Mudrooms are the drop station as we enter our homes. They hold coats, shoes, hats, bags, and umbrellas, just to name a few. Creating solutions that keep all of these mudroom items organized is just as important as organization in your kitchen or living room.
Throughout the past week, we’ve been talking about my friend Annie’s New England colonial home and helping her find more storage in her home. We’ve provided solutions that will keep her home organized and keep items neatly tucked away and out of sight.
So far, we’ve created plans for her kitchen, dining, and living rooms. If you missed them, you can read them here:
Part 1: Kitchen Organization
Part 2: Dining Room Simplified
Part 3: Living Room Hidden Storage
Today let’s talk about Annie’s mudroom…
Annie’s home has a typical colonial first-floor, floor plan. The mudroom is a small hallway entering off the garage. It’s the perfect place for Annie’s family to drop their coats, shoes, and hats as they enter the house.
Currently, there’s tall, thin dresser and a hall tree stand similar to these in the mudroom:
They’re both beautiful pieces of furniture that would work perfectly for a small family; but five children have a lot of shoes and a lot of coats. The hall tree is just too small and leaves little space for shoes. So how to we re-work the mudroom? Here’s a very simple, yet efficient mudroom plan.
The tall chest holds winter hats and mittens and will stay in the mudroom.
STORAGE OPTION 1: Shoes
First priority is adequate shoe storage. A long, custom-made bench with an extra shelf will hold several shoes. The bench can be made of solid wood, stained boards similar to the way we made these wood benches (except with a few minor adjustments per the plan).
STORAGE OPTION 2: Coats
The current hall tree stand only has a few coat hooks that are far too small and that are placed much too low for the long jackets. The new plan calls for six to seven large, iron hooks attached to a stained wood board – stained the same color as the bench. The board will be hung much higher on the wall to hold jackets of Annie’s very tall teenagers. Hanging them high will also keep the shoes from being covered.
STORAGE OPTION 3: Bags & Hats
The mudroom is also used to hold several hats and travel & lunch bags. Currently, they’re piled high on top of the tall chest. To better organize them, the new plan will have a long, wood shelf – made of wood similar to that used for the bench and stained the same color.
To build and hang this shelf, let’s take a look at how Ashley from the Little Glass Jar created her very similar, stained, wood boards for her pantry. You may also want to check out how she created the shiplap walls too. Very cool.
A few wood boards, wood stain, and wood screws and this mudroom will be completely organized for this family of seven. Mudroom organization solved.
Note: This post contains affiliate links to products I love and would use myself.
New York Roofing says
Your mudroom post is simply perfect and insightful. It is important to place storage cabinets in a mudroom too to hang clothes and other belongings that you can’t take inside the room and living space. Mudroom storage pictures are really helpful to make one of theses storage piece.