Mudroom Reveal

Our mudroom is complete!  I could jump for joy (and I have) because we do not need to endure another winter of tripping over wet boots in the hall!  We also don't need to store Rudy's stroller in the dining room anymore.  Hurray!

I'm excited to share some photos of our project but first, I want to remind you of how far we've come and why this project was so necessary.

Our house is always a work in progress.  A room is never finished, since it evolves with us.  This was exactly the case in our entrance hall.

As you may already know, our small house did not offer much in the way of closet space when we moved in.  We've had to carefully plan and create our own storage solutions throughout the house.  We worked to add hooks to our entrance hall for storage and we decorated a shoe organizer but there wasn't much we could really do to create more space.  You can read about our initial hallway makeover here.

The photo below highlights many of the deficiencies.  Here were the main issues:

• We didn't have room for many coats.  
• Our shoe organizer was too large for the space.
• That plant got zero light and took a beating from doggy tails each time one of us came home from work.
• While not referenced in the photo, the front door was awful.  It was hung upside down and it didn't let any light in, creating a dark and claustrophobic space.

Earlier this year, we began improving our space by buying a shallow shoe organizer.   We knew that our mudroom would still not give us unlimited space and now we have a space for dog leashes and coats.

I recently shared photos of our new front exterior which you can see below.  We love the look of our new entrance, however the functional aspects of this reno were far more important to us than the aesthetics.  Our contractor followed our plans with respect to exterior finishes, but we had requested that he leave the interior completely blank... including the closet!

Below, I'm sharing another look at the inside of our mudroom.  The left shows the room nearing the end of our renovation and the right shows how it looks today!

The cardinal rule when you're renovating a small space is Plan Plan PLAN!  We need to maximize our space and add storage and there is rarely the room for error that you'd have with a larger house.  Here are a few things we'd like to share about our design decisions.  You may remember some of the accessories from this post.:

• We had our contractor to install mirrored closet doors to make the space feel larger.  I maximized the effect of the mirror with a long, patterned indoor/outdoor runner.
• The old exterior door was replaced with a beautiful glass door which lets light from the mudroom into our entrance hall.

• We hung some cubbies with hooks below them so Rudy has a place to hang her own coats and backpack.  The cubby shelves also give us a place to rest our coffee and keys while putting on our coats.
• A little bit of greenery always makes a space feel more homey.  I bought a Meyer Lemon plant, which is supposed to be tolerant of cooler rooms.  So far, it is still alive.

We left the brick wall exposed and just had our contractor paint it white.  We did add some glamour to the room by adding pretty light fixtures.

• While we may need a storage bench in the future, for now we're living with the bowling lane bench that Corey made when we still lived in the condo.  It has so much character and we still love it.

• For the floor, we chose very neutral tiles with just enough texture so they don't become slippery when wet.

• We kept the walls in the small space white and instead chose to paint the ceiling a pale blue/green shade.
• Our closet is too shallow for a traditional bar for hangers.  We ended up finding pull-out bars online and Corey installed one on each side.  Where there's a will, there's a way!
• Corey also added shelves to store our boots and shoes.

We love that those clothes racks pull right out for easy access!

We are thrilled with our new mudroom.  The extra storage makes day to day life with Rudy much easier and now we have a place to properly get her dressed for the winter without worrying about the dogs eating her hat and shoes while our backs are turned.  ;)

Porch Facelift

Who remembers how ugly our porch was?  Yikes!  It was so bad that I loved Halloween because it already looked so dilapidated and scary.  I hated everything about it from the treacherous steps and the upside down door to the tattered burgundy carpet and the green plastic wind shield on the side.  We have been wanting to enclose it since we moved in, but we finally hired a contractor to do it this fall.

I'm so excited to share the finished product with you guys but I'm going to split the posts and just focus on the exterior today.

