Before & After: The Mudroom

I intended to share the master bedroom and bath pictures with you next. That was until I realized what a p-o-o-r job I'd done taking After pictures of the bathroom. And I really won't have the daylight to take proper pictures again until this weekend. So.

Today it's the mudroom!

Our new-to-us house has so many wonderful features that make it the perfect home for our family. One thing it did not have when we purchased it was a hall closet -- or anywhere to hang jackets, backpacks, etc. -- other than in the bedroom closets.

After enjoying our makeshift mudroom in our previous house for several years -- just a series of hooks in our main hallway -- I knew we needed to find a place in the new house for something similar, if not more generous.

A couple of months ago, I had an idea. Basically, there was a pantry in the hallway between the kitchen and the garage. But there was also a pantry cabinet -- albeit a shallow one -- in the newly designed kitchen, and a completely empty closet in the laundry room, which is adjacent to the kitchen.

In the picture below, the pantry cabinet is that tall white one in the foreground. The actual former pantry was right behind it, to the right of the door to the garage, and the laundry room is to the left of the door to the garage.

My idea was, I thought the old pantry would make a great mudroom. Right by the garage, and I'd turn the empty closet in the laundry room into a supplemental pantry space to help make up what we'd be losing in the process.

Well, this tiny little area ended up being quite the project. The contractor had to tear out the door casing, widen the opening and then build out the mudroom to my specifications. (And I'm quite the specifier.) (This shocks exactly EVERYONE READING, I know.)

There's no natural light in the hallway, so I'll show you a set of After pictures with the small canned light on, then a set with it off.

BEFORE

AFTER

In keeping with the rest of the color palette in the house, the trim is Benjamin Moore's White Dove, and the ceiling is Palladian Blue. The bench seat is cedar stained Provincial by Minwax.

BEFORE

 AFTER

Since we moved in, I've added a natural basket to each of the cubbies, and three large natural baskets under the bench for shoes. School starts this morning, so time will tell if it will work out as well for us as the hooks did at the old house!

Sources:

Ceiling Paint: Benjamin Moore Palladian Blue

Trim Paint: Benjamin Moore White Dove