In our climate in the Northwest, many homeowners understand the benefits of a mudroom. It provides that extra storage and contains your jackets and shoes in one place, keeping the rain, dirt, or mud from migrating into the rest of your home. In this mudroom guide, we’ll cover where a mudroom is typically located in a home, why they’re so great for homeowners, and eleven design ideas to get you started on designing your own mudroom space.
Mudroom Defined
A mudroom can do more than keep your home purposefully organized by acting as a transitional area that connects your home with the outside world. It can be more than just a catch-all where you can hang coats and hats, store school backpacks, and keep wet boots from tracking all over your beautiful floors. Today’s mudrooms are curated to architecturally flow with the rest of the home’s design with high-end finishes that are both practical and lovely. Specifically for floors, there are many floor materials that are either water-resistant or waterproof that are made of quality and tasteful materials.
Often located by the entry the family uses most, the majority of families use mudrooms as an informal or secondary entryway, saving the formal entrance for visitors.
Benefits of a Mudroom
When built with design and purpose, a mudroom is both beautiful and intentional. Custom-designed mudrooms can include benches for family and guests to take off shoes, hooks for backpacks, storage cubbies for shoes, and cabinets for storing the overflow of bedding, paper goods, cleaning supplies, and more. Today’s mudroom does more than keep clutter at bay. Whether you like rustic, modern, or something more traditional, a mudroom is a way to express your own personality and get creative. Let’s explore some ways to create a gorgeous and functional custom mudroom for your home.
Planning a Mudroom
When planning a mudroom consider what is important to you and think about how you will use the space.
- Number of shoes and boots
- Place for muddy dogs
- Small children area
- Sports equipment
- Connection to laundry room
- Connection to kitchen
- Number of coats
Mudroom Bench
A bench is the backbone of a well-designed mudroom, offering an inviting place to kick off shoes, untie boots, or dig through bags to find those elusive missing keys. Built-in mudroom benches made of weather-resistant and easy-to-clean materials such as granite or painted wood are a good option for active families.
Mudroom Cubbies
Because a mudroom is a transitory room, one does not want to spend much time organizing or hanging clothes up. The best organizational approach for most mudroom closets is custom mudroom cubbies. It doesn’t matter how many people live in your household — determining where things belong makes it easy to access quick day-to-day items and keeps shoes, hats, and gloves organized.
Built-in Mudroom Closets and Cabinets
When designing a mudroom, use as much vertical space as possible, from floor to ceiling. Mixing closet spaces with cubbies into your mudroom creates more real-life usable space to store coats, rainwear, snow clothes, and other seasonal items, tucking them away until you are ready to use them. Custom mudroom cabinets create a seamless design from the entryway to the kitchen, giving you the useful luxury of hidden storage that makes it easy to clean up and keep things out of your way.
Mudroom Islands
Islands are not always just for kitchens. In fact, some mudrooms are designed into the extension of a kitchen, with an island providing a workspace for a variety of kitchen needs such as a staging area for parties to large appliance storage, or an organizing area to put away coats, shoes, groceries or school supplies.
Mudroom Shoe Storage
Shoes often can get out of control. By creating a custom shoe rack in your mudroom you can quickly locate the shoe or boot you wish to wear when you go outside. As you design, think about your habits and how much area you would need. If you have unusually sized shoes – like tall boots, keep the storage areas flexible with different sized cubby areas. Boot dryers are also an interesting addition to a mudroom, allowing wet boots and shoes to dry out before storage.
Mudroom Sport Equipment Storage
For those with sports-minded family members who bring in anything from tennis balls to football helmets, built-in lockers are a great addition to your mudroom to contain all the sports equipment. Custom mudroom lockers are a clever solution for storing lacrosse sticks, balls, golf clubs, and other sports equipment.
Mudroom Desk
Mudrooms don’t have to be exclusively for organizing shoes, boots, sports equipment and coats. Desks allow the mudroom to double as a workspace providing a stylish “homework zone”, crafting or work-from-home area for household members.
Mudroom Flooring
The flooring in your mudroom should be ready to endure water, dirt, and debris while being simple to clean. When selecting the finest flooring option for your mudroom, durability and aesthetic appeal should be considered. There are many options today for durable floors, from natural stone, brick, natural linoleum or vinyl flooring that emulates wood.
Kid-Friendly Mudrooms
If you have kids in the home you know that they often avoid any attempt towards organization. This can often be because the storage spaces aren’t made for them. Consider low-hanging hooks, resilient flooring, cubbies or boxes near floor-level, and open shelving they can get to easily. Design locker areas with storage so they can keep all their coats, water bottles, and school bags in one place.
Pet-Friendly Mudrooms
When your furry friend comes back from a walk covered in mud, a rinse-off station in your mudroom will keep both your pet and your home clean. Pull-out dog bowls, hidden food storage bins, and built-in kennel areas make it easy to stay organized. A raised island platform for grooming saves your back and under cabinet shelving keeps toys, treats, and towels within easy reach.
Multi-Purpose Mudrooms
Premier home mudrooms are going beyond a transitional space; they encompass all parts of life from laundry to work. Mudrooms are no longer about strict durability and storage and are now aimed at beautifully functional spaces that are a joy to be in. Many homeowners are making mudrooms a multi-use space with “everything and the sink”. Washers, dryers, sinks, workspaces, crafting desks, TVs and more are all finding their way into multi-purpose mudrooms making it easy to clean up and stay organized.
Let Hamish Murray Construction Build Your Home Remodel
At Hamish Murray Construction, Inc., we believe that every aspect of your home, from attics to mudrooms, should be all about you. We have building experience across a wide variety of home styles. If you are interested in talking to us about your plans, we’d be happy to help and see if we’re the best builder for you.
As collaborative planners and detailed executors, we work with independent designers and architects, trade partners, and other construction professionals to keep your project going smoothly, on schedule, and on budget. Our talented team takes your vision to build or remodel a home from start to finish, creating a result you will love.
We would love to hear about your project. Contact us or reach us at (503) 460-7203 with any questions you may have and let us help you make your home or remodel dreams come true.