The mudroom may not be the first room you think about when designing your new home but this high-functioning area plays an important role in the overall enjoyment of your home. This workhorse of a space typically gets high foot traffic and is tasked with handling a variety of jobs, storage, clean-up, laundry, mail sorting and more.
Benefits Of a Well-Thought-Out Mudroom
Mudrooms have come a long way from the days of a back hall closet and shoe rack. A well-designed mudroom can help keep your home and life organized. Having a designated space for your daily essential items helps keep everything contained in one convenient location and keeps the chaos at bay when heading out the door.
Things to Consider When Designing a Mudroom
What makes for a great mudroom? Primarily homeowners are looking for two things, ease of organization and beautiful, aesthetically pleasing design. Ultimately, you want storage solutions that fit your specific needs, custom building allows you to achieve this. At PortSide, your Custom Designer will work with you to help narrow in on your needs and sort through the options.
Some basic things to consider; how many people are living in your home? What are their daily routines? Do you have young children or kids with lots of sports equipment? Pets? Think about the items everyone will be reaching for as they head out the door, like keys, coats, hats and gloves, bags, backpacks, items for the dog.
Having a variety of storage options for these items is essential. The key is making it easy to put things where they belong and easy to access when needed. One of the most practical and convenient layouts is a bench with shelves below and hooks and shelves or cubbies above. If space allows, a coat closet is perfect for longer and bulkier winter coats, umbrellas, tall boots, and more.
Additionally, if you have younger children or grandchildren who visit frequently, you may want to consider a row of lower hooks to make it easy for little ones to hang up their coats and backpacks.
With the increase in online shopping, many homeowners are opting to put in a drop-zone, a designated space to sort through packages and mail. This is typically a base cabinet with mail sorting slots or additional cabinets above. This helps keep the recyclables and junk mail out of the house. Hidden charging stations, such as a pullout drawer with a power strip to plug in smartphones and tablets keeps the tangle of charging cords out of sight.
You will want to think about how the mudroom relates to the rest of the space in the back entry. Will there be an adjacent powder room? Will you have a separate designated laundry room or will you incorporate this into the mudroom? With custom-built cabinetry and attractive hardware, having the laundry built into the mudroom can be convenient and attractive. Another detail to consider is choosing flooring and surfaces that are durable and easy to clean.
At PortSide, your Custom Designer will work with you, ask you questions about your lifestyle, and design a plan that is functional, beautiful, and custom-built to suit your specific needs.
Click if you are ready to learn more about our home construction process.