It was a really involved process, which involved replacing our old door and window, reinforcing and insulating the porch, enclosing the space, finishing the interior, having a new exterior door and window installed, bricking the exterior and building a new landing and stairs.

When we first met with out contractor, we had no idea how many decisions we'd have to make.  We knew we'd get to choose the doors but we ended up having a lot of opinions about things like the width and material for the stairs, the size of the new exterior window, the size of the interior closet, the brick for the new exterior and even the colour of the window frames.

Here's a look at our sad old porch to give you some perspective.  Obviously, we've been excited for this overhaul for a while but there were so many details to consider.

We actually had a decent amount of space to work with (once we got rid of the church pew) and I'll show you what we did with it when I post about the interior.

After living with our crummy upside down door for two years, we were excited at the prospect of getting to choose new doors for both the exterior and the interior.  We chose an interior door with lots of glass to let some natural light in to our narrow hallway.

For the exterior door, I wanted something solid and elegant looking.  We opted for black because it matches everything.

When the project began, we were so excited to finally be improving this eyesore.  We spoke with our contractor at length about how to finish the exterior of the porch.  He suggested flagstone, which has become very popular.  Our tastes are more traditional though and we asked him to try to find a close match to our existing red brick.  Our reasoning being: It's an old house.  Let it look like an old house!

The demolition was exciting!

When the walls went up, Corey and I would stand there in the evenings and toast with a glass of wine because we were so excited about our new space!  Our neighbours must think we're crazy drunks!

Our contractor made a big push to get the steps installed for Halloween so that we could still entertain trick-or-treaters.  

As you can see, I had wanted extra wide steps.  I picture us taking first day of school photos of our children on those steps.  Now that the railings are in, the job is done.  I've found the perfect planter for our landing, which we can now decorate according to the season and eventually, Corey will power wash the old brick to see if we can get it looking more like our new brick.

I'm excited to show you what we've done with the interior, but I'll save that for another post!

Mudroom Wish List

We are in the process of converting our porch to a mudroom.  It's really exciting to finally have a closet and (pretty soon) a place to sit down to put on winter boots.  We will also have plenty of room for Rudy's stroller, so we will no longer need to store it in the dining room.

The photo (above) is of our entrance hallway, which is seriously lacking a closet.  For years, we have put up with it and found creative ways to store shoes and coats (Creativity is key when you live in a small house.) but now we also have a stroller to store and it was time to find a new solution.

Although it will be a tiny room, I am excited to decorate it and have been compiling a list of ideas and inspiration photos.  Here is my wish list for the space:

• Exposed Brick: I specifically wanted to leave our exposed brick wall.  We'll probably just paint it white, but I love the character of exposed brick and didn't want to drywall over it.

• A Plant: This room will get lots of sun and it is one of the few rooms sheltered from the dogs, who have eaten most of my plants.  I really want something green in the space!

• A Runner: The floor will be tile but I'm excited to have a runner in the space.  I'd been eyeing the one in the pattern below from Wayfair for a little while and we ended up buying it because it's indoor/outdoor and inexpensive.

• Storage Cubbies: Like these or these.

• A Mirror: It will be a small space and a mirror will help to prevent it from looking claustrophobic.  (We ended up choosing mirrored doors for the closet.)

• Pull-Out Clothes Rails: The closet will be too shallow for a traditional clothes rail, so we'll need to find a solution.  This looks like a good option.

• Natural Wood Accents: I'm thinking of using the bench below, which is made from an old bowling lane.  We had it in our entrance when we lived in the condo.

Photo by Thea Menagh

• Blue/Green Accents: I love the inspiration photo below.  It looks like the colour we painted the kitchen and family room, so naturally I'm drawn to it.  I think it would be a lovely accent in a sunny mudroom!

The actual renovation will be completed in a couple of weeks and we're looking forward to showing you how it turns out! :)

We're also thinking of doing something a little different with paint... Maybe leaving most of the room white and painting just the ceiling or the inside of the closet.