I’m pretty sure most family psychology experts will concur that the advent of the mudroom is the best thing to happen to Moms since electricity, sliced bread, and if you are in my family, ketchup. Listen, I’ve been mudroom-less my whole life and I didn’t starve, instead, I had a thriving rainy childhood in Oregon full of secure attachments and a high school diploma. So having a mudroom is not a necessity nor an indicator of adult “success”. But BOY, when you live in particular climates, this room quickly becomes one of the more useful, functional, and thus coveted rooms in your home. I wrote even more about it in my book, The New Design Rules. Living in a rental in Portland for the last 7 months with the only exterior entrance/exit opening directly into the living/dining room has created a huge coat, shoe, and dog mud issue that has become my #1 priority in life to solve. As a disclaimer – our new farmhouse is a major renovation job, where rooms could get moved, and privilege abounds – so my goal today isn’t to show you all fancy stuff we are doing for fun, it’s hopefully to offer some clever, helpful solutions if you are thinking about going the mudroom route, too (should you need one) or if you have a space you can carve out to solve some problems. We wrote about ‘the mudroom-less entry’ in our last house, as well as some great storage solutions in our small laundry/mudroom in LA. But today is all about THE FARM…(if you are new, head to this post about how we bought a little farm in Portland during the pandemic and moved back home to Oregon)
The Original Mudroom Placement
Let’s go back 1 year shall we? The original placement of the mudroom (seen here) was the most ideal for the function of that room and at times I regret it still not being there. The kids would come home from the car/school through that back door, drop their garbage and it would be out of sight of the living room. Their soccer clothes would be peeled off and immediately thrown in the washer/dryer (ha). But we realized that we were giving this mudroom the best natural light in the whole house, starving the kitchen and living room of that precious resource that we are irrationally obsessed with. So we moved the kitchen back to that corner which meant that the mudroom had to be relocated (and y’all the kitchen is DREAMY AF so I’m glad we did it).
Then Our Mudroom Became A Pantry
Version 2 (or maybe 92). Next, we decided to move the kitchen back in that corner and add a “mudroom door” in that tiny little area, sharing it with a pantry. Would that have worked? Sure! But look at the size of our bedroom!! I mean…absolutely unnecessarily huge. So we reconfigured it one more time. The level of indecision was high because the problem is that in the Pacific Northwest every entrance or exit needs a drop zone in which to de-shoe (a mini-mudroom so to speak). We struggled to decide which is more important – the entrance to the car/path for every day in and out, or to the backyard where they will be playing and stomping through alpaca poop. Ultimately we decided on…
Our Mudroom Location Now
We put the mudroom on the wing of the house, exiting to the backyard. We have a tiny drop-zone in the kitchen under the big window where the kid’s daily pair of shoes, coats, and bags will likely still sit but the rest of the clutter will be in the mudroom. This is because the mudroom isn’t just a dropzone, it’s the dog washing station/drying zone and the laundry room. This room is going to be EPIC. Now, I realized about a month ago that what would have even been potentially better is swapping the locations of the mudroom and the main bathroom (where the 1960s laundry room was – hahaha). It’s all good, but I suppose if I could go back in time that would make the most sense – the kids would just hop over one entrance to the mudroom when they come in, leaving the kitchen clutter-free. My plan is to use the time-tested mom strategy of “keeping the door locked” so that they have to walk around. Can such habits be formed? What if I literally put a piece of candy on the doormat every day until they have the Pavlovian response and automatically come through the mudroom? Moms have done much worse, right?…
So now you know where we are in the house and OH MY GOSH IT’S DREAMY. The drywall is up and the natural light with the skylights, double doors, and windows make the room this insanely bright, gorgeous space already. Sadly there are still 3 months of work to be done in here…
Cabinetry Designed For Our Needs
As you can see we didn’t just “order cabinets”. No. We worked with Unique Kitchens and Bath to customize for our needs. Do you need to go to this extent? Only if you are doing custom cabinetry like we are. If you are going the more readymade (IKEA, Lowes, etc) then ignore this section. But when in Rome.
Smart Vaccum Storage
So the far left is our vacuum storage – both our cordless (with an outlet) and making sure it is wide enough for our fatter floor vacuum.
