a lovely living

To those of you with children, you know the importance of having a dedicated landing space for all their many, many belongings. Whether it’s an area in your garage, an entryway closet, a part of your laundry room or a mudroom, containing the stuff is crucial. After years of living in condos and apartments we are finally fortunate to have a designated spot for our mudroom. It’s also located in a very central part of our home. It falls right in between our garage, family room, kitchen and additionally has a powder room located off of it. With that being the case, it’s even more important to keep this in space in order and not merely a dumping zone!

Before we moved into our home last summer we tackled the majority of painting in just about every room. Our mudroom however, was a bit neglected. I was toying with the idea of wallpapering the space, but when I found out it would cost nearly $1000 to install the paper I had my eye on, well, that plan was put on hold. It took me a while to figure out my next direction, but I finally landed on painting it in Sherwin William’s Backdrop. It reads as a sort of chocolate gray and I looove the way it turned out. With that update came a spring cleaning and the storing away of all the winter coats, hats and gloves which left the room in a perfect state to be documented…and I promise it will never be quite as organized again (the shoes are all ready in complete disarray!).

I had previously shared with you the way I tackled this command center which we continue to utilize every single day. It’s the way I keep all of our incoming/outgoing mail/letters/bills etc organized. (Resources listed at end of post)

This cubby area is predominantly used by the kids. The hooks hold their jackets, bags and backpacks and the baskets at the bottom are used for hats, scarves, gloves etc during the winter months and basically a ‘catch-all’ at all times.

I found the bin on wheels at HomeGoods and it’s perfect for storing all of their shoes. It’s also the baby’s favorite place to play, go figure!

My girlfriend, who’s kitchen I helped to design, found this piece of art from Target for her home. I loved it and knew it would work perfectly here to add some color into the space.

If you have the space for a bench, it’s a wonderful piece to have in this area. And if it can serve as additional storage, even better! My MIL found this bench at Target (I sound like a broken record, don’t I?!) and I loved it. Of course it had sold out just about everywhere, but after calling around I managed to track one down near my brother in Pittsburgh, PA. I just had to twist his arm a little to pick it up for me ;)

Sources:

Art: Target
Baskets: Target
Bench: Target (similar here and a large selection here)
Cabinet: Ballard
Mail bins: Target (here and here)
Mirror: Target
Paint: Sherwin Williams Backdrop
Rug: Target
Shoe bin: HomeGoods