Mudrooms

There is no space in an upland home more vital to your quality of life—and more contributive to your sanity—than a beautifully designed, well-appointed Mud Room. Wet boots, muddy garden clogs, filthy pet paws, dripping raincoats, and soggy mittens…these are the by-products of an upland life well lived! And they’ll make a proper mess in your house if they don’t have a place to reside as-is.

Indestructible flooring, hooks galore, dedicated cubbies, storage, and even pet-washing stations are all hallmarks of a home that encourages play in the outdoors while minimizing housekeeping headaches. In addition, heading out for a long hike, an impromptu family stroll, or a cross-country ski excursion is so much more fun when all of your gear is in one location, dry, and well-organized.

When designing a new house, the only limit is your budget, so lucky for you if you can plan this space from the start! If you’ve inherited or purchased an existing home, finding space for a mudroom can be a bit more of a challenge. A good case could be made for enclosing an existing porch or patio. Breezeways to a garage offer potential as well and can serve double duty. If you have no room for either. Consider how people will enter your home and think outside the box to differentiate a mud-space visually. Perhaps you can’t spare an entire room, but you could create a specialized nook using barn wood paneling, brick entry floors, an antique hall-tree, etc.

And there’s no excuse for skimping on stylish design elements when options exist at so many varied price points today. Some day, I’ll re-imagine our mudroom now that our children are college-age. But for now, I’ll share what is great about our current mudroom and what I wish I’d done differently when I first built my upland home as a single woman.

What We Got Right

We use our utility sink with abandon. I use it for potting plants, washing muddy garden gloves, scrubbing Dawn over any body parts touched by poison ivy, and rinsing filthy anythings!
There is a direct entrance to the mudroom from the outdoors.
There is a washer/dryer in the mudroom.
Hooks, hooks, and more hooks.
Every family member has labeled baskets for hats, gloves, ski/swim goggles, etc.
An interior door separates the mudroom from the rest of the house.

Photo: Artichoke LTD

What We’d Do Differently

We would have made the space 3x as large. Our upland home is in a climate that requires a wide variety of gear and clothing to properly enjoy outside time. Seriously, I’m not sure a mudroom could ever be too large.
We would have installed a space-saving stackable washer/dryer (instead of my large side-by-sides) and would have located the primary washer/dryer elsewhere in the house. Preferably closer to the bedroom wing in a luxuriously appointed and sparkly clean laundry room.
We would have included a bench upon which to perch wiggly toddlers as I wrestled them into boots. Or now, upon which my old bones could rest to tie unnecessarily long laces on hiking or hunting boots.
We would have made room for a large dog crate to house visiting furballs or as a holding pen for our own filthy furballs until they dry off (or until cocktail hour ends and hors d’oeuvres are safely out of reach of these ill-trained cheese vultures.)
We would have installed a dog-washing station—you’ll note, filthy furballs are recurring a theme here.
We would have used interior brick for flooring (because…how beautiful, right?) and I would have designed an actual recession in the flooring into which we could securely place an indoor/outdoor rug of a standard rug size (5’x7′, 8’x10′, etc.) that can be easily shaken and ultimately, easily replaced whenever necessary.
We would have installed several more electrical outlets and created a docking station to encourage phones and laptops to rest for a while.
We would’ve created a special storage space for tall, wet boots. Typical boot cubbies simply aren’t high enough and either we’ve all become smaller or our boots have grown. They seem to be constantly battling our long coats for space in the only hanging closet in the room.
We would have made the space more fun! Wallpaper, artwork, fabulous light fixtures, etc. Powder rooms shouldn’t have all the fun!
And finally, yes….you guessed it, more hooks. (I swear, you can NEVER have enough.) Just steer clear of iron hooks; a wise upland friend told me they stained her clothes.

In case you’re now interested in hooks? I’ll share a few parting thoughts. First? We chose individual, heavy-duty hooks over hooks mounted together on a piece of wood. It is far easier to choose placement in the room and the distance between the hooks. Bulky winter coats don’t always hang well side by side on hooks mounted too close together. And don’t bother with a double hook that isn’t side-by-side. You don’t want to have to remove one item to access the other. Finally, why not buy visually attractive hooks? Hardware store hooks are perfect for a garage workbench, but choose something fabulous for your Mudroom! We love these rabbit hooks from Etsy (that come in numerous styles). They’re still fun even when holding coats, vests, etc.