Summer Mudroom & Updates

How is your summer going? I feel like it is just flying by, which makes me a little sad. We’ve worked really hard to slow down this summer and just enjoy sleeping in, family time and making time at the pool and just ‘hanging out’ a priority. My kids are growing so fast I don’t know how many more summers we’ll have like this one. I will be crying when school starts–though I am sure I’ll will also be happy to get back to getting more done during the day!

I got tired of our plain jane closet-turned-mudroom and made some updates. It was really functional, but once we got it complete I moved on to other projects and I never finished adding color or accessorizing it completely. This space works great for our family, and six months in I have no complaints about not having the doors to hide clutter. Sure, things pile up there, but it’s so much better to have the open hooks than too many coats crammed in a closet on hangers. Here’s how it looked before I added some paint and accessories:

{See how we built it HERE and HERE}

I started by finishing all the little details that still needed to be done, like caulking and painting everything the same glossy white so it all looked fresh and clean, then I added the gray stripes along the back wall. {see our tutorial here for painting stripes}

You can see this area is at the end of a tiny hallway leading to our back door– it’s hard to get a good angle to photograph it, but it is the perfect spot to collect coats, bags and shoes as we come and go through our garage entrance.

This is the mudroom in its summer look– tote bags and pool bags at the ready! It does look better without all the coats, boots and heavy scarves, let’s not think about those right now.

I added vinyl monograms to the chalkboard tags via the 11 Magnolia Lane ETSY shop, each child has a basket and my husband and I share one so our married monogram works perfectly.

I also added a large basket to hold shoes and a dog food container, both from HomeGoods. I also updated our recyling bin {see how I did that HERE} with another 11 Magnolia Lane on ETSY monogram.

Another HomeGoods bin sits on the bench to collect odds and ends, I keep things I need to return in it so I remember to grab them as I run out the door.

You can see the tutorial on how this space, formerly a closet, was turned into our mini-mudroom HERE and HERE.

The space is open to our new kitchen {see it here} so I wanted to make sure the decor would all blend. Everything is still functional but the space looks good enough to not have to be hidden behind closed doors.

To see more of our house and our DIY projects see our entire Home Tour HERE.

SOURCES:

Dog Food Bin and Bin for Shoes–HomeGoods

Recycling bin–purchase HERE, tutorial HERE.

Baskets–HERE

Vinyl Monograms–HERE

Pool bag–HERE  {similar}

Hunter boots–HERE

Pillows–HERE {pillow vendor, LookHereJane comes up frequently}

Now, I am off to the pool! Enjoy summer everyone! I hope you’re getting a chance to slow down a bit 🙂

XO,