Maximizing Mudroom Functionality – We don’t have a proper mudroom in our house and our garage door, which we use as our primary entrance, throws us directly into our kitchen. So, you may remember that we imposed one’s function on our large kitchen remodel by placing large cabinets with doors—kind of like lockers, but nicer—right next to the door that leads to our garage. If you’ve got a small space but still want some mudroom storage, we recommend cabinetry with doors like these! But now that we’ve been living with our mudroom lockers for more than two years since our kitchen renovation, we’ve realized that a few simple changes will make these hidden cubbies work a lot more for us.
To help you get oriented, here’s the area of our kitchen we’re talking about. That garage door is our main entrance, and if you look at the floor plan options we considered during our renovation, you’ll understand why these mudroom cabinets have been such a big improvement for us. We can store all our gear – shoes, jackets, backpacks, boots, purses, gloves and hats – conveniently by the door, but all that clutter hides. It’s been such an upgrade from our old system of walking halfway through the kitchen to put shoes in a big dusty shoe basket that was left open, and then trekking closer to the coat closet to hang everything else.
Maximizing Mudroom Functionality
Our “mini mudroom,” as we call it, consists of two large cabinets that go from floor to ceiling. And those two cabinets each have two doors — meaning each of our four family members has their own side (or locker, if you will). You’ve probably seen our kids’ side the most, which is pretty much what it looks like since the remodel was completed. We added hooks on the back wall for their jackets and backpacks and added a bin underneath for extra shoes. It gets a little messy sometimes, but overall it’s been super efficient for us and them.
Style, Welcoming Ambience, Functionality: Entryway & Mudroom Upgrades For Your Home
Tip: We put a basket of socks in there with their shoes, which makes it much easier for them to get out the door than send them back upstairs.
Above the children’s lockers, we have additional storage space in our overhead cabinets where we keep our winter items in bins: scarves, hats, gloves, etc. We bring it into the main cabinet locker when they’re in season, but they stay up, organized, and out of sight most of the year!
Our side has had the same setup for the past two years: hooks, shelves and shoe baskets… but over time we realized it wasn’t working for us the way we wanted. The primary problem is that our stuff is just big. Our coats are long, so sometimes they bunch up at the bottom and wrinkle where they hit the bottom shelf (instead of hanging freely), and the bins barely hold my three shoes (and 3 shoes is not a helpful number). Sherry’s bin could hold more of her shoes since they are smaller than mine, but it would get so crowded that it would be impossible for her to quickly grab a pair without taking out the whole basket every time. Meanwhile, our children’s tiny shoes can slide off with the slightest tip of the bin. What works for them doesn’t work for us.
I know you’re probably thinking: then just adjust the shelves! Well, the problem – and actually why we set it up in the first place – is that the shelves are set at the highest and lowest points, based on the pre-drilled holes in the cabinet. So when we finished renovations in 2016 we didn’t really have the appetite or energy to drill extra holes and move things around. “It’ll be fine,” we said. Oh, we were tired. But fast-forward to 2018 and it finally seemed like an easy weekend job.
Mudroom Inspiration And Ideas
That blue tape mark above is where we decided we wanted to move the shelf, and so drill a new hole. They sell shelf pin templates and jigs for making holes like this, but I didn’t want to spend $20 or $30 on a few holes, so I went old school and just used a ruler to mark everything on the tape, making sure it was level and level. Align vertically with the holes. Not only did the tape keep me from writing on the cabinet, but it also helps keep the wood veneer from chipping when you drill into it.
Once everything was marked, I stuck a different size drill bit into one of the existing holes until we could make a matching hole. Then I used blue tape to mark the depth of the existing hole on the drill bit, so I didn’t end up drilling through the entire side of the cabinet. Once my drill bit sank to meet that piece of tape, I knew it was deep enough and stopped drilling. BOOM: Instant holes that were the same size and depth as the pre-drilled ones that came with the cabinet.
We didn’t have any more pegs in our cabinet to use for an extra shelf rest, but you can find a box of them at a home improvement store. The store didn’t have the click lock variety that came with our cabinets, but these fancy pegs with a sturdy plastic platform were under $3 and did the trick just fine.
After drilling all the new holes in the bottom (we added two on each side) we also drilled a new hole in the top so we could raise the top shelf and, in turn, raise our hooks a bit. Suddenly our coat could hang without hitting the bottom shelf. And we didn’t have room for one, but the bottom had two shoe shelves thanks to the top shelf and hook up move. Then all we had to do was dig out one of the extra shelves we put in the attic (we could have made one out of plywood if we didn’t have it on hand) and – blahmo! Now our side of the mudroom looks like this:
Mudroom Before And Afters
Tip: The two gray bags above are these random charcoal bags that Sherry likes. They absorb odors so they’re great for a motherroom or shoe basket, and you leave them in the sun for an hour every month and then toss them in the cabinet to continue their work.
It may not seem like a dramatic difference, but by adding extra shelving to the bottom we were able to ditch the shoe bins entirely, allowing us adults to store more shoes and access them more easily. In fact, Sherry can now store all of her walking shoes in here (seven pairs!) so she no longer has to make last-minute runs to the bedroom closet. And the three pairs I usually wear fit easily, although they are significantly larger than Sherry’s.
We wouldn’t have found the extra space for the shoes if we hadn’t removed the top shelf and the hooks (we initially had a lot of dead space above the top shelf, but it was in the highest drilled holes before so we said ok, if it’s the highest hole But we’ll keep the shelf there”). It’s a great place for a few practical things that keep us organized, like a bowl for our keys and my wallet, a mail holder that Sherry got from Target to serve as a gift card organizer, our alarm pad, dog leashes, etc. Oh and that rectangle of wood you see above is one of Sherry’s deodorizing tricks – it’s one of those cedar panels, which definitely keeps these cubbies smelling good. There is also one next to the children.
This little update was a reminder to us that sometimes you have to stick around for a while to find the best ways to make it work. And sometimes at the end of a big project, it’s okay to be tired and think “This is probably going to be okay, and if it’s not, I’ll deal with it later.” And when you finally find the steam to address them down the road, they can be surprisingly satisfying. I mean, look how satisfying the burger looks below:
Best Mudroom Ideas For Stylish Organization
Speaking of Berger, he likes to hang around whenever we pull out the camera and tripod. But this time he was nervous that we
Oh, and since I know this question will come up. All of these photos taped to the inside of the cabinet doors are from our custom page-a-day calendar that I’m delighted to have every time.
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