Making the Most of Interior Spaces: Mudrooms

Kitchen and bathroom remodeling are by far the most common home renovation projects, but there are other smaller projects like mudrooms that can also contribute to making your house more comfortable, efficient, and beautiful.

Why Mudrooms Work Great in Homes With Children

Callen has been doing a lot of work with mudrooms lately. In our climate, with snow in the winter and mud in the spring, it’s nice to have an area of the home to use as a convenient place to transition from the outdoors to the main part of the house. Mudrooms are more than just a place for shucking boots and shoes, however. They’re evolving into beautifully organized areas where there’s a place for everything. For example, in households with children, include lockers or cubbies at just the right height for little ones to hang up their backpacks and jackets and store footwear.

How Adults Can Benefit From a Mudroom

An adult household doesn’t need hooks, but rather closet space for outerwear, handbags, and umbrellas. A mudroom equipped with counter space is a convenient stopping place when bringing multiple bags of groceries in from the car. Enclosed storage, whether it’s wall cabinets or a pantry-type closet, can handle bulk items and overstock that don’t need to go in the kitchen right away. Increasingly, these counters also include docking stations for recharging cell phones and laptops. Organizers on the wall can handle keys, mail, and other miscellaneous household items.

Using Your Mudroom as a Laundry Center

Further enhancing the mudroom are updated laundry centers. Main floor laundry rooms not only help save steps, but they also make doing the laundry more enjoyable. Old free-standing laundry tubs are replaced with drop-in sinks surrounded by a countertop. Recessed washer boxes keep the supply hoses, discharge hose and shut-off valve in the wall accessible but out of sight. The sink can be eliminated entirely if desired and replaced with a counter or extra storage. Front loaders also allow for the placement of a counter over the machines. The counter is higher than what’s standard, but the point is to maximize usable space.

Of course, in many older houses, mudrooms are nothing more than tiny entryways. Even so, there are creative ways to carve out additional space from an adjacent room, possibly from the garage itself. It doesn’t matter how big or small your space is, just try to use every inch of it possible in order to create order out of the chaos.

Explore the Options With Callen

To find out how you can incorporate a mudroom into your home’s design, give your favorite remodeling company, Callen, a call at 414-765-2585. You can also reach us via our online contact form.