Pullout Pet Food Storage
I avoided getting dogs for a while because they create such a mess and are so hard on your home. I don’t know whose idea it was to get TWO LONGHAIRED dogs before we moved to Oregon, but I’ll find out and they’ll be fired. So when designing the cabinets we figured we’d put in a pull-out cabinet “drawer” for a dog food bin in the hopes of not having it just floating in the room.
Dog Washing Station
I would prioritize this dog washing station over our kids shower at this point – or perhaps the kids could just bathe in here? I need to show you what those mutts look like after 5 minutes of running around outside so you’ll understand the importance of this dog washing station. The faucet has changed and we are doing more stone detail, but you get the idea. We even measured our dogs to make sure that they’ll fit, at one point putting them inside our farmhouse sink to see how much extra space we would need. I mean if you are going to customize a whole DOG WASHING BATHTUB you sure as hell better make it as functional and useful as possible. To be clear, it is also our utility sink for mops and filling flower buckets for arranging. It’s going to get USED as we think we’ll need to do nightly baths if we let them outside. While I still plan on walking them 3-5 miles a day, which I do right now as we are sans-yard, they miss chasing each other around and we can’t live on a farm and deprive them of that joy). FYI they are the sweetest pups in the world which makes it very much worth it:)
Shaker Pegs For Coats And Leashes
Still leaning into the shaker farmhouse vibe, we have this room lined at coat hook height with peg rails both for function and style. Leashes, coats, hats, sweet little handmade artisanal brooms that we never use…all will abound these cute little pegs. OH, the color scheme is wrong here. The floors and wood cabinets are right, but the paint colors are wrong (and we aren’t wrapping the beam – just painting white).
Heated Floors To Warm The Space And Dry The Dogs And Boots
This is something we’ve gone back and forth on a million times. I believe that if you are remodeling putting in radiant heating under your tile in rooms that are typically cold or where you are typically barefoot is a good move. But this room? Is it necessary? Last Thursday we made the final call to do it. It was a cold and rainy day and we walked through the future day to day motions – the kids would come in from school, immediately take off their raincoat and boots, left in thin little socks to walk through the mudroom into the family room. And you know what they say about kids who suffer cold toes in the winter as children? They turn out to be unlovable psychopaths. Well, that can’t be! Then we pictured our nightly bathing off of the mud pups…all wet and shivering…OOF. We seriously considered putting in a commercial-style hairdryer like they have at groomers (I’m not kidding – my brother kept sending me models that were affordable). We figured that having the floor be warm, to dry their little tummies would be a good thing. As I’m writing this I’m annoyed at myself for how spoiled we are all going to be. But when it’s been pouring rain and cold for 6 months, and your contractor turns to you and says, “for an extra day of labor and $1500 – $2k you can have warm toes year-round? eh?” You find yourself saying, “just do it” with both enthusiasm and shame.
*By the way, radiant heat flooring has come a long long way, and it is so much easier and cheaper than it used to be – definitely something to consider if your climate warrants it. We installed it in two bathrooms at the mountain house and while you barely noticed that it was on (just that you were comfortable), you sure as hell felt the freezing cold tile when you stepped into the guest bathrooms where we didn’t do it. We had to put more bath rugs in there because our stone tile felt like ice in the winter and our guests were politely putting towels on the floor for their middle-of-the-night trips.
Open And Closed Storage For Often Used Coats And Less Often Used Coats
Now back to the approachable practical ideas … Visually I love closed cabinet storage, but we all know that kids don’t (1.) open up a cabinet (2.) pull out a hanger (3.) hang their coats on said hanger and then (4.) reach up and (5.) hang the coat. If they could do that I wouldn’t waste my time being a designer, I’d send them to Oxford to become astrophysicists!! The talent and sheer intellect of such a storage sport surpass any testing they could do at school. Nay. Our special little humans need easy-to-reach hooks or baskets. So as you can see we have a closet for closed storage (our less used coats) but Brian planned out our jacket usage and it’s anywhere between 2-4 a day depending on the weather, which does change all day long. 1. Cold morning walk to school = fleece, 2. A brisk power walk with dogs = slim down parka. 3. A mid-day walk in the rain = rain jacket, and 4. Afternoon basketball session = hoodie or windbreaker. Once he broke it down to me I realized he was right – that we needed hooks galore. So the closed cabinetry is for winter coats or less used cute jackets and the double set of hooks is for everyday in and out use. I actually think we are doing shaker pegs there but I’m not totally sure. Sometimes jackets don’t hang on pegs as well as we’d like them to so we might do double hooks like you see in the rendering to make sure our intense coat and jacket consumption can be accommodated.
