From Hanging Closet to Itsy Bitsy Mudroom

Yeah!  We finally finished a home project.  So, on any given day, when you walk in from the garage (door pictured below) to our kitchen, you typically see this on our kitchen floor.

BTW, this is not staged….this was our everyday reality! The only place we had to store our stuff was a hanging rod closet (pictured below) (after my husband took out the hanging rod).

When you have children this is so impractical.  Kids can't reach the rod to hang up their coats, no place to store shoes and no hooks.  So, obviously, our kitchen floor became the dumping ground. 

I wanted a mudroom, but the only space we had was this hanging closet and given the limitations of our kitchen, I couldn't enlarge the closet.  So, I decided to work within my space limitations and create a design that is simple and practical.

In regards to design, my tiny mudroom needed to have shoe storage, hooks that both my 2 and 7 year olds could reach, a shelf for a basket or two, pretty corbels and a bench.  

My husband did ALL the physical labor and building of this project.  I designed and sketched out what I wanted and he built it.  Below you can see the progression.

Pictured above is the 2 x 4 base frame.  

Pictured below are the plywood shoe cubbies that he later added a hardwood face frame to.  

And, then finally, the AFTER…

Six spacious cubbies for shoes, a bench and high/low hooks, and a top shelf.  More pictures below.

Eventually, I will replace the brass hinges on the door hardware for oil bronzed.  I would say five years down the road, we plan on enlarging and renovating our kitchen.  In that design, I plan on creating a larger mudroom space, but for the time being, this will do just fine!!  I love it and my husband did an incredible job building it!