House Projects

Mud Room Revamp

When you are looking for your first home, you make some sort of "list" of the things you want and the things you will make an exception for as well.  We HAD to have a garage, fenced yard, large kitchen...you know the important stuff.  One thing I did not think about at all was a mudroom or at least a space to wipe feet, store shoes, hats, gloves and backpacks.  Next house will have one of those FOR SURE!  In the meantime, I have browsed Pinterest and found ideas that would work for our hall area and here are photos of the work in progress.

The first thing I needed to tackle is the fact that I do NOT have much space without things being in the way.  The main storage was going to be my big issue.  Not enough room for drawers, a bench or anything built in so I found these awesome unfinished wooden crates at Home Depot and snatched them up.  Four of them to be exact.  They were just under $8 each.  You can see the unfinished version by clicking on the link below.

Wooden Crate

Once I picked those up I decided to have some paint mixed so I can 1. get the colors I want and 2. Paint them in a finish that I can easily wipe down later when they get dirty (I mean it is the mud room).

I was super thrilled to know that instead of buying a gallon or even the quart, Glidden has a new tester size that you can have mixed in any of the colors they offer AND it comes paint and primer in one!  Oh did I mention the best part?  Less than $3 per color!   Glidden Tester 8oz

I chose a Pebble Gray, True Turquoise and White for my crates and got to painting.  Each crate got a double coat and I STILL have turquoise and gray left over for another small project.

Once they were painted I wanted to test out different layouts of vertical and horizontal placement to figure out what would be the most aesthetic placement for my crates.

Another thing I wanted to make sure I addressed was exactly HOW we were going to store our everyday items in these crates without them just being another place to throw and pile crap!  I decided on canvas cubes in a variety of colors and sizes.  I also grabbed these at Home Depot but know for a fact that Walmart and Target also have similar ones and they all seemed to be close in price. So we had the single cube in all kinds of colors (1 for each kid) and the 2 small rectangular cubes that are the same size as a single cube and the same price.  Extra bins for Mom and Dad makes sure everyone has some storage.

 Just to get an idea of the size and how the new storage will work in our space, I stacked the crates and let the kids "move in" to their new storage bins as well.  The end will look something like this BUT I am planning to mount the crates on the wall so they can be functional and decorative at the same time.  Hooks for each child will be added along with some baskets for extra small storage.

I want to give you an idea of the space we were working with and how much space this new solution actually takes up in our small hallway. 

Even with the crates in place (not hung just yet) there is plenty of space to walk through as well as complete clearance of the basement door which is on the left of this photograph.  Oh and the puppy says hi.

 So you can buy unfinished crates and do what you will with them, or you can be super ambitious and make them yourself pretty quick, easy and cheap.  I initially wanted to make mine but while the supplies would be inexpensive, adding in the time spent didn't really save me all that much money.  Like I said with the crates ($32) and the totes ($28) as well as the paint ($15)  I am happy with the ALMOST finished product and will post again when they are hung and in full use.