Affordable Curtain To Cover Washer And Dryer
You know I love a sweet little curtain and this is the perfect opportunity to sew one up from one of the million vintage yards of fabric I’ve been collecting since birth. There’s enough that I can switch it out all the time like a crazy stylist – my spring floral, my fall plaid, my holiday skirt, my easter skirt? You get it. We’ll use a slim little brass rod, install it somehow (assuming to the wood on top that the stone will sit on), and attached clips to it, maybe with pleats, maybe not. But if you have an exposed washer dryer anywhere, know that the skirt is in fashion and is extremely affordable to rig up. I love to comb thrift stores for vintage tablecloths or even weird patterned sheets. Or get some great deadstock fabric yardage on Etsy 🙂
Seating With Shoe Storage Nearby
Lastly, we incorporated a bench under the coats that just floats with open shoe storage below. Again, I love closed storage, but when it comes to shoes, if you want the kids to not complain about not being able to find them, then design them to be easily found. You could say that this is coddling, but I prefer to frame it as ” causing fewer battles and less daily nagging”. Why set yourself up for a rough morning just to have a slightly more beautiful mudroom? Make it easy on them (and you) with open shoe and open coat storage.
My level of excitement about this room is palpable, the dopamine is rushing through me as I write this. I hope some of these tips are at all helpful to you. When you see it styled out you’ll see some of the other smart features we put in here (inside the cabinetry and some laundry ideas).
I’m feeling incredibly grateful that we will eventually get to use it and that maybe our children and pups won’t bring all of the mud from the farm into the house.
Sources:
Cabinetry – Unique Kitchens and Bath (in natural white oak)
Windows – Sierra Pacific Simulated Divided Lites in Aspen – primed ready for paint.
Paint – Sherwin Williams – colors TBD
Lighting – Rejuvenation – this one over the dog washing station and these as hanging pendants.
Skylights – 3 from Velux that are EPIC!
Tile – Pratt + Larson (custom color and pattern I can’t wait to show you).
Build Team – ARCIFORM
I’m building a home with a mudroom and have been excitedly following your farmhouse remodel. I love the that tall window in the mudroom. What are its dimensions? I’d like to do something similar.
Because you’ve researched for other times, im wondering if you looked into the environmental impact of heated floors. I skipped it in our remodel assuming it would wreak havoc on our heating bill. But I didn’t look into it much, as we were at our budget max as it was.
My understanding is that when you have heated floors in cold climates, you can set your thermostat lower. Warm feet ‘fools’ you into thinking you are warmer and you can lower your energy usage that way!
It’s like running a 25 watt lightbulb if you leave them on all the time, so it isn’t going to make much of a difference in your electric bill. It’s non-negotiable for me!
Great article ! I love the honesty of moving the mudroom to the main bathroom if you could change plans now. I agree it would make the most sense ! (although I absolutely did not envision it last year)
Yes, how did we miss that! It makes so much sense.
Should have also said that every “yes” is a “no” to something else. Make your decision, and don’t waste time second guessing things that can’t be changed. Like you said, you can’t have a mudroom at every entry. And your kids are young enough that you will get more use out of a “yard” mudroom than a “driving” mudroom.
“you can’t have a mudroom at every entry”, could someone please forward that memo to my husband?
I love all of the thoughtful storage planning, and it looks beautiful, but having two dogs myself with a dog station, I couldn’t help but notice that there doesn’t appear to be a door or steps for the dogs to get in and out of. As dogs age, sometimes it becomes more difficult for them to climb in and out of dog tubs. Just a thought. Otherwise, it is truly stunning! I love the herringbone pattern on the floors and the little bench seat is perfect for sitting down to take off rainy boots.
