When we moved into our house, there was a little bit of unfinished space that James and I dreamed could be a functional and very important mud room. In our last house, our garage went directly into the kitchen. There was no space for shoes. No space to take off wet winter clothes and boots. No place to hang backpacks or bags. Just garage-then kitchen. It wasn’t a very good plan for a family with three kids.

So we were super excited for this new space. It was a bit of a clean slate. Unfinished floor, plain walls, etc. James started by tearing down a utility closet that they had built, along with a coat closet which was in the weirdest spot ever, and would have never gotten used in a functional way. He then knocked down a wall, built up the floor and made a hall way on the other side of the mudroom so that we could move Sawyer’s bedroom door to another wall in his room (it was off of the kitchen when we first moved in). This took some space away from our mudroom, but it was kind of bigger than we really needed anyways, and we thought it was important to move Sawyer’s door.

I have all these big dreams for the room. I know it’s not that big of a space, but it’s such an important one since it will be the dumping grounds for so many things. Most importantly, I wanted lockers. One for each family member. James has been working in his free time (which doesn’t come around that often!) to build the lockers. We will put bead board on the walls and paint them with a nice glossy paint that will be easy to wipe down. And we haven’t decided on the floor yet, but might try to do a heated floor.  And on the opposite wall of the lockers I will be making a “command center”, as they call it on pinterest. James refers to it as a central nervous system which makes me crack up. I’ve been searching for some perfect elements for it and can’t wait until I can get it up and running. The sooner, the better! School papers are EVERYWHERE!

So here are a few before pictures. Can’t wait to make more progress!