How to Create a Mini Entryway Mudroom
Entryways can become cluttered spots very quickly without a proper system in place. With guest coats, shoes and bags we needed a system that would allow our guests a designated spot to put their things as well as some extra storage space for our own.
Our front closet was beginning to become a nightmare. It was hard for our guests to know where to put their things when they entered our home because the closet was not easy to access. If you tried to open the closet door and the front door at the same time they would hit each other. The closet door also cut off access to the dining room when open making it hard for people to navigate into our home. Most of the time our guests ended up just piling everything on the stairway or on the floor in front of it.
My family doesn't use the front door to enter our house so really I just needed this space to function for our guests. I wanted to make a spot where they could set their bags down and hang their coats, but still allow us some overflow storage.
When working on this project I went through several different steps.
1) REDEFINE THE SPACE
Before we had a bunch of random things stored in the closet. I wanted to clear it all out and make this more of a mudroom feel and a space where our guests could put their things when visiting. I found some examples on Pinterest that sparked the idea to remove the door and make it into a mini mudroom.
2) REMOVE THAT DOOR
It was such a game changer once I took the door down, you could easily see where guests could put their things as well as walk through the hallway into the dining room.
2) CLEAR IT ALL OUT
Where did all of this junk come from? We had all of our winter gear, spare coats, shoes and all of our board games. I sorted through all of the coats and got rid of ones that we were not wearing and stored the rest of them in the basement until we need them again. I removed the games and put them down into the basement in the game room.
Once you know what needs to go back into the space it is easier to plan out how it will be set up.
3) SLAP A COAT OF PAINT ON IT
Since the closet was now going to be open I wanted it to match the paint color we had in the hallway. We had the paint leftover so it was free to give the space a face lift. It is amazing what a fresh coat of paint can do to a space. I not only painted the walls but the shelves that were previously in the closet. I decided to keep those to save money and just work with what we had.
I also decided to paint the doorway trip white to brighten it up. I did have to purchase that paint as we didn't have any white paint on hand.
4) SHOP YOUR HOUSE
I was trying to keep this project budget low. In order to do this one major key I have learned is to shop your house. That means look around and see if you can use something that you already own. I was able to use several things we already owned. The first was a piece of paneling for the back of the closet we had left over from a previous project (see below for install tips).
I new I wanted a place where people could sit to put on their shoes and remembered that I had a storage bench that I actually built with my grandparents when I was little. I sanded it down and painted it with a few coats of chalk paint I already owned and it works perfectly in the closet.
We also had some pillows from a couch we purchased a few months ago that we were not using so I put those on top of the bench.
5) ORGANIZE IT
For several of my organizing projects I always start at one of my favorite stores....Dollar Tree. I mean who wouldn't love a place where everything is only a dollar! I went in with a list of exactly what I was looking for. I knew that I needed 3 baskets for the top shelves to store all of our winter boots and snow pants, baskets for the second shelf for scarfs and mittens and then I wanted some smaller baskets to hang on the inside wall for all of Ellie's extra shoes.
It is important to have a plan in place and know what you are looking for when going into a place like the Dollar Tree as it is very easy to get distracted and wind up with a bunch of things you don't need.
PRO TIP: When organizing always group like things together. In the white baskets in the top of our closet I have a basket for each member of my family, these baskets house our snow boots and snow pants. In the gray baskets we each have one for our winter gloves, hats and scarfs and then in the fourth basket is all of my husbands baseball caps. In the trunk we have all of our extra shoes. We like to store our shoes downstairs instead of in our closets since our bedrooms are on our upper floor. When thinking of where to store things think of convenience and ease of use.
THE REVEAL:
This space turned out better than I was hoping. It has allowed our family...and our guest a much easier (and prettier) spot to store all of our things. It has been so much easier for our guests when they come over, they know exactly where they can put their things and they can enter right into the space as the door is no longer blocking the way. Hope you picked up a few tips you can use for your entryway!
BEAD BOARD PANEL INSTALL:
MATERIALS:
- sheet of white bead board paneling
- liquid nail adhesive or nail gun
- saw
1) Measure your space
2) Mark the back of the bead board paneling. To do this we used a ruler and a chalk reel to snap a straight line down the panel as our cutting guide.
3) Use a hand saw to cut the panel down to size. We just used what we had but if you have a proper saw that would be the best to use to ensure a straight cut. We also had to notch out two corners to fit around the wood shelves at the top of the closet.
4) Dry fit your paneling into the space to ensure fit. We had to make several adjustments until we got a snug fit. It will help if your measuring is accurate and your cuts our straight.
5) We don't have a nail gun so we just used liquid nail adhesive to secure the paneling to the wall. If you have a nail gun you could use that as well.
6) Apply a top coat of paint.
