Mudroom

One of the things I wanted in our new house was a great mudroom. In our last house we had a small laundry/mudroom and you had to walk through it to get to the half bath. There was just not enough room to put everything.

When we started looking for houses I quickly realized that large mudrooms were not the thing here in Austin. Actually people kind of looked at me weird when I said that was on my want list. I was told maybe they need them in Utah because of all the boots, coats and cold weather stuff but we don't need all that.

So I took a picture of an average day at my house while living in the duplex. You got book bags, shoes, purse, soccer gear, football gear, trombone., water bottles, the list goes on and on. My husband, and I am sure most of you said "the kids should just take all that stuff up to their rooms"  Right, like they are ever going to plus then the mess is just in their room. It needs a place and that place is a mudroom.
So what did I end up with? A mudroom smaller then my last. No, it is not even a mud room it is a hallway with my washer and dryer in it.
They just were not to be found. And when it really came down to it I was not not going to buy a house just because of the mudroom. When we were going to build I asked the builder if I could turn one of the bedrooms into a mudroom. You should have seen his face.
But, when we just felt so good about this house a mudroom was not going to hold us back. We did end up with a big garage so I had a plan. On the kids spring break we did our project.

 I taped off 3 section on a wall just outside the garage door. I used a protractor to round the corners.

 I made the mistake of telling the kids they could pick out their own color. Oh boy! not a good idea. The trip to the paint store was a bit crazy. They all picked crazy colors that did not coordinate to each other. So I helped out a little and this is what they finally came up with.

I am pretty good at talking them into things so we all ended up happy.

They really did a good job. Unfortunatley the painters tape ripped off some of the tan paint and I don't have any paint to touch it up since it was painted by the previous owners but it is OK.

 Next I added these great letter hooks that I found at Michael's. I did have to go to a few stores and ended up not being able to find an "I" but we improvised.

 This is what it typically looks like. So far the kids are using the space.

And I am happy their stuff has a place.