Today I am sharing how I created a functional and beautiful modern mudroom for my family. The mudroom is definitely a place that gets used daily. It is also such a catch all space; we set down our personal items there, place items that we need to take with us when we leave the house, take of dirty clothes, etc all in this space. It took me months to figure out the best layout and the best functionality for the mudroom but it was well worth the wait(and the work)!
Laundry and Mudroom Space Before
Originally the washer and dryer were on this wall but it stuck out into the walkway to much and it just wasnt functional for us so we decided to move it to the opposite wall instead. Fortunately, the washer and dryer fit on perfectly in their new location.
To the opposite wall (and currently above the washer/dryer) I added vertical shiplap to sit just below the top of the washer and dryer for a nice accent wall. I chose pale oak by Benjamin More for the wall color.
I added a wood shelf bracket to support floating shelves for a clean and minimal look to the space.
I stained pine boards and added some simple accessories.
You can see a full in depth how to on my YouTube video here
Now that this wall was nearly empty I took out the remaining counter/cabinet wall. With the counter gone, I would have a completely clean slate to work with and room to add more Ikea Pax units. Ikea was out of the white units so I went with the dark ones and carried that idea over for the entire wall. I also picked up cabinet doors, drawers for the units, a desk top to use for the bench, and laundry baskets.
Using Ikea Pax units to create storage lockers kept the cost much lower than building my own units (which was something I had wanted to do). I added drawers and baskets to the inside of the units; this allowed me to customize each unit and making them functional for the space. Plus, with the current cost of lumber/supplies it was still cheaper to customize the Pax units versus building my own. I got 3 Ikea Pax units and used one for the kids items, one for the adults, and one for all my cleaning supplies.
I started by installing the pax units as directed, then adding my accent wall of board and batten. The next steps were to sand it all down with 80 grit sand paper then move up to 220 grit. I used tacky cloth to remove the sanding dust in preparation for painting.
I used a special primer and paint for this projects since it was laminate surface not real wood. I chose to use the paint color black magic by Sherwin Williams which is the same beautiful soft black I used on my fireplace. You can see the whole process here on my YouTube Channel.
After a few days and 3 coats of paint I was ready to move onto painting the doors. I repeated the same process I did on the Ikea pax units on the Ikea doors (which are an amazing deal, by the way). Ikea has many different door styles to choose from; allowing for many different looks. The only difference is I used a paint sprayer to paint the doors with the primer and same paint, which I highly recommend using one because the finish is flawless.
To finish off the space I added hardware, side floating shelves, a beautiful piece of art between the units, a rug, and some wall hooks. I love the way the black contrasts with the wood colored floors and the gold hardware.
You can see all the details and how to’s on my YouTube channel
