For most people, having a mudroom is a nice-to-have option when looking for a home. I've decided that for me, it's a deal breaker. Our next house MUST have a mudroom...or at least a space for dumping things in a semi-organized fashion.
Perhaps it's my New England upbringing that makes me so keen on them. A Boston winter comes with many months of heavy coats, gloves, hats, and scarves not to mention lots of snow-filled shoe soles that promptly melt and leave messy, muddy puddles around the house. I didn't grow up with a mudroom and I can remember my mom laying old towels at the front door in an attempt to capture all that winter nastiness.
Twenty years later I'm living in the South where the rare snow fall is so exciting, one can forgive the mess for the day. But that doesn't mean we have any less "stuff" to drop when we walk in the door on every other day of the year! Purses, laptop bags, gym bags, backpacks and coats are all part of everyone's daily life. And without a mudroom, all these things just get dropped wherever there's room. For us, that means a combination of the coat closet off to our kitchen (from the garage which is our main point of entry to the house on most days)/the bench by our family room. It infuriates me that in a house this big and this new, a builder wouldn't make any accomodations for the modern family's daily needs. I'll save my rants about careless building practices for another day (don't get me started on my laundry room).
For now, I just want to dream of these pretty, organized utiliarian spaces. Mudrooms come in lots of shapes and sizes it seems. Some are actual rooms, some just a makeshift space at the home's entrance outfitted with hooks and a mud-catching boot tray. This is about the best I could do with our current set up. But the door to the garage leaves me with no room for shoe collection.
This same minimalistic approach gets stepped up a little with the addition of a bench. I love that the bench provides a place to put on/take off your shoes and storage. Also, I think the bead board is a must. In high gloss paint, it wipes down in a minute which you need for a space like this!
Other, more traditional options include a dedicated "walk thru" space that makes use of hooks and open storage cubbies. A hook for everyone and a cubby for everyone. Love this option but it can definitely get a bit cluttered and crazy looking right?
On the other end of the spectrum you have this completely closed storage mudroom. Who knows what kind of crazy mess lives behind those doors. But that's exactly the point! Tons of storage without any of the visual clutter.
I think for me, I like this nice middle ground - a combination of all 3 options really. Some closed storage for the less often used things in our lives, open storage for things you need to access all the time and some handy hooks for purses, dog leashes and coats.
Perhaps it's my New England upbringing that makes me so keen on them. A Boston winter comes with many months of heavy coats, gloves, hats, and scarves not to mention lots of snow-filled shoe soles that promptly melt and leave messy, muddy puddles around the house. I didn't grow up with a mudroom and I can remember my mom laying old towels at the front door in an attempt to capture all that winter nastiness.
Twenty years later I'm living in the South where the rare snow fall is so exciting, one can forgive the mess for the day. But that doesn't mean we have any less "stuff" to drop when we walk in the door on every other day of the year! Purses, laptop bags, gym bags, backpacks and coats are all part of everyone's daily life. And without a mudroom, all these things just get dropped wherever there's room. For us, that means a combination of the coat closet off to our kitchen (from the garage which is our main point of entry to the house on most days)/the bench by our family room. It infuriates me that in a house this big and this new, a builder wouldn't make any accomodations for the modern family's daily needs. I'll save my rants about careless building practices for another day (don't get me started on my laundry room).
For now, I just want to dream of these pretty, organized utiliarian spaces. Mudrooms come in lots of shapes and sizes it seems. Some are actual rooms, some just a makeshift space at the home's entrance outfitted with hooks and a mud-catching boot tray. This is about the best I could do with our current set up. But the door to the garage leaves me with no room for shoe collection.
This same minimalistic approach gets stepped up a little with the addition of a bench. I love that the bench provides a place to put on/take off your shoes and storage. Also, I think the bead board is a must. In high gloss paint, it wipes down in a minute which you need for a space like this!
Other, more traditional options include a dedicated "walk thru" space that makes use of hooks and open storage cubbies. A hook for everyone and a cubby for everyone. Love this option but it can definitely get a bit cluttered and crazy looking right?
On the other end of the spectrum you have this completely closed storage mudroom. Who knows what kind of crazy mess lives behind those doors. But that's exactly the point! Tons of storage without any of the visual clutter.
I think for me, I like this nice middle ground - a combination of all 3 options really. Some closed storage for the less often used things in our lives, open storage for things you need to access all the time and some handy hooks for purses, dog leashes and coats.
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