When Life Gives You Mud, Make a Mud Room

We've been making some progress on the garage mudroom lately. Now that it's spring, we've been using this space so much more. All the clutter that used to accumulate in the kitchen is now in the garage. It is so nice to have a space where muddy shoes and kids can shed the dirt before entering the house. I love it. 

One of the first things we did was get some cheap bath mats  at Target. I had been looking at some beautiful outdoor rugs online, but as we all know, I am incredibly indecisive about my home decor choices. So when we saw these rugs on clearance for $12 each, we snatched them up as a temporary solution. Now that they're on the floor, I really like how soft they are, and how they are machine washable. So the temporary may be a more permanent solution.

During a craft night a while back, I took a giant canvas and some stencils and created the big sign above the top shelf. I intended it to be a little greener to match the rug, but I guess the paint had other ideas. I also plan on hanging it on the wall instead of leaning it, so that you can see the bottom line better from the ground. Just haven't gotten around to it yet.

 On the baskets on the side, I picked up some cheap cardboard letters from the craft store and mod podged tissue paper to them. Now each family members has a basket with their initial on it.

So what's left? We still need to put some baseboard molding and trim in a few areas, including around the back door, and drywall the entire garage. I'd also like to put some kind of stair tread on the kitchen doorstep so that it's not just an ugly concrete step.

There's also some general cleaning, spider web removal and trim painting to be done. Eight years of scratch marks to cover up there. Now that it's finally warm, I just need to be less lazy.

I'm also debating painting the two doors a fun color. Maybe purple like the front door? Or navy? Or some kind of green/blue/aqua? And maybe some fun vinyl decal? "Hello" on the kitchen door and "goodbye" on the back door, perhaps? I'm open to suggestions. I also ordered some navy blue fabric to make a bench seat. We've been a little hesitant to sit there for fear of scratching the paint, so that will be nice when I get it done in a couple years.

Overall, we love the space and we use it often. And it's a huge improvement from where we were last year. Hooray for progress!

This Garage is Awesome

Hey remember when our garage looked like this?

 And then this?

And then it looked like this?

Well now it looks like this!

Our mudroom system is finished! And none too soon. We've been using this space a lot lately. Have I mentioned how freakishly cold and snowy it has been this year? Here's a recent view out that back door.  A couple steps further and E was in above her knees.

Anyway, it has been so nice to be able to dump off all the coats, hats, gloves, scarves and muddy boots BEFORE they enter the house. Yes, they do get a little cold out there, but with the new insulation in the garage, it hasn't been as bad as I had feared.

Up next on the Project Awesome Garage agenda: painting the interior garage doors and trim, adding drywall to the garage, adding some trim, baseboard and caulking in a few areas, putting down an outdoor rug to cover the laminate floor, and sewing a custom bench cushion. And possibly a few other cute little touches here are there - maybe some big art or a mural or quote above the top shelf? But the bulk of the work is done and it is so nice to have a space that we can use!

Let's take another moment to enjoy the transformation, shall we?

Awesome Garage Progress

Project Awesome Garage is progressing, albeit a little slower than I was hoping. It looks like we'll be done mid-January instead of before Christmas like I wanted.

But nevertheless, things are moving forward. The insulation is in, the new garage door and opener are in, and the laminate floor is in. Now we're just waiting on the cabinets. My cabinet guy says early January. This excites me greatly. Here are a few photos of the progress.

That's a lot of insulation....

 ... and it has to go up one roll at a time.

 I got pretty friendly with the staple gun and ladder.

Just be sure you look up when climbing the ladder, lest you nail your head on the garage door. Ouch!

And here's the new laminate floor. The mud room unit will be placed between the two doors. They're being painted Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter. I picked it solely based upon Pinterest's love affair with the color. 

 

The floor is great. Already picking up the dirt from the garage, though. Some indoor/outdoor rugs will be in our future.

Next step is installing the mudroom unit, and then covering up the insulation with drywall, or may some kind of pegboard system. Exciting stuff.

Project Awesome Garage

I love our house. It's a great fit for us and certainly has enough space for us. And while there are a few small things I'd fix, I'm generally really happy with it. There is, however, one thing that must change. We need a mud room.

We have a small coat closet by the front door, but we seldom come through there. We typically enter through the garage door into the kitchen and there is no room there for all the winter coats, hats, scarves, boots, etc. that accumulate. Despite multiple command hooks hanging everywhere, everything ends up on the kitchen floor and is constantly in the way.

Time to initiate Project Awesome Garage. Our goal is to create a mudroom-like space in the garage to contain all the clutter. We don't have room to add a finished room with walls, but we do have a blank wall connecting the kitchen and back doors where we can add some much-needed storage.

Before we can do that - we need to take care of a few more things out there. As you can see, the garage is a cold, damp, crowded mess. And this photo is after an initial clean up!

 The project has four major steps.

1. Insulate the garage. Only one of the four walls of the garage adjoins the house, leaving three walls of uninsulated shiver-inducing plywood. If we're going to add a space to put on and store coats, it needs to be at least 32 degrees at all times. We're hoping some added insulation will also keep the fourth bedroom (directly above the garage) from being so cold in the winter.
 
2. Update the garage door and opener. The old garage door was dented, uninsulated, unreliable and incredibly noisy. Combine that with two light sleepers and a husband who leaves for work early, and everyone is up before the sun. We need something quieter and warmer. (Oh yeah, and one that goes up and down when it should!)

3. Add a new floor to the mud room area. The current concrete floor is cold, damp and not very pretty. We want something that creates a room-like space in the corner of the garage where the mud room will go. (Between the back garage door and the kitchen door.)

4. Install a custom-made bench, shelving unit and hooks. This needs enough storage for all our stuff, a bench and hooks low enough for the kids to use, and a plenty of floor space for things like boots and shoes.

We're making great progress, and I'll go into more detail in some future posts. I'm hopeful we'll have everything done by Christmas!