This Laundry Room's Dog Shower Is the Pampering Your Pooch Needs
When designer Dina Bandman got the chance to create a laundry room at this year's San Francisco Decorator Showcase, she gave the typically overlooked space a dramatic upgrade: unexpected lighting, scenic wallpaper and a spot for sudsing pups were all integral. "The laundry room is the new powder room!" Bandman says. "It should feel special and be an extension of your home's design."
"I'm obsessed with blue and white - stripes, ginger jars, anything preppy," Bandman says. When she saw de Gournay's hand-painted A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains wallpaper, modeled after designs from China's Song Dynasty and in a Delft- inspired colorway, she fell in love. "My taste is classic and this cobalt scene almost looks like a ginger jar on the wall," she says.
"I designed the dog wash for ease: Sit on the ledge, hold them firmly - they jump! - and rinse them with the Kohler Finial hand shower," Bandman says. She tiled the canine cleaning station in two- by-eight-inch tiles from Country Floors.
To offset the traditional wallpaper, Bandman used parquet flooring in marble from Country Floors. "It's a strong pattern, but since the hues are muted and it's a small area, it works," she says.
Not willing to risk damp clothes against the wallpaper, Bandman installed Sinuous, a mosaic tile from Artistic Tile, in Calacatta Gold along the entire length of one wall. "It looks like ripples of water, which echoes both the wallpaper's watery pattern and the floor's gray and white tones," she says. A custom Lucite rod between two upper cabinets makes for a handy air-drying spot.
"I knew I wanted open shelving on one side to keep the room feeling airy," Bandman says. She had Cambria - which created the countertops with an ogee edge from its Ella quartz - customize matching shelves. A local silversmith designed the bistro brackets, which are similar to ones Bandman had seen in Parisian restaurants, to support the stone shelves. The 24-inch Bosch 800 series washer and dryer fit this narrow footprint perfectly and allow room for a folding station above.
To provide utility in this tiny space, Bandman paired Kohler's Iron/Tones sink - at eight inches deep - with the company's Artifacts faucet to give a clearance of 17-inches-7 to the sink bottom, making it ideal for handwashing delicates or filling up water bowls for the dogs.
The heavily used top drawers are lined in Edelman Leather's Gaufrage suede, so grabbing a dog leash or chew toy becomes a pleasingly tactile moment.
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This story originally appeared in the September 2017 issue of House Beautiful.
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