Good Morning Lacquered Lifers. I have apparently ruined, through frequent ironing, a most beloved set of sheets that were a wedding present. When I got on the phone to order the replacements and asked the customer service representative how she would prevent this from happening again, she told me that I should remove the sheets from the drier while damp, lay them out flat and smooth them with my hands and let them air dry. Now as much as I appreciate the advice, where am I going to lay the sheets out flat? Who has room for that? A twin sheet makes my kitchen island look small!

It is funny how quickly one can go from NYC apartment living with no washer/drier and being happy just to have those in your home, to wanting a full equipped laundry room. So today, as I dream about a big space in which to air dry my sheets, or frankly just a laundry room where I can shut the door, I give you photos of the laundry room at Martha Stewart’s home in Maine, Skylands.

Skylands was built in the 1920s by Edsel Ford, son of Henry Ford, in Seal Harbor, Maine. Martha purchased the home in 1997, and along with it much of its contents, including the much of the machinery and infrastructure in the laundry room. It is not uncommon in homes of this era to have a laundry room of this scale, but it is definitely uncommon today. With her sizeable collection of antique and hand embroidered linens, Martha takes full advantage of all that the Skylands laundry room has to offer. This huge padded ironing table would make a great space to lay out my sheets … Or better yet, this linen drying cabinet. Those racks roll out from inside the cabinet, you hang the linens, and then you roll the rack right back into the cabinet for drying. This is an absolutely fantastic antique piece of machinery that still serves a great function to this day. I think I have perhaps found my new dream appliance. One day when I have a huge beautiful laundry room, I will have a drying cabinet too. Asko has started making residential drying cabinets (albeit smaller than Martha’s) for the American market here. Who’s with me? These beautiful porcelain splash sinks most likely make soaking that red wine stained napkin pleasurable instead of stressful. And not to worry, Martha still has plenty of room for conventional ironing. While we can look at these photos and dream, I don’t have, and never will have fifteen bedrooms as Martha does at Skylands, so all I will really dream about is a small sink, a fold down ironing board, and a door that I can shut when the folding doesn’t get done.

Photos via The Martha Blog