I lifted my very similar-sized scruffy hairy dog in and out (wrapped in a towel for the out part!).
Their dogs aren’t that big.
I would definitely have my kids wash off in the dog tub. They would get a kick out of it.
We are almost finished with our addition/remodel. Planning to move back in this Saturday! We did not add a proper mud room, but we will have a mini one at their entrance. What I’m excited about is that the kids bathroom/shower is right off the laundry room. The laundry is in a fairly large utility room with a closet. So I’m putting all of the kids clothes and together in that closet. Their dirty laundry basket will stay in the laundry room as well. My plan is that that they enter the laundry room, disrobe, put dirty laundry in the basket, shower, dress again. Then when the basket gets full, they can run their own laundry (easiest thing I have taught them to do, they never fold anything though…) and put it away right there in the closet. My hope is that their clothes never need to be anywhere else.
Heated floors for sure! We have them in our entryway/mud room and it’s wonderful. The kids love to take off their snow boots in the winter and step on the warm floors.
Love the plans!!! Will you ever need to secure the dogs in the mud room prior to washing them off? Maybe a Dutch door leading to the rest of the house would be useful! Also, can’t tell by the rendering if this is already an idea, but as someone who has to bend over in the tub to wash my pups, an elevated tub or dog wash station would be a lifesaver!
This is a grrreat idea! It’d be so useful if tge pups needed to stay there for a bit while the humans are in the house, too. They’d feel more connected!
I live near Portland too (currently just started a 5-day stretch of rain) and having a dog washing station is on my dream house wish list. For now, we have to make do with a hose on the side of the house (poor doggo has to deal with the cold water).
Look into having a freeze-proof hot/cold hose bib installed!
That’s a thing?? 🤯
Make sure you’re bench is high enough to accommodate tall boots! All the ones I looked at were too short for our muck boots to fit underneath them (and we live in those in the winter). So we had one specially made by a store on Etsy. It has worked great and saved me from tripping over boots so many times!
*your
You need more closed storage! Coming from a mom of 4 dealing with all the dirty sports gear from all their activities!
100%
And also room for more shoe storage. Between dock walking boots, regular sneakers, sports shoes (cleats, running shoes), Crocs, and slides my teenagers want no less than 4 pairs of shoes accessible at every moment. We have a furniture piece with a drawer for each of their shoes that used to work when they were smaller and now fits 2 pairs of shoes maximum. The rest are at the front door…the back door…the garage stairs…
Signed,
mama of 2 teenage boys who each do 2 sports
Oooooh!!!♥️♥️♥️
So. Glad. You’re. Doing. A. Mud. Room!
Delicious!
Necessary and Lovely all wrapped into one!
I remember when you were questioning whether you even needed a dog washing station!! 🤣🤣
Now… I need to caution about stripping their coats by over-washing them. Please get some expert advice on the frequency recommended. Maybe only rinsing the mud off, with a gentle shampoo for frequent washing once a week?? You don’t want to cause skin issues.🐾🐾
I love your “keeping the door locked” and Pavlovian theories!!!🤣🤣 Things like this w.o.r.k!
In a nutshell… it’s IMMENSELY practical and HUGELY gorgeous!!
I can’t wait to see it finished.
Pssst!!! Still hoping for a trickle of reveals, rather than a tsunami, so we can digest each, delectable piece!🤤🥰
Oh, I’m also .oving your CURLZ, Emily!♥️
ME TOO! On he curlz!
Please tell me you’re joking about bathing the dogs every night 😱🤯
In Oregon it’s pretty necessary to give them a quick rinse and a towel off EVERY TIME they come inside if you don’t want mud everywhere
Not with shampoo though, right?!
I live in England and my poodle gets his feet washed (in a bathroom sink) every. single. time. after he comes in from a walk. And for much of the year, yes, he’ll get a bath every day if he’s off leash while outside. It’s just necessary like brushing your teeth every am/pm- it is routine for everyone involved and isn’t a big deal.
I have dogs, & used to be a groomer. Get what’s called a force dryer. That’s the kind that looks like a canister vac. Blows the water right off the dogs. It will save you thousands of loads of laundry. The smaller ones are under $150, & worth every penny.
