I had a large wall that needed filling, and over the years I’ve realised that our functioning rooms don’t have to be plain and you can add character and interest to these rooms. So why not add some artwork to this wall. 

I picked up the gold frames from Amazon, and I was really impressed by the quality of these frames. The prints were designed by myself on Canva and I have also been learning how to do foil printing. I love the touch of gold on these, and it really makes them ping. 

These little shelves are from Amazon but when they arrived they were in a dirty looking gold, which I really didn’t like. So I got the gold spray paint on them to brighten them up a little bit more! 

These little milk bottles were found by my builder deep down in the mud when they were digging the footings for the extension. I spoke to my neighbour who has been living here since the houses were built and she reckons these were drunk by the builders who built our house, as it was normal for them to drink a pink of milk at work (my builder still does it!) and so they just got lost in the mud! How amazing though that they lasted all these years and all this building work without getting broken. I needed to display them! 

I wasn’t planning on coordinating the dog’s bowl with the interiors, but when I saw this gold and black dog bowl in Homesense it just fitted perfectly! 

I also picked up the toilet roll holder and towel ring from Amazon, it came in a brushed satin gold which matches the door handles perfectly. It’s really hard to find gold in the same tones! 

Houseplants 

I found planting up our garden really rewarding, so I wanted to bring some houseplants into the house. I wasn’t sure how well I would be able to look after them, but I’ve loved it! It’s a massive learning curve to learn what each plant wants and doesn’t want. I’ve gone through stages or over-watering them, to then the other way, and I am still learning! But when I do get it right and they grow, it’s so rewarding! 

This room doesn’t have a big open window, and I wasn’t sure how the houseplants in low light would work in here, but this Parlour Palm is a very tolerant plant and looks great here on the plant stand.  Don’t you love how they bring colour, texture, and life into the rooms? 

This Prayer Plant has only just moved into here as it was in the kitchen, but I noticed the ends of the leaves were starting to go brown. After a bit of research, it means it isn’t humid enough for it, so this room should be much better for it…..fingers crossed! 

And there’s still room for an artificial plant! This one at the top is artificial as I wanted a hanging one and as it’s up there it will probably get forgotten about up there! It’s from Homesense and I think you can’t really tell it is artificial up there. 

Flooring 

The floor! This gave me a headache and I had soooooo many samples and so many options of different flooring. Do I go for laminate flooring, luxury vinyl flooring, tiles or rolled vinyl…..it was so confusing and so many different ranges. I was really drawn to a Luxury Vinyl Flooring that clicks together, easy to keep clean with the dog, with no grout lines, but I couldn’t find anything I liked! 

I loved the idea of a Terrazzo look to the floor, but not the price tag of the original Terrazzo tiles!! When these tiles turned up I was really pleased with them, they picked out all the colours of the utility room, and had a nice texture to them and I knew I was just going to have to clean them more often if I wanted them. They came from Porcelain Superstore Arlo Light but come in a couple of other colours too. 

Overall Feelings On The Utility Room

This utility room is so useful and I am so glad we thought really hard about the layout of it, what it was going to be used for and making sure we went big enough to use easily. The only change I think I would have made is to put the towel rail down at the other end of the room, so when I have my washing airer in front of it, we can still access the toilet easily! 

I would love to hear what you think about our new utility room 

Shop Our Utility Room Look 

• • Shower Screens and Stone Tray – Victoria Plum – rrp £687 (but often has offers) 
  • Black Shower – Victoria Plum – rrp £179 (but often has offers) 
  • Shower Riser Kit – eBay 
  • Black Shower Waste – £25
  • Floor Tiles – Arlo Light Porcelain Superstore – £49.50m2
  • Wickes Soho Green Tiles – £25.49m2 (keep an eye out for tile offers) 
  • Black Sink Tap – Amazon – £62.90
  • Black Shower Caddy – Homesense
  • Glass Gel Bottles – Amazon – £13. 34
  • Gold Towel Ring – Amazon – £11.99
  • Gold and White Toilet Brush – Amazon – £12.32
  • Gold Toilet Roll Holder – Amazon – £11.99
  • Gold A4 Frames – Amazon – £8.96
  • Gold Shelves – Amazon – £17.99
  • Sun Tunnel – Solatube 
  • Black Spray Paint – Amazon – £10
  • Gold Spray Paint – Amazon – £11
  • Valspar Paint – Colour Matched Earthborne Donkey Ride 
  • Artificial Plant – Homesense
  • Parlour Palm – Hortology 
  • Prayer Plant – Beard and Daisies 
  • Plant Stand – Amazon – £17.99