Minimalist Mudroom Makeover

This past year we moved into a new home that had a minimalist mudroom area with a lot of potential. While Courtney Carver’s sentiment, “If you have to buy stuff to store your stuff, you may have too much stuff” may be true much of the time, there are occasions when storage solutions are needed — especially for a family of six!

I’m not one to follow guidelines but the give everything (essential) a home is a guideline I stick close to! Even a minimal amount of the everyday stuff for 6 people can add up! So today I’m sharing our super quick mudroom makeover to help the daily flow in our family run a bit smoother!

        

This is what the mudroom area looked like beforehand. We had a bench (read clutter-bench) for everything to be tossed on and the drawer storage for our family’s hats, gloves, and kids dress up costumes. We got rid of the bench and moved the drawer storage in the small coat closet near our front door entry.

 

We got rid of this dark colored bench and moved the drawer storage to a small coat closet near our front door entry.

Our Quick Mudroom Makeover

And here is the new mudroom. This area has very little natural light so we primed over the gray walls and painted them white. We plan on moving again in the near future and I think this is a good look for resale. The door is opened frequently by kids who’ve been playing outside — the darker blue color helps hide all the little marks while adding a pop of color. It’s a bit lighter in person.

 

Here is the mudroom with the door open allowing in some natural light. I have four children and each child uses a bottom hook for their backpack and sweater. My husband and I as well as guests can use the top row hooks. The kids also have their own cubby to place their shoes.

For the time being, we took this white shelf from the kids’ playroom area (now there are just 4 bins of toys on the floor). We plan on installing a floating bench in the future and returning the white bench shelf to the kids’ play area.

We’ve had these two wall letter/file bins for years — moving them from house to house. This is where my two older kids put their school papers (oh the papers!!) They put the papers I’m to look at in the top pocket of their respective bin — then I put any papers that need to be returned to school in the bottom pocket of their bin. They know when there are papers in the bottom bin they are ready to be placed in their backpacks and returned to school. This has helped keep the papers off the kitchen counter!

If we didn’t have this great mudroom space I would probably have put up these wall hooks in the small coat closet near our front door. Giving everything a home really makes a difference, even after you’ve minimized your possessions.