Our Mudroom Reveal
We have a mudroom! A functioning, pretty mudroom that adds personality and organization to our life. It's a dream! To recap we took our back hallway, that was full of doors and nothing-ness and decided to give it life and purpose.
Over the last few months you've seen us add planks, change out our entry door, update our laundry door with an antique barn door and a few weeks ago I showed you how we revitalized our antique bench. As visually impactful as all of these updates have been, no mudroom has street cred without some storage and organization.
From the beginning we planned to build out storage around the bench. We knew we couldn't do anything super heavy, as we didn't want to make the hallway feel closed in, but I definitely wanted to incorporate as much smart storage as possible. After a lot of deliberation we decided to add 6 open cubbies to the right of the bench with one long shelf spanning over the bench with hooks mounted underneath.
We picked up our supplies from Home Depot and Brent and Croix headed out to the backyard to start building. The overall design was pretty simple and straight forward, so a little measuring.....
We used the same material to bridge across the bench while simultaneously acting as a "top" for the cubbie structure. We searched high and low for the perfect brackets to hold up our shelf, but ended up going with these simple inexpensive black ones from Home Depot. Interestingly enough, the same thing happened with the hooks. There are so many options out there at every price point, but the selection that felt right for our space were these simple $5 hooks from Home Depot. I swear, we weren't trying to select the cheapest thing, although we are happy we did, we just honestly liked these the best! Home Depot is full of treasures if you dig a little!
The storage element took a Saturday to complete, so we've had a fully functioning mudroom for a few weeks, we have just been waiting on the paint. Thankfully, all painting was wrapped up this week, so I'm excited to finally be able to show you the finished space.
From the beginning we planned to build out storage around the bench. We knew we couldn't do anything super heavy, as we didn't want to make the hallway feel closed in, but I definitely wanted to incorporate as much smart storage as possible. After a lot of deliberation we decided to add 6 open cubbies to the right of the bench with one long shelf spanning over the bench with hooks mounted underneath.
We picked up our supplies from Home Depot and Brent and Croix headed out to the backyard to start building. The overall design was pretty simple and straight forward, so a little measuring.....
......some cutting and then a few nails later....
... and our open cubbie structure was built.
We used the same material to bridge across the bench while simultaneously acting as a "top" for the cubbie structure. We searched high and low for the perfect brackets to hold up our shelf, but ended up going with these simple inexpensive black ones from Home Depot. Interestingly enough, the same thing happened with the hooks. There are so many options out there at every price point, but the selection that felt right for our space were these simple $5 hooks from Home Depot. I swear, we weren't trying to select the cheapest thing, although we are happy we did, we just honestly liked these the best! Home Depot is full of treasures if you dig a little!
The storage element took a Saturday to complete, so we've had a fully functioning mudroom for a few weeks, we have just been waiting on the paint. Thankfully, all painting was wrapped up this week, so I'm excited to finally be able to show you the finished space.
Now, I'm a firm believer that a reveal isn't nearly as sweet without a little preview of the BEFORE, so let's take a look at what we started with....
And now, here she is today:
Eeeek! What do you think? We are so happy with how this space turned out and can't believe a hallway is officially among one of our favorite areas in our whole house!
For now we've decided to use our top shelf to display some original artwork we found at an estate sale a few months ago. We opted for simple black frames and I just love the interest and height these pieces bring to the space. Another fun addition to the hallway was the lighting. Originally the hallway had a boob light (very technical design term) and a can light. Early on we switched out the boob light for a semi-flush light we already had from our last house. But as the mudroom began to take shape we decided we wanted to add a second matching light where the can light was for a more cohesive look. Luckily, we already had another light fixture (again, from our last house - remember them from this post?), we just had to buy the can light converter to make the switch.
Let's talk details: For baskets we did a little mix and match action with 2 woven baskets we picked up at Marshalls and 3 metal baskets from the Hearth & Hand Collection at Target. Our rug is from Urban Outfitters and was a 2016 Christmas present. The little mail holder is from the Magnolia store in Waco, the plant holder is from Amazon and the pot is from Anthropology (old). We ended up painting the walls + trim Benjamin Moore's White Dove OC-17 and couldn't be happier with the crisp, clean background it provides.
It's so nice to have a dedicated area to corral all of our stuff and help us stay organized and tidy. And who knows, maybe we introduced this whole "put your bag in this cubbie and your coat on this hook" thing early enough in Croix's life that he will maintain these "skills" forever. I just know his future spouse and teachers will thank me someday if he does...:)
All photos are my own.