Small Space Mudroom Alternative

When my husband and I were looking to buy a home seven years ago, I knew I wanted a mudroom. Within a month or so, we learned of new homes we could build. Looking over the many floorplans, we knew our options were limited if we were to stay within budget and get the upgrades we desired. We quickly realized we could not spend an additional $20,000 to have a house with a mudroom.

So we don't. Nor do we have a real entry way. Immediately in front of the main door is the staircase. Obviously, it's not ideal. The family walks inside from the garage to the kitchen 99% of the time. Then we have to walk around the corner to get to the coat closet to hang coats and put away shoes. We needed a coat area which would be convienent for children to hang their coats and backpacks.

We have a tiny walkway between the dining room and kitchen. It's where our first-floor powder room is located. It's a small space, but we recently realized that this space could solve our no-mudroom-and-tiny-closet-problem.

My husband, Derek measured and cut a 1x6 board to center it on the wall opposite the bathroom door. When we visited family over Christmas break, he took the board to Grandpa's wood shop to use a router which rounds the edges for a finished look. Once home, he primed the board and prepared it for the lovely double hooks. Next, he screwed the board to the wall and painted it. Once it was done he added the five double hooks.
Our coat closet has had two "make-overs" to make it more efficient for our family. The first focused on small closet basic organization. The next time we focused on organizing the shoes in the small coat closet. Do you see that Little Sister, now age 3, could not hang her own coat? With our new coat hooks, she loves to hang her own coat. Big Sister and Brother can hang their backpacks and coats here.

We're all very pleased with how we're using this small space in place of a mudroom.

If you are not handy with wood and tools or if you cannot put holes in your walls to create a mudroom alternative, I would try this same thing with Command Hooks which come in a variety of finishes. We've used them on the back of bedroom doors, and they work fabulously.

Where do you hang your coats? Do you have a mudroom?
~ Annette

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9 comments

  1. I really need to do this. We have a small space by the front door, but who uses the front door these days?!?

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  2. Very creative and function space. Thankfully we have a large laundry room to come in from the garage.

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  3. this is such a great idea... we don't really have an entryway or mudroom either... totally gonna do this!

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  4. I've always dreamed of a mudroom(for taking off shoes as soon as possible), but we don't really even have much of an entryway, either. I've always hated having Jonathan's work boots making their way through our house. :P (He's picking up sick people from their homes and walking through hospitals all day.) It's pretty stressful! (Any ideas?) ;) (I like your new coat rack!)

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  5. I actually went to The Dollar Tree and got a couple of hooks that go over your door for our coats. I hung it of the utility room door and that has worked great! Thanks so much for the great post and the wonderful idea!

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  6. What a great idea to use an unusable space. Love it. Cathy

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  7. They don't really have mudrooms down South, probably something to do with the relative lack of rain.

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  8. This is what we did on a wall in our laundry room. One row high and one low for kids. The coat closet was always a problem to keep neat and organized. I added shelving and turned it into our pantry as we literally had no food storage space. Works perfectly.

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