Well the day has finally arrived. After much anticipation, the big solar eclipse is here. Are you just beside yourself with excitement? Maybe headed to a big eclipse party later today? Sadly I have no eclipse parties in my future. None. Zip. Nada. No friends, I won’t even be looking at the skies when the eclipse happens because I refuse to pay some outlandish amount for “certified eclipse glasses” that I will never use again in my life. I’m just not going to do it. Instead I’ll probably be inside, drinking coffee and watching it on some live feed. Thank you technology! Surely that will be just as good, right? I think so. And then I’ll be celebrating that it’s over because I’m honestly tired of hearing about it. Call me crazy, but I’m just not that into it. But you know what I am excited about today? My budget-friendly mudroom makeover. Yesssssss! You guys, I’ve been wanting to do this project for soooooooo long. Up until now our mudroom has been a sad, dark little hole that I ignored. And I don’t think I’ve ever even shown it here on the blog. But no more! We finally spent some time working on this space and it’s so much better than it was before. But the best part of all is this makeover cost us less than $100 and it was super quick. Just a little effort made a huge difference and I can’t wait to share it with you guys. Ok, here’s the way our mudroom looked before:
As you can see it’s a pretty small room, so there’s not much space to work with, but my main goal here was to open it up and add more storage. This is definitely a drop-zone for all the things, so I needed lots of practical storage options. Here’s how it looks now:
The first thing we did was remove the lower shelf. Taking that out really helped this room feel bigger. You wouldn’t think one shelf would do that, but it really opened it up. Plus it made the seating area much more comfortable and useful. Now we actually have room to sit back comfortably and not be squished by that low shelf.
We also removed the old coat rack and replaced it with this new fancy schmancy one. I actually picked this up from Michael’s and I think it works perfectly in here. And with the lower shelf gone we were able to put this rack higher on the wall, which is actually much more practical for hanging up coats and the kids’ backpacks.
Lastly we added faux shiplap to give this space a bit more character and charm. You can see my full tutorial here if you’re curious about how we did that, but it’s crazy easy and super affordable. It’s definitely a must try DIY project if you’re into that farmhouse/cottage look.
We also reinforced the seat here with an old spindle from my parent’s house. See it there on the lower left? We just cut it down to size, painted it white and screwed it into place. This seat has always been a bit weak, so that little guy really helped make it stronger. Plus it’s kinda cool to repurpose that old spindle and put it to good use.
I picked up several new baskets and cubbies to give us more storage since this is our the drop-zone for all the things. It’s always so messy in here and all that extra storage has really made all the difference. I mean, we still have tons of stuff crammed in this room, but you’d never know it thanks to all the baskets. It’s like magic! And I have to say, this little makeover has totally changed the feel of this mudroom. It seems so much more open and spacious now and the room actually has some character and charm to it, which is was majorly lacking before. And best of all we were able to do this for less than $100 between all the new baskets, shiplap and updated coat rack. It really didn’t take much to give this room a whole new look and feel. That’s a major win in my book.
I’d love to hear what you think of our little budget-friendly mudroom makeover. And be sure to let me know if you have any questions–I always love chatting with you guys. Now go enjoy that eclipse, but don’t look at the sun! It’s not recommended.
Mudroom Sources:
Baskets & Crates: Michael’s
Pillow: HERE
Greenery: HERE
Purse: HERE
Paint Color: Sharkey Gray by Benjamin Moore
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