Do it. You can thank me later.
Agree! We had a dog dryer like this and it was a GAME CHANGER!
Any particular one you would recommend?
A dog I had many years ago was terrified of the blow dryer I used on my own hair. Every time I turned it on she’d dash away. Do those kind of dryers scare the easily spooked aka “sensitive” dogs?
The dogs are usually fine with these dryers if you start at the back & work forward. Don’t blast them in the face, & cover their ears when you work around the head.
Only dog whose fear I could not overcome had been chased by a vacuum cleaner as a young puppy.
Some have a rheostat, & can be run low. Mine is more basic, & only has 2 speeds.
I agree that a dryer for the pups would be so worth it! Dogs take forever to dry and wet dogs smell (although they smell better than dirty dogs of course!)
Fun fact: wet dogs and wet cows smell THE same!! Go figure! And cows like scratches n cuddles too! 🙂
“You find yourself saying, “just do it” with both enthusiasm and shame.” this made me seriously LOL! I don’t think I’ve ever related more to a sentence about remodeling. SO EXCITED to see this come to life!!
I love mudrooms so glad you are getting a nice-sized one. I’m sure you have considered this but just want to share my experience with washer/dryer in the mudroom. I live in the Northeast and mudrooms can get really messy in the winter. I hate-hate-hate having the washer/dryer where all this mud/dirt is. I have to be really careful that I don’t drop wet clothes when transferring them from the washer to the dryer. Curtains in a mudroom would be a big no for me.
Also, kids grow really fast — the low hooks for them may only be useful for a couple of years. I would locate them so that there is enough vertical room for adult/teen-sized jackets. I’m with you on open storage — convenience trumps aesthetics. And if it were me, I would make the open bench storage and open hooks to be much wider. With 4 people, the open shoe storage looks like it will be enough for only one pair per person — not nearly enough IMHO.
SAME. I’d rather have a mudroom and then just stick the washer/dryer in a closet somewhere than have a fancy combo mud+laundry room. Because doing laundry there SUCKS.
I agree completely. We remodeled our mudroom/laundry room a couple of years ago and it has a similar layout but on a smaller scale (our washer and dryer are stacked and dog spa smaller)
We made the bench at least twice as long and built open shoe storage underneath. Above the bench is a long row of open hooks for coats and jackets. Even with my kids gone, the extra shoe + coat storage comes in handy (due to highly variable Michigan weather)
Another item I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND is a wall compartment/cubby storage unit. I absolutely love ours as it makes storing everything from gloves, scarfs, hats to dog items , etc- super convenient!
I agree, a washer and dryer in a mud room is a real mistake in my opinion. The floors will be filthy, covered in MUD, dirt, dust. I would really consider moving them. I also don’t see any place for you to hang clothes that you don’t want to put in the dryer? And it’s unlikely you’ll lay sweaters on your counter when you’re bathing dogs right beside it shaking off their mud and water everywhere. Truly consider if you want your clean clothes in this room.
Yeah I agree, with this layout the the laundry zone really feels crammed in there as an afterthought with no real workspace. I have that much space for my own laundry in the basement- it feels very cramped and I live alone ..For a a busy family of four, a spacious place to do laundry is important .. In an an ideal world the dog washing zone would be further down the plumbing line and more separated from the clothes washing zone . As it is best case scenario I can see is adding a wall between the dog washing station and the laundry zone to block water, and a long skinny table/ storage option on the wall facing the laundry zone, partly blocking the window, a clothes drying rack… somewhere.
i lived in washington state near seattle and had a washer and dryer in the mud room and loved it, so i think that’s personal preference. WAY better for me to wash dirty things right there, rather than have to transfer them to where they would be washed later.
My Vermont farmhouse came with radiant heated floors in the mudroom and they are a game changer. Do not feel decadent for opting to put in the heated floors. The big thing they do is keep the floor drier, and will melt snow off your boots. We do have a boot tray to keep any big chunks of snow corralled, but within half an hour, the snow is melted, no puddles of water on the slate tiles, and your boots are pre-heated for yet another walk with the dogs. Worth it!
