Making the Most out of your Mudroom
Picture Courtesy of HGTV
You may call it something different but we call the spot where the family walks in and dumps all their stuff, a mudroom. This is an area where ideally your kids cleats, backpacks, lunch boxes, basketballs, gloves, coats, boots and basically all the crap they need on a weekly basis – lives. In our home it also houses my daughter’s soccer stuff, reusable grocery bags and the other random thing I don’t know where else to put.
Although this room is usually one of the smallest rooms in your home, a good mudroom can make all the difference in the world in terms of your homes functionality. Because of that, I love to design a mudroom and I thought I would share some of the most important items to include when you design yours.
Hooks are King!
In a mudroom, hooks are king. Hooks get things up off the floor and just make things look more organized. Even if you have a closed locker situation in your mudroom, hooks allow you to maximize space and the more hooks the better. A single locker can hold three or more hooks which can be designated for a school backpack, sports bag and a coat. Now getting your kids to hang their stuff ON the hooks is a whole different article.
Keep Your Family’s Activities in Mind
The key approach when designing a mudroom is to assess the space you have to work with and plan that space according to your family’s specific activities. For instance, maybe your family is a tennis family and you need specific hooks for rackets and tennis bags or if there are lots of art projects and supplies coming into your home, you may need shelves and drawers.
Look at what you are hoping to store and determine the best method to do so. Also, you’ll want to decide if you prefer a closed door approach to a locker, making it so your guests can’t see what’s inside or a no door approach, making it a little easier for the kids to remember where their stuff lives.
How do I make our mud room look like a well-designed space?
Custom built ins are the way to go. You can customize the built-ins to have a ton of character and function because let’s face it…. if the Mudroom isn’t designed with function in mind first… it will forever look messy and messy is never a well-designed look! In addition great hardware, a sassy light fixture, an interesting floor and great wallpaper are just some of the ways you can make your area beautiful. I found this mudroom on hgtv.com – it was designed by the Property Brothers and I couldn’t love it more.
What to do if you don’t have room for a mudroom.
If you don’t have a mudroom you can find a place in your house that makes sense for the flow of traffic and you needs. One time I designed a Dumping station in the garage because there wasn’t room in the client’s laundry room and there was no other logical space inside the home. Thus, the garage received a beautiful, customized built-in dumping station. Even a nice bench with hooks in an entry-way can serve the needs of some families. The important thing is to set up an area to organize all the shoes, book bags, musical instruments, sports bags, and whatever activities your family is into, closest to the main point of entry into your home.
I hope this gives you some great ideas on how to organize your family and keep their stuff out of the rest of your home!
