What I Would Change About My Mudroom

I have a confession—I think I’ve been doing mudrooms all wrong

I have a confession—I think I’ve been doing mudrooms all wrong… well not entirely, but maybe I’ve been designing them to look nice, clean, and well designed but then they don’t function as well. If there is one space in our homes where function should most definitely be the number one priority it is the mudroom. 

Where I’ve gone wrong is only doing mudroom lockers with doors on them. I should say that I do like my lockers, I would give them an 8/10 but there are definitely some things I would do differently.

Here’s the reality—if you have children and you are designing/building a mudroom as a place to corral their backpacks, coats, shoes, and design doors on your lockers, a lot of times they will find anywhere else that is open to put their things. Inevitably, that space will become the dumping ground for all of their things until you yell at (kindly ask) them to put their things away. This is all fine and good, but I am a believer in your home working for you, not you working for your home. I have been thinking and researching other ways that we could be designing our mudrooms so they are aesthetically pleasing and also a workhorse/easy to use for everyone. 

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SHOE STORAGE

Let’s talk about shoe storage in a mudroom. Almost all of my clients use their mudrooms as a place to store the family’s shoes. Most of us want our cohabiters to take their muddy shoes off in the mudroom before walking all the way to their bedrooms, which makes a lot of sense. In this case, we need adequate shoe storage in the mudroom, especially for utility footwear like boots.

The images below show genius shoe storage that I think work better than lower drawers under the mudroom locker for shoes.