Being built in the 1980’s, my home lacks a space that most modern day houses now have and that is the mudroom/drop zone. With three kids the amount of stuff that leaves and comes back daily from school and activities is staggering. The result was the dining room table becoming the drop zone. Back in the 90’s, my dad built a small coat closet at the top of the garage stairs but I converted it into a play area for my kids when they were little since they didn’t have a playroom. The result was coats and book bags not having a home so “put this stuff away” really were just empty words.
The problem was, we didn’t actually have a good place to put a mudroom/drop zone. The best place for an area like this is where you enter and exit the house most frequently. The problem in our house is the back staircase lands right in the kitchen. After staring at our house plans a bit, I decided to nix a hallway to create a mudroom at the bottom of our main stairs and in our entranceway. It required us to take down a non-structural wall and to move the entrance to the primary bedroom. Both were a small price to pay to get an actual home for all of our stuff.
After we took down the wall and moved the primary bedroom door, we were left with a small, almost square space as the future drop zone. Although ideally this space would have had a place for the dog crates, a small sink and all of the luxuries you find on Pinterest, none of that was possible in this space. What was possible was a good deal of storage to get all of the stuff off my dining room table. At the last minute, I decided to add a pocket door to the mudroom area. Although my intention is to keep it open, the truth is with three kids, places get messy and sometimes it is nice to just be able to close the door.
When designing how I wanted to build out the drop zone, I asked each kid if they would prefer hooks or a hanging rod. Two said hooks and one said a hanging rod. My husband wanted to be able to hang his coats as well so I decided to make the cubbies 23″ deep. This allowed for either option. My original intention was to do a drawer on the bottom of each cubby but because school was in full swing, the time didn’t allow for it so it became baskets until a later time.
Since the cubbies were so deep, it allowed for each kid (including the one that decided to go from a hanging rod to hooks at the last minute) to get 10 hooks each. This allowed me to store all seasons of coats and simply put the ones the used most often to the front. This year round storage is really important to us since we don’t have a ton of unfinished storage space to do the seasonal rotation. Then I was able to put baskets up top and on the bottom as a catch all.
The other feature we added were outlets to each cubby so the girls could charge their school laptops and eventually their devices. It was something I almost nixed but so glad we didn’t. It has provided a home for all of the electronics so they aren’t sitting out everywhere and has even discouraged them from using them when they are home which is a plus.
The last space we needed was for guests to hang their coats and a place to sit to put on shoes. At first, my plan was to do a built in bench but when I saw this Studio McGee bench at Target that fit perfectly, that became the move. It wood tone breaks up all of the green in the room and it provides a landing spot for anyone putting on their shoes.
When it came to decor, I knew I wanted a plaid wallpaper. My dad wore flannels every single day so plaid and flannel are an anchor in my family. I found a peel and stick wallpaper from Magnolia that provided that subtle plaid I was looking for and then I pulled out the green and chose Magnolia paint in the color Seasonal. I decided to do a complete wash of the room in that paint, even the ceiling and molding, except for where we had the wallpaper. To add additional texture to the room, I added shiplap vertically in the area where the guest hooks were going. The brass hooks contrast nicely off the green and then I added a matte black in the ceiling fixture and door hardware.
Now that it is done, it has helped the functionality of our family life tremendously. I may ultimately change the bottom compartments to drawers and add doors the the girls cubbies but for now, it is exactly what we need. The beautiful part of learning to DIY your space, is that you can adapt it to whatever season of life you are in.
