I just finished a makeover of our mudroom. 
This 6 x 10 space is a high traffic area with 4 doors leading to the kitchen, a bathroom, the garage and the exterior. Because our driveway brings you to the back of the house, our guests come in through the mudroom, too. Over the past 10 years this area has gotten a bit worn out – the pegs on our coat rack were sagging and the space felt tired and neglected … ripe for some thoughtful decorating and organizing!
Inspiration for the makeover came from two sources: the vintage restaurant sign I picked up at a yard sale last summer (which has sat on the mudroom floor for a year) and this entrance done entirely in chalkboard paint:
My affinity for chalkboard paint is still going strong so I was intrigued by the idea of doing the entire room in it. When I shared the idea with my husband, his response was, “Well, just one wall, right?” Answer, “Ummm, no … all four of them.” Tom is pretty easy going so with my promise to repaint if we didn’t like it, he gave me a reluctant green light.
My daughter Meredith wanted to try her hand at painting so she helped me with this project. The first coat was very blotchy. And with the furniture removed, the room felt really dark and mysterious – not what I was going for.
At this point I started to waiver – perhaps I made a mistake with all this black. But often with painting projects, I find it looks worse before it looks better. So after another coat of paint, and then moving the hutch and bench back in, things began to pull together.
Come on in and look around ….
We all have had fun putting our creative stamp on the wall. I don’t mind the random art – I think it adds character and personality to the space.
The new coat rack is a Pottery Barn knockoff. I liked this one below but its $199 price tag was more than I wanted to spend.
Tom helped me out here and made one from an old board we had, along with six hefty double hooks that I purchased from houseofantiquehardware.com. I love how it turned out and it was less than half the cost of the PB one.
My other purchases included a new pendant style lantern to bring the 9 foot ceiling down a bit. Whenever you have a room where the ceiling height is greater than the width or length of the room, you get an uncomfortable elevator shaft effect. I liked this galvanized lantern style pendant.
A beautiful light but pricey at $299. Instead I found this one at Lowe’s for $30.
It’s actually an outdoor pendant. Initially, I thought I would spray paint it with a galvanized silver color but I really liked how its rusty brown finish complimented the wood tones of the coat rack.
I got the stool from Worldmarket.com. I like it’s industrial vibe and it adjusts from counter to bar height … nice for our son, Jack.
My other purchase was a hook for Jack for his backpack and hats. I found this on Etsy. It’s deep so it can hold a lot. I love it!
One things lead to another, so I moved on to a mini makeover of the exterior. The red door is a hint of what I did but I’ll share more in another post. Thanks for stopping by!
Debra
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