Planning the Perfect Mudroom for Your Home

Mudroom Functions

A mudroom closet is not really necessarily a room, nor does it have to be a closet. It is a space you create to keep the mud (or snow or sand) out of the house. It holds the things the whole family uses when they leave the house. It may be a closet, a cabinet, or a wall unit. It can be a whole room, much like a walk in closet, with hanging and shelves.

In the winter in colder climates, there may be snow boots, skis, coats, gloves, scarves, umbrellas, back packs, etc. In warmer climates or seasons, there may be bathing suits, surfing boards, roller blades etc.

Very often it has a lot of shoe shelves, cubbies for kids' backpacks, hooks, and rods with hangers, all located at the right height for your children to reach.

The space can be open or behind doors. It is very much like the hallway closet as far as function goes, but often larger and very easily accessible. Creating cabinets rather than shelves may mean that some members of your family will not put their shoes away easily behind doors, while they would put them on an open shelf, rather than leave them lying around.

Finally, this part of your house can also accommodate things that you do not have any other space for. Your decision to use it this way would be part of your overall look at the whole house. For more about this see home organization.

Mudroom Locations

Some houses have one, most do not. Here are some places in your house where you can plan for one:

• In the garage, near the entrance to the house.
  Depending on the available space, it may just be a little set of shelves, 12" deep.
  It may also be a cabinet that has baskets, shoe shelves, hooks, cubbies, etc., behind doors.
  Or it could be a garage cabinet with hanging, shelves, pull-out baskets, whatever helps you and your family put away all those clothes, shoe and accessories you do not want lying around in the house.
• If you walk right into the laundry room from the garage, you may design a mudroom space in there, depending on how much room you have.
• Just recently I designed one in a little hallway that connects the back entrance to the rest of the house, with drawers and shelves and hanging on both sides. We even incorporated the recycling into the area.
• In many more recently built houses, the entrance at the front of the house is the place for the children to take off shoes, coats, gloves, backpacks etc. If you have small children, you can ask a closet designer to design one there that will grow as they do, and still function well for adults.

Mudroom Styles and Looks

Depending on where it is, you can dress it up to match the color of your furniture, or you can just have it built in white to match the trim and/or the doors, or to match the garage cabinets, the laundry room cabinets, etc.

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