Mudroom - The Before Photos

As promised, I snapped a few 'before' photos of our utility room/soon to be mudroom. Last week I shared with you my plans for this space.

Be warned: these photos aren't pretty. Our current utility room is cluttered, messy, dark and scary. It doesn't help that the lighting isn't the best for photos. I had to prop open the garage door to get a little more light to get them this bright. The room itself isn't bad during the day and we have two light sources when it gets dark at night. 

 

This is the view from the door entering from the garage. There is a double window (Maybe 50" wide? I could be wrong, but I'm basing it off the size of the 40" bench I purchased) that looks out into the backyard. We already had the Ikea Aneboda Wardrobe in place when I took these photos and have since added the bench from Target under the windows. We have a bulky high chair holding all the leftover decorations from Lucy's birthday party, as well as Jordan's tool box and a storage bin with more tools under the window. To the right are a few kitchen appliances that we don't use regularly. Next to the window is our Verizon box where our internet/cable is hooked up (eyesore #1).

 

Turning to the left you can see the door that leads into our laundry room. You can also see our hot water heater and furnace against that wall (eyesores #2 and #3). Along the garage wall we have our dingy utility sink (eyesore #4) as well as all our cