Tasteful texture: “A laundry room doesn’t have to be serious; I wanted to have fun with texture and make it a playful space,” says designer Orsi Panos of her choice to include walnut-look veneer upper cabinets, heavily veined quartz countertops and slate-look porcelain floor tiles in her clients’ Whitby, Ont., home. She tempered the look with high-gloss grey base cabinets and sleek hardware, which provide a modern edge.

New neutral: Using the clients’ existing navy washer and dryer as the jumping-off point, Orsi painted one wall as well as the laundry room’s exterior door in a corresponding blue hue. “At the end of the day, navy is a neutral to me,” she says. “The colour is subtle enough to work with different materials, and it also complements grey nicely.”