Small mudroom ideas and mudroom storage on a budget using paint and a few easy DIY projects
I am so excited about this mudroom makeover. It was the one room I have been dreading tackling and organizing and the one room that turned out slightly better than I anticipated.
And better yet, it barely cost me any money. Ok, I am lying. I did buy some new baskets for my shelves but for the most part this mudroom was completely made over with just paint….and lots and lots of it.
Yes, we could have completely gutted this room and started over with new floors and hired someone to remove the old washer and dryer hookups and patch the drywall but what fun is that?
This room was the most challenging for me to hide all the ugly stuff on a budget. But it was the challenge that made it worth it. And once again, it just goes to show you the power of paint….and patience.
This room went through alot of stages to get to it’s final (for now) stage and it took two years to get here.
I really wish I had a true before picture of this room when the old washer and dryer where in here. I thought I did but I just have a few in between pictures. The closest before picture I was able to find was this picture.
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The previous owners had left their old stackable washer and dryer in here and we quickly donated them. Our washer and dryer are now housed in my office. Yep you read that right. More of that here. It’s growing on me though.
This room kind of sat in a funk stage for awhile before I had any kind of idea what I wanted to do. The back wall was the biggest eyesore to me with the pipes sticking out of the wall and the stinky washer hookup smelling up the mudroom.
But instead I started with the floor because, you know, that seemed logical.
Her she is two years later though….
We’ll talk about this mudroom in stages…
Stage 1: I painted the old linoleum floors
The old floors were a orange-ish linoleum and the crazy idea of painting them came to me randomly. This turned out to be the biggest bang for my buck and I was kind of just winging it. I didn’t tell my husband before he left for work that he was going to come home to a different floor in our mudroom either. Talk about making your armpits sweat. Two years later and I still have no idea how he feels about the floors but they are holding up pretty dang well. You can see how I painted my floor here
Stage 2: I hid some pipes and gained some extra storage with a mudroom storage bench
This stage was two fold for me. I wanted to get some more storage in the mudroom and hide the pipes sticking out of the wall. Things just worked out in my favor with this storage bench. You can see how I made it here
And when you have a dog that likes to hide your shoes, this storage bench is that much better
Stage 3: I painted my walls (twice)
I originally painted the walls white and attempted to shiplap sharpie the walls. If you are not familiar with shiplap sharpie, it is just drawing lines on your wall with a sharpie to mimic the look of shiplap. I’m here to tell you to NEVER use a sharpie on your wall unless you do some research.
I did one line on my wall with a shaprie and quickly realized my future self would hate me if I used a sharpie to draw lines throughout the whole mudroom so I switched to a colored pencil. That one line of sharpie took 265 coats of primer and paint to cover and I still think you might be able to see it.
The colored pencil was very easy to cover so just do some research if you ever get a wild hair to sharpie some shiplap on your wall.
I was growing bored with the shiplap sharpie and knew I wanted to change the walls up. Wallpaper was highly considered but I didn’t want anything too busy in here with the buffalo check floors.
I went into the basement and pulled out leftover paint from my son’s room and leftover paint from my daughter’s room. I actually ended up using the flat white ceiling paint for the bottom portion of the walls in here. I wanted a stark white to contrast with the blue and you can’t get any whiter than flat ceiling paint. Not to mention, I had a ton of it left over.
I loved how it turned out. This painting technique is my new favorite. It’s so easy to do and doesn’t require any trim to be installed on the walls to separate the two colors…instead you just have to know how to make the perfect paint lines on your wall.
I’ll show you how and it’s easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Paint your lower section your color of choice and let it dry completely. Once dry, add painter’s tape to your wall where you want your division of paint to be (make sure your tape is level). Completely paint over your tape with the bottom color. This will seal off the tape so the top color cannot bleed through onto your bottom paint color.
Now let that dry completely again. Once this step is dry you can then paint your top color over the tape as well.
Once that is dry you can remove the tape and you are left with a perfect crisp paint line with absolutely no paint bleeding through the tape. Yes, it’s a few extra steps but it is SO worth it.
Step 4: I officially (and finally) hid the washer hookup
I finally ripped the bandaid off. I had to figure out how to hide all the junk on the back wall. I had a pipe sticking out of the wall, two usused outlets (one of which was the size of my face) and a smelly washer hookup. I had just enough beadboard wallpaper left over from our old house to cover this wall and I thought I’d just go for it.
Doing nothing was obviously getting me nowhere. You can see how I installed my beadboard wallapper here. I was able to successfully hide everything but the old dryer pipe which I really think is cemented into the wall.
I did what lazy bloggers/DIYers do and covered it with a jean jacket. Never underestimate the power of a jean jacket
How to install beadboard wallpaper
Step 5: I organized the living the daylights out of this room (finally) with baskets
I will not complain about having extra shelves in this mudroom. But I will complain about how it was becoming the family’s dumping ground (I’m to blame as well). If there was something no one knew what to do with, it got thrown in the mudroom. Seriously, look at this mess
I can’t believe I just shared that picture but that was real life and it was getting out of control. I gave myself one afternoon and just started purging and organizing. Oh, the stuff I found in some of those baskets. I traumatized myself a little bit.
But that same day, I happened to find the cutest baskets on sale. The baskets were my biggest expense in this room but so worth it. They fit my shelves perfectly, they were the color I wanted and I was able to find enough to fill my space. I honestly looked for the perfect baskets for over a year. I had to get these
Look at that difference organizing and purging did. I will never allow the mudroom to go back to it’s old state (remind me that I said that next year when it once again looks like a flea market)
I also painted the door leading out to our garage Nature’s Reflection by Behr last year and I felt like I was still able to keep it this color even after I repainted the mudroom.
I added some artwork too. It was just something easy I already had. Two years ago I found these free printables from Magnolia. I framed them in inexpensive frames from Walmart and voila…cute affordable art.
It might have taken me two years to give one of the smallest rooms in our house the makeover it needed but the wait was worth it. It’s amazing what paint can do and I’ll never stop saying that!
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Small mudroom makeover ideas on a budget using paint and a few easy DIY projects
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How to install beadboard wallpaper
kristen says
I am loving this before and after! So bright and airy! Looks really good, I wish our laundry area coming in from the garage was larger so I could have a true mud room!