our mudroom

We bought our house 5 years ago based off a floor plan we found online.  One of our favorite features was this mudroom. It connects the garage to the rest of the house and is such a great dumping ground for our busy family.  The only negative about the space is that there is no window. Which means it is pretty dark. We painted it a dark chocolaty-green-gray color a few years ago and it became even darker {that’s what you get when you use a can of paint you have laying around}. Last summer Ryan added white bead board paneling and a row of hooks on all four walls and that made things a bit lighter and much more functional. But it still needed some freshening up.  I finally finished putting the space together and I’m excited to share it with you today.

The walls are now Revere Pewter {Benjamin Moore} and it feels so much brighter!

I moved the woven pinboard in here to put some favorite family photos, art work and mementos – it sure adds a personal touch and some much needed color and cheerfulness to an otherwise boring room.

We bought these numbers at the hardware store to identify hooks for each backpack.

Above the hooks is a new print that I just adore.

This is the wall with the door that goes out to the garage. Its nice to have a little bench in here.

And the back wall …

I painted stripes on the ceiling just for fun. I like it. Ryan -  not so much.  We also switched out the light with this industrial one from the hardware store {$25!}.

One of my very favorite features of the mudroom is the automatic light Ryan so brilliantly installed. It has a movement sensor so it comes on when you walk in the room and turns off after a minute or two. We have a few of these throughout our house in places where its easy to forget to turn off the light {the pantry, under-stairs closet, master closet}.

Now let me share with you another genius tip I got from The Nester.

I buy one brand of socks – two lines for the older boys {is it weird that they share socks?} and one line for No. 3. Audrey gets her own girly socks but shares a basket with Mason. AND I don’t match and fold them. Just throw them in the basket. It saves on time when folding laundry, makes it easy for the boys to find their socks and best of all, there are no more mismatched socks in our house. Thanks Miss Nester.

Each kid also has their own bin of shoes.

Can you tell who already has a shoe-obsession? Naturally, she gets the bigger bin.

Speaking of shoes … these are her current favorites {and mine too}.

They are from my favorite shoe designer Joyfolie. Come back tomorrow for a generous discount for JDC readers.

A few details:

So that is our mudroom. I love how it turned out. Bright, cheerful, useful, organized and personal.

And it will never again look as nice as it does in the photos.

… SOURCES …

paint color: Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter

light: warehouse pendant from Home Depot

be filled with joy print: The Wheatfield by Katie Daisy

black numbers: Home Depot in the mailbox and house number section

galvanized wall organizer: PotteryBarn – no longer available

sock baskets & shoe bins: IKEA

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office desk

A few weeks ago I showed you my new office desk in it’s raw state.

At that point I was thinking I would add a skirt. But once it was sanded

primed

painted {two coats of Sherwin Williams Cashmere paint in Rushing River}

given a band of white grosgrain ribbon

and some silver nail head trim

I ended up really liking its modern simplicity.

So here she is now living happily in my office.

I needed more storage {and display space} and so I installed three rows of shelves. I put them up myself. Into studs. I am quite proud.

{one of my all time favorite photos from our first trip to New York}

{a current display of neutral ribbons}

{boxes of envelopes at the ready}

Now do you want to see my next project?

It is time to reupholster this handsome chair I have neglected for over five years.

It actually needs to be re-padded and tied too. I have never reupholstered anything, so this one might be ambitious for a beginner, but I’ll give it a try one of these days.

Questions about my office? Here are the past posts:

office {part one}

office {specifics}

office {rearranged}

painted wallpaper {tutorial}

painted wallpaper {clarified}

enjoy!

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refrigerators

Let’s talk about refrigerators for a minute.

This is what ours looks like:

In a world where stainless is the preferred choice, ours is white.

But that’s not what I want to talk about.

Have you ever noticed that refrigerators in magazines are always bare? They don’t have random photos, calendars, invitations, school work & artwork stuck haphazardly to them. At least not in the photos.

I think Ryan would prefer a cleared off refrigerator. But I rather like the odd assortment of paper goods stuck to ours. It tells me there is life going on in this house.

It is a place to show off my kids’ spelling tests. To display their crazy artwork {a black pumpkin on fire? Not sure what’s going on there …}.

It makes an easy spot to put a few favorite photos, to test out a new art print and to stay organized with our weekly calendar.

And where else do you stick cute invitations?

If I could build my dream kitchen it would probably look a lot like this one:

{via}

I love a restaurant style glass door refrigerator.

{via}

{via}

But for now, we have a white fridge covered in little pieces of our life.

And that’s pretty beautiful, too.

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