When we renovated our 1890s farmhouse two years ago, we also wavered on whether or not to splash out on radiant in-floor heating in the mud room, and I’m SO HAPPY we did. We live in British Columbia, so we get all the seasons, especially the wet ones. Taking off winter boots and putting your feet down on warm tiles is the absolute best. The fact that all our puddles dry up faster is a huge bonus.
Oh, man, I feel you on the 2-4 jackets per day. I moved from the desert to upstate NY where you NEED functional coats. A lot of them. Weather really does make such a huge impact on how you live. Hooooooray to you all for finding a way to build your home in such a useable, weather-friendly way. 🙂
My husband has a variety of boots that NEED to be available 24/7 (picture me rolling my eyes). As with jackets, he has different boots for every occasion: rain, rain in winter, snow, snow shoveling, gardening, gardening in the rain…I could go on with his boots. Just saying, don’t underestimate the number of boots. Also, I have seen (on Etsy i think) shaker pegs at an angle so coats and hats don’t slide off. Worth investigating if you love the look.
I love the peek into your thought process and just know it will be so incredible. Your family will not regret the radiant floors in this room-promise! Can’t wait to see every iteration of vintage laundry curtain you can throw at us, seasonal change-out is genius. I thought you might want a shoe rack under the bench so you can easily vacuum without having to move boots then I read another reader’s comment about having the height to fit taller Muck boots and that’s a great idea too, maybe you will have enough room for a boot tray. The coat hooks are a must so damp coats can drip dry-you might want to use some of your vintage fabric to make a cute bench cushion so the constant drips don’t damage your wood.
Yes yes yessss I loved this update. I’m all about the open lockers bench/hooks/basket situation, and a cool thing I’ve seen is to have a curtain rod up in its alcove, so that if your open locker is in say, an entryway, you can just pull a pretty textile over it when you don’t want to see the jackets and boots. Most of the time the curtain stays open on the pull-back hooks, but if you’re having a party or something it’s nice to have the option to cover it. I’ll also second Emily’s seasonal change of textiles: I switch our throw pillow covers and a few art prints (I keep four prints stacked together inside the frame, easy peasy) out with the seasonal changes, and it’s such a nice vibe shift to have the dark green velvet become blush linen when the sun comes out, or to go from the pelican watercolor print to the skeleton hand watercolor when the leaves turn. Also deadstock fabric on ETSY! I got a bunch of cotton velvet for a headboard project there last week for like $10 a yard, heckyeahhh
Great score of velvet!
I’d love to know the normal or average number of shoes per person – I feel like my family has an inordinate amount and I can’t tell if we really wear that many or if we just HAVE that many and if we’ve bought too many because we hope they will be comfortable and then they are not and so the cycle continues. I mean, there are are four of us and my son only wears one pair of shoes, so for the two adults and a teenage girls there are (quite literally) 30 pairs of shoes on shelves by the garage door. Is that normal?
Same here… when we moved to a house with a proper mudroom, I ended up using a white bookcase halfway up the wall with hooks above for Coats in between two doorways. It still wasn’t enough! The mudroom definitely becomes a shoe closet. I only had two girls and most of the time, even with multiple shelves, the shoes were overflowing out into the walkway and I was frequently picking them up and stacking them to get them out of the way! I’m also always amazed by the small coat storage in newer construction given how we have multiple coats these days. We needed double what we had and I considered giving up some pantry space for it! Even now that the kiddos are gone, I still wish I had more coat storage and less pantry.
For my teenage boys who are not sneaker-heads at all (if you have a sneakerhead teen, this is a whole different story), they have daily school sneakers, cleats, running shoes, Crocs, and slides that they want out and easily accessible AT ALL TIMES. So minimum 5 pairs for each of them. And they absolutely do not want them upstairs in their rooms – that’s only for the rarely-used dress shoes. We don’t need to have boots out for our climate.
That room is a dream!!! So many good ideas.
Radiant heat floors are about the most energy-efficient form of heating there is! The US Department of Energy says: https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/radiant-heating Definitely put it wherever you can if you’re doing a big remodeling!
Very excited about your mudroom plans!
Also, I’m wondering (it may well be too late now) if you’d want to flip-flop your cabinets and washer/dryer, so that you’re not schlepping clothes all the way through your wet and muddy mudroom when you do laundry (as another poster had talked about doing in her laundry room).
