The Mudroom Reveal

One of the things that was top priority in our house hunt was some sort of entry way - an area to come in, take off your shoes, hang up your coat, and stash incoming and outgoing mail.  I was really just hoping to find a separation between the entrance and the living room, I never thought we'd find a house with an entire mud room!  It's been one of the most fun, and at times challenging rooms to decorate.  Like the rest of the house, the room had no blinds on the windows when we moved in and has an ugly radiator, albeit this one is hidden behind an even uglier cover.  That area is still up for debate as to what we'll do with it, but the rest of the room is donzo!

Here are some before shots.  The hubs was removing the old curtain hardware.

Obviously, this room was covered in dark wood paneling like most of the downstairs.  My cure for that (and most other things) was to paint it white.  The hubs got to work and after a coat of primer and a few coats of paint, we said goodbye to the knotty pine and hello to bright white.   

Primed and ready for some paint

 

The room was instantly transformed just with the primer.  The two coats of white we added after didn't hurt either.  We had also painted the top section just after we moved in with the same blue we used in the living room.  I love blue and white together.

We bought some cheap hooks at the Container Store (with a gift card!) and the hubs installed those right away.  They're great for stashing your coat or purse if you're lazy heading out again soon.  We hung up our wedding sign and I grabbed some sticks in a vase for the corner.   

 

Then I set out to complete the wall heading into the living room.  The table is from Target.  We had that in our entry in our apartment, so it just made the move.  I shopped the rest of the house for the accessories and found a fab mirror at Home Goods (still had those gift cards!).  I wanted the room to be cottagey but not too beachy, so I think the shape and design of the mirror is beachy but the black finish moderinizes it a little bit.  
 

Next up was the area under the windows.  I really had wanted some built in's here with additional storage, but when I saw this bench at Pier 1, I knew it was perfect, not to mention on sale.  We didn't get the cushion right away because it was crazy ridiculously priced at $70.  I scoured every store I could think of looking for one and even looked at fabric to make one ourselves.  But then, low and behold, on a return trip to Pier 1, the cushion was marked down to under $50.  It came home with me that afternoon.

My original plan for the windows was some floral curtains I had seen on Pinterest, but I couldn't find anything similar that wouldn't break the bank.  So off to Target I went with my buy one get one half off curtains coupon and bought some burlap colored curtains.  Thanks for the idea, Krissy!  Once I had those, the rest of the room basically put itself together.  I would have never thought of pairing tan with blue and black, but I love how it pops in the room.  The pillows we had in our apartment and are from Pottery Barn.   

Finally, I knew we needed an in/out bin.  We always have something going somewhere or coming in and it was ending up on top of the radiator cover.  I went to Home Goods about 22 times before I found exactly what I was looking for.  We put it up that night, I dropped in our first piece of outgoing mail...and it disappeared.  The bin was too deep to see what was actually in there.  So...I got creative.  I bought some of those green plant things (I have no idea what they're really called) at the dollar store and popped them in the bottom.  The next piece of mail I dropped in was visible over the edge.  Crisis averted! We had the sign in our apartment as well.  Another Target find.

So here's the finished project all put together.

 

 

I wish I could say that this room is as clean as it looks in the pictures, but it still remains a dumping ground for all our comings and goings.  Baby steps.

Be well,