Mudroom Organization
Hi Friends, happy first day of Spring!
Okay, it's not a mudroom, but for now, I'm going to pretend it is because I don't like "entryway" or "hallway" and it's usually muddy, anyways. It's the space you first see when you come home, the first impression you offer your visitors and sometimes the most embarrassing part of the house. My kids come back from school and immediately drop everything at the front door and it sits on the floor, until I’ve picked it all up. In the winter you can't even see the floor.
The hallway is quite long and narrow. I had a small bench, but it looked awkward and made the room feel empty, so I added in a dresser, which became a dumping ground. The shoes didn't fit under the bench, so they were shoved in the corner or thrown in the closet. I had bins in the hallway before, but the shoes ended up getting ruined or smelling because dirt and moisture were collecting at the bottom. As a last resort, I put a big ugly metal shoe rack in the corner behind the door. The room wasn't working for any of us, and I'm one of those people who get cranky when things are unorganized. Before the kids headed back to school from March break, I wanted to improve how the area functioned for our family.
I kept the 10Ft coat rack we've had hanging in there for years, I just sanded it down and had Anthony build onto it so the top part could be a shelf. Then, I stained it in a lighter more farmhouse-ish colour.
I cleaned out the closet donating coats that are too small and added storage behind the door for hats, mittens, & neck warmers.
We found a 10ft Church pew and painted it white. We tried to keep it natural, but it was making me dizzy. I tried sanding, stripping, bleaching, staining, pickling....nothing improved those stripes, so I painted it white.
We took apart the ugly shoe rack, built boxes around each tier and added wheels so the kids could easily move them in and out.
I love how it all came together, and because everything has a place the kids are comfortable putting things away, or at least they can’t use the excuse that they don’t know where it goes.
I'll have a tutorial for the shoe storage up on the blog tomorrow or Friday.
Megan, xo