Thanks for that link!
We have something similar in Seattle and I recommend an overhead fan (like the kind in the bathroom) to help with all the soggy coats and shoes drying. Otherwise it gets pretty swampy with all the wet gear.
I had a small, low profile ceiling fan installed in our galley laundry room (the 44” Minka-Aire Concept II). Shortens drying time for hang dry/hand wash items when on high and gently circulates air when on low.
WEll,you will be walking around the house forever, hope there is a stone path. and RAISE the dog tub( I speak from longhaired dog in the northwest experience) your can put towels underneath.( or at least creat a platform?) with a stool kids can still wash Boots, legs , the prime dirt carriers…and where do you hang wet towels? a clean , but wet dog towel can be reused, less wash, more eco friendly. and I keep slippers at all doors.. way cheaper than heated floors… and dogs don’t suffer cold feet!@
Likely too late, but I’d move mudroom down to where powder room is for more bedroom privacy and sends them into family room, likely mess friendly . put storage benches outside main entrance ( for indoor slippers for all?)?
loved this post!!! so funny. can’t wait to hear more.
Going to ask here because of all the talk about the dogs in this post. I’m very curious how did the move from CA to Oregon go with the dogs? Did you fly? drive? Was it traumatic for any and all or did it go smoothly? and what did or didn’t work? I don’t recall seeing a follow up post.
I asked ages ago, coz so many people are vested and interested for their own dogs’ welfare and what’s best…maybe it didn’t go well?
Brilliant to put heated floors in the mudroom. We have heated floors in our main bathroom and it’s become the go to place to dry laundry and footwear because everything dries so quickly in there.
Love your mudroom! Ours is similar; no dogs or children. We have baskets under the bench to corral our shoes andxa butcher block folding counter over the washer and dryer that is the perfect height.
Sharing an unsolicited opinion. here… Have you considered raising the floor height of the dog wash station so you aren’t breaking your back to wash them? Speaking for my rapidly aging back and as the owner of 2 dogs who are off-leash (supervidsed!) in the wilds nearly everyday and come back dirty, lol!
A lot of really cool features here, but I’m having trouble seeing past it’s location. It just doesn’t make sense. The whole point of keeping the covered walkway, I thought, was for easy (dry) access from the car/driveway into the house. Instead, you have to walk around the entire house (through the yard) just to enter through a designated “mudroom”.
I understand the dog washing station with the backyard access, so why not make this a full luxury laundry room with closed storage for seasonal outerwear/boots and work in a more practical drop zone on the other side of the house where it’s actually needed?
Yeah — it seems like a critical failure of placement. It’s making me shake with stress a little bit, because it’s building in awkwardness that will be permanent.
If powder room goes in top left corner of main suite where main bath is now, then the mudroom stretches down below it. And then you can access the mudroom from both the car/kitchen path and the top and also from the deck/yard from the bottom. Right????
The main bath and family room slide over to the right a little, and the main closet goes where the mudroom is now.
Check my math, but I think this is right?
They won’t be walking around the house when they come in from the car. Emily explained that they’ll enter via the kitchen and so they’ve planned a small drop-zone there. The mudroom is purely for when they are entering via the yard.
She literally says her strategy is to keep the door locked “so that they have to walk around” & that “the kids would come in from school, immediately take off their raincoat & boots, left in thin little socks to walk through the mudroom into the family room.”
I know this design firm does great work with historic homes, but I don’t think they served the family well with layout and space planning for these rooms, and with the original kitchen placement too.
Emily, Can you please share what size the primary bedroom and closets are now? Just curious how “small” you thought was good enough. We will likely bump our bedroom out when we enlarge the current 1950s bath that is attached. I worry it will feel like a kid’s room if we don’t, but I also keep saying it’s big enough to lose a few feet to gain a separate shower.
I so appreciate how thoroughly thought out this is. Also I just love the touch of adding the curtain that you can swap out seasonly. So sweet!
I have found simple tension rods to be the best way to hang these types of skirt curtains. I have hung the curtains off the rods using both channel pockets and rings, they both work. They are super easy to position, re position, remove and change out. I think about changing out the curtain skirts but never bother.
