It's The Great Mudroom Reveal, Charlie Brown!

It really is AMAZING how one simple, little thing can change the flow of your days and the stress in your life. Having a mudroom that works means the ability to get in and out of the house expeditiously and safely, and it has singlehandedly made my life so much easier!

I almost forgot to take "before" pictures, so focused was I on the changes ahead. So halfway through emptying the closet, I grabbed my camera. Here is what our mudroom looked like before we pulled ourselves up by our DIY bootstraps...

 

You can see the beginnings of something taking shape - the fabulous wall quote that was a gift from  my friend Sandy, who was my BFF before BFFs were cool (in fact, I'm pretty sure we started the idea back in 1984, but we'll let all the TXTers think they were the geniuses). 

But the rest?  The rest was just a Hot Mess.

                    

And this is AFTER I removed the twentyeleven coats hanging from the rod and the giant baskets of stuff that had fallen over and created this mess. 

The double closet with the sliding doors was killing us.  It took up half the tiny mudroom, leaving us not enough space to get our gear on without knocking each other over.  My mind first went toward demolition - I needed a sledgehammer to take that closet DOWN!  But reason prevailed - I don't have the time, or the resources (mental or financial) to go remodeling this place.  I just needed to find a way to make the space work for us - which is where the idea to take off the closet doors was born.

And it WORKED!!  I merged ideas from all of my inspiration photos (thank you Google!) and the end result has been nothing short of  a miracle.  And the best part is that all it required was one saw cut, a few nails, and some paint. 

Here she is, the NEW and IMPROVED Mallett Mudroom!!!

 

Aaaah!  Just looking at it makes my stress melt away.  The tray table is destined for another spot in the house, but it's a good placeholder for a thrifted dresser I have yet to find and paint blue.  It will hold all our overflow gear, like mittens and hats in winter, and floaties and beach towels in summer.  All of which are in a bucket in the laundry room currently...baby steps! 

The lamp is a $29.99 find from Homegoods, as is the glass jar filled with Springtimey things that remind me that spring is only FORTY DAYS AWAY!!!  The faux paperwhites were $8 on clearance from Pottery Barn.  Have I mentioned that it ROCKS to have a PB store nearby - the seasonal clearance items make me swoon!  Thank goodness I can only go when I'm alone, which isn't often. 

Molly's infamous ruby slippers (well, infamous among the twelve people who saw our realtor photos from Edgewater Drive, har har) hanging on the blue doorknob hook.  This was one thing I KNEW would be incorporated into the mudroom.  It's one of the few truly original ideas I've ever had, but even more than that, it's my favorite way to decorate - around items that highlight our family's journey in an artful way that makes sense within the house.  Sure, I could stick a picture of Molly in her red shoes on a shelf, but to me, this is a way that takes one memory as a seed that blossoms into many new memories. 

All of our comings and goings are past those shoes, and maybe my kids one day will put their own little girls in ruby slippers and remember the shoes that watched over their shoulders as they came and went all these years.

Sigh. So anywho...

functional + neutral backdrop + seaglass hues + pops of red + familynostaligia + far too much vinyl lettering. 

That's pretty much the theme here.  And the closet?  What closet?

I don't even remember the old closet, so functional and fabulous is this new niche.  Each person gets their own double hook for their coat and bag, plus a spot for their boots in the boot tray.  They are LABELED because 'some people' (and by that I mean Marc) have been known to commandeer more hooks than their fair share, creating an ugly domino effect. 

When I couldn't find the cottagey white bench of my dreams within a price point I liked, I'd initially wanted to paint this $89.99 BJURSTA bench from IKEA white and make a cushion for it.  Once I got it home though,  I remembered that I have three children and zero free time and that a black bench with a few pillows on top would do just FINE thankyouverymuch. 

The surname photo-art above the hooks was a Christmas gift from my parents. My mom and I clearly share a brain, because this is the same art that was hanging in one of my inspiration photos - but she ordered it BEFORE I posted my inspiration photo.  (insert mysterious music here...)

Initially I had some nice, cheap, chrome hooks to put up, but when I went with the black bench, I knew I had to get the dark hooks to match, even though they were three times the price at $6.50 apiece.

The pillows were a Homegoods clearance find for $18.00!  And they have a coordinating but contrasting fabric on the back, which matches a shower curtain I bought for $8.00.  I'm going to use the fabric from the shower curtain in other projects around the house to tie in the color scheme.

The boot trays were $24.99 Target versions of the $49.99 ones from Ballard Designs  that I've coveted for many moons.  One is 3 years old and one is brand new and the only reason I know which is which is that I tried to scrub the sticker off the first one.  With the second one I knew not to bother because it wasn't coming off without a blowtorch!

The three clocks is an idea I have had in my idea bank for years from an HGTV mudroom redo on a show called Decorating Cents.  The idea didn't make sense when we lived in MA (I mean, what other time did I need to know but Pembroke Standard?)  But now it totally does!  Sadly, I am "time zone" challenged, consistenly adding or subtracting in the wrong direction to figure out what time it is in MA.  And I'm pitiful when Marc travels to London (which is often these days).  I ask questions like "is it still the same day there?" because my brain just. does. not. compute!  These clocks are my little secret weapon to my brain's shortcomings.  And they're cute.  And cheap!  I got them at Target for $2.99 apiece.  $2.99!!!  And they were yet another reason to get out my Cricut and cut some vinyl letters.

This laundry room door was a late LATE night design decision that looked AWFUL...until I put the vinyl on it!  Nothing like some black vinyl letters to add just the right amount of pizzazz!  I found the magazine holder last weekend at Homegoods for $19.99 and it is exactly what I need to corral the kids' papers after school each day.  But the blasted thing has two keyhole openings on the back and even though I've measured and marked the wall, it's going to take two screw anchors, two flathead screws of juuuust the right dimensions, a drill for a p

ilot hole, a screwdriver for the screw and a whole lotta prayers to get it up on the wall.  Goodness I do hate keyhole mounts!

So it LOOKS pretty, but how does it FUNCTION???  Take a look!

The key is to keep only the absolute, daily necessities here.  One jacket, one pair of shoes or boots, hat, mittens, and bag.  Overflow has to go elsewhere because it clutters up the works and the whole system goes to pot.  So for right now, we're keeping off season jackets, raincoats, and dress coats in everyone's bedroom closets.  

And now with the benefit of experience, I can see where the system needs to be tweaked to achieve optimum performance.  That will include pulling the bench forward to the front of the alcove, and adding a lower tier of hooks for each person.  Then the longer snowpants and coats can hang down behind the bench, and Molly and Ben will have hooks they can reach by themselves without having to stand on the bench.  I'd also LOVE  better overhead light and an electrical outlet or two, so that my lamp doesn't need an extension cord into the laundry room.

But all in all, this has been one awesome home improvement because not only has it added functionality to our lives, it has made our home more "ours".  I love going through the mudroom now - sometimes I'll just stand in there and soak it all in.  

Coming and going is SO much easier and better now.  And every time we pass through our doorway, we walk by another special treat from my mom - it sums up so much of how we feel about our home and our lives here....