Anonymous wrote:Sounds very practical but very depressing! I wouldn't want to come into my house through a hosable room with a drain in the floor and institutional looking cubbies. My ideal mudroom would be the foyer of my house with flowers and art and some kind of clever nice-looking cabinetry to hold the kids' backpacks and charge cell phones.

The foyer would get really worn out.

I used to not understand mudrooms until we got one.

Sounds very practical but very depressing! I wouldn't want to come into my house through a hosable room with a drain in the floor and institutional looking cubbies. My ideal mudroom would be the foyer of my house with flowers and art and some kind of clever nice-looking cabinetry to hold the kids' backpacks and charge cell phones.

Built in drying racks for swim towels in summer and snow gear in the winter.

are your mudrooms in the front of houses (e.g. by entrances?) we have one, but its at the back of the house. pretty useless if you ask me.

We have high level design for space, now buidling out detailed plans to finish in next few months

In addition to other suggestions, we are planning

Extra wide cubbies so multiple sports bags can fit in for each kid. (bag for each sport for each kid for current season) upper cabinets to conceal some stuff
drawers for nicer shoes/cleats (so not to tempt the dog who is good only 90% of the time),
standing height "desk", right near door, (next to kitchen but mess not as visible) to sort mail, school papers, etc when walk in, charging stations, and then
Large bulletin boards to pin critical school papers accessible

Drain in the floor
BIG sink (preferably with a spray attachment) and built-in soap dispenser
Cubbies with hooks and shelves so everyone has their own storage space for shoes, coats, lunches, backpacks, books, etc.
A wall of cabinets and drawers for extra coats, shoes, sports equipment, pet equipment, etc.
A place to put a laundry basket so really dirty/muddy/sweaty things can go straight in

Storage! Like, bins or large drawers - both high and low. Hooks on wall at adult and kid height. Either giant sink or dogwash. Somewhere to sit & take off shoes. Flooring that is easy to clean. Some counter-top space and several plugs.

Gym bathroom style floor and walls that can be hosed down, drain in floor.

We created a big mudroom during our reno.
Used granite from our kitchen when we pulled that apart. Put in a new sink. Got stock cabinets from Lowe's which were suprisingly nice (for a mudroom). I do wish we had the dog wash station above though!

We also have cubbies for everyone's things.
Mudrooms get chaotic and it is hard to keep it organized. However, the good thing is that since everything is dropped right there, we almost always find whatever we need in that area.

We used dark gray tiles with a medium gray grout. Makes cleaning easy. Also used an indoor/outdoor rug. Trust me - it gets filthy!

Also have a stick vac for mud room because something is always tracked in.

Hooks, charging station for phones/ipads/etc., good natural light and windows, large tiles for the floor (easier to clean), more hooks.

Hooks for coats, storage for extra shoes and out of the way place to put daily wear shoes. Hooks for backpacks.

2nd powder room for washing up kids and a boot wash tub

We had a "feature wall" - we commissioned impoverished yet talented local artists to come in and spray the walls with their pictures. Looks great!

I'm trying to gather ideas on a mudroom. If you could design your own mudroom, what features would you require and if there's a picture...please post!

thanks