Ditto on the tension rod, i was going to say hat earlier.
My cats are deeply in love with our heated bathroom floors (on the nubbly ikea chenille bathmats particuarly) so I expect with those windows it will be a drying dog paradise.
And I would totally clean off toddlers in the dog bath.
I love this post and the comments.
My kingdom for a mudroom!
Let me know how having the washer/dryer on the other side of your headboard.
Wait….there is something between those 2 spaces. What is that?
That’s the built in cabinetry (brown) and counter (gray) above the washer & dryer. The dark area is not the whole mudroom, it’s the visible floor.
I would imagine it would be easy and probably advisable to put soundproofing in the walls. There, done!
I agree based on my experience with my laundry room sharing a wall with my office. And in my case, the washer & dryer are perpendicular to my office wall with the washer being furthest away. And it is still noisy/vibrating during the spin cycle! Make sure there’s a LOT of insulation between the mudroom & the bedroom.
I’m fascinated by the hard working rooms in a home — kitchens, baths, and laundry/mudrooms. This looks incredibly practical as well as beautiful. I look forward to seeing the materials come together. I’m interested in whether you decide to go dark with the wall color in here. I think it could really work well!
“ I didn’t starve, instead, I had a thriving rainy childhood in Oregon full of secure attachments and a high school diploma.” This sentence made me laugh out loud. Love this article and love how Emily always uses humor AND acknowledges privilege!!
A way to train your kids to use the mudroom door – make it the only keyless entry. We put a keyless entry lock on our most remote door that we would have a way to give people access to our house when we are not home. From the day we installed it our kids have exclusively used that door even though it is much farther than the other four doors. Unfortunately for me, I would prefer them use the front door with the big coat closet, and I leave that door unlocked (and wide open in good weather) but they walk right by it and use the keyless entry. I should move the keyless entry to the front door, but it has a beautiful old lock. So instead, every day, I remind them to bring all their things to the front hall. It’s not the best.
I guarantee you will love that cabinet for vac storage. We finished our much smaller project a month ago. We share the adorable but messeee dog challenge along with seriously limited storage. Readers who think this only applies to those with big budgets or space–not so. Other than my magic WD, we spent $3,000 total for material and labor in a 5×8 laundry room. It include the dog’s door, a door to the master and another to the kitchen.
A 24″x24″x96 ” cabinet was the transforming element. This made room for the main vac and cleaning supplies by installing 14 inch deep shelves up to 50 inches. An outlet, allows cordless devices to live in the cabinet. The upper part is organized into five categories that, if organized and accessible, make life much simpler. We we aging so easy access is important. Each category has a bin or organizer that fits the limited space.
I bet you will find that the thought and effort you have put in does much to improve life for the whole family.
What is the difference between the mudroom and the kitchen? I like the designs in this article. I hope a lot of home builders can see this and get ideas. thank you for this wonderful article.
Hey there! We have a mud room and laundry room off our garage very similar to yours! Im not sure if you’ve made a decision regarding the mud room flooring but if I may, let me suggest brick flooring. Just like a patio, instant character and so durable! It’s the most complimented area of my house!
so exciting!
however a bench under double hooks is just not going to work! 🙂 the bench will be a pain and in the way.
also a curtain in front of washer dryer??? please no! I think it will bug you!
put them in a vented cabinet instead
Switching washer/dryer locations with the open hooks section.
Put a bench under the window for sitting on
Then add Lots of hooks for in season coats
Yay renovating!
Having an outside entrance for the Mudroom/Laundry Room is very important to me. Fortunately, our architect closed the outer entrance of the mudroom without asking us, and when the inside of the house started to become muddy, we had to hire a contractor to have it opened.
I think the radiant heat floors is 100% the right call here! In colder climates, shoes dry so much quicker with them. Such smart storage here too! My dream (probably at least 5-10 years out) is to someday add a small addition to the back of my house that will include a powder room (my current one is SUPER tiny- like some people can’t even use it- AND located in my dining room), laundry (currently in the unfinished basement), and mudroom (I don’t have one- or a dedicated entrance space at all…only a really small coat closet by the door that I never use). This gives me several great ideas!