Five Must-Haves for a Beautiful and Functional Mudroom

Well, what a crazy few weeks it has been, but we did it! We are moved into our new house and so ready to share each and every space with you. The very first area we are going to be sharing is our mudroom. When we started our planning stages with Frusterio Design, we knew we wanted a separate mudroom and laundry room. Each would serve a different purpose and not to mention they were going to be on totally opposite sides of the home.

The first question we asked ourselves when planning the design was what purpose and function should our mudroom serve? This allowed us to decide what needed to be included in this room.

Here are a few things we came up with that we felt were essential for creating a mudroom that is both beautiful and functional. We feel like we got pretty darn close to our vision and would love to know what you think. At this point, it is a blank slate for decorating, so number five will be a work in progress with help from you all in the upcoming weeks.

Beautiful Lighting

The very first thing we picked out for our mudroom was our wall sconces. The lighting was an important part of the look and feel of the mudroom. We wanted the area to have a clean, but classy look while adding in some warmth. We opted to do only wall sconces and recessed lighting. We felt that in this particular space, both wall sconces, and a pendant light would be overpowering. We did add one into the doorway of the garage area.

The wall sconces we chose from Hudson Valley Lighting, designed by Mark D. Sikes was exactly what we were looking for.

The mixture of the warm, classy brass with black was perfect! The Metal No. 2 wall sconce by Hudson Valley Lighting added sophistication to an area that could easily look worn down with shoes boots and backpacks.

We used a total of three wall sconces, one above each locker. Each locker is almost 36″ wide, so we made sure the sconce was a decent size. The Metal No. 2 sconce is 9.5×11 in diameter. I don’t think we could have chosen a better light!

Custom Built-ins

Not only is it important to have beautiful lighting, but custom built-in lockers are also a must! So, as you know Henry is the king of built-ins… or so he thinks. He really does such a great job with designing and building them. Custom built-ins can easily be done by DIYing them which is a great way to get exactly what you want and also save some money.

With custom built-ins, you are able to make them fit the needs of your family. For example, we did three pretty good size locker units. One for each child and one for Henry and I to share. Hmmm, not sure why we have to share, but I think it had something to do with symmetry and the area while he designed it. Anyway, they serve the purpose and we have plenty of room in our locker to share.

Decorative Hooks

Another way to dress up the custom built-ins and mudroom area is to add decorative hooks. The hooks you choose should fit the style you are going with.

For instance, we went for a more classier look and chose a brass hook. It also ties in nicely with our wall sconce. We did two hooks in each locker unit. The number you go with should depend on how much space you are working with horizontally.

Henry and I debated about this forever. He wanted three and I wanted two. I won!

Seating/Bench

Seating is always necessary for a mudroom. I mean, you have to have somewhere to put your shoes on, right? When doing custom built-ins, it is easy to add in bench seating to the built-in lockers. If you don’t do built-ins, a bench is always another option.

We wanted some contrast with our light color, so Henry built the seating from oak and stained it. There are many ways to go with this, but we loved the fact that the stained wood added in some warmth and created a nice contrast with all of the white.

Storage

I know we all want everything to look beautiful, but let’s face it, our mudroom needs to be functional as well. Along with the hooks, we decided to add in some top and bottom cubbies for storage. The top cubbies are for baskets and organization, while the bottom will probably be used for shoes. Stay tuned because I’m going to need your help picking out the perfect baskets for this space.

When doing custom built-ins, it is pretty easy to customize and add storage where you need it. If you aren’t doing custom, I would suggest big and small baskets along with some type of console table with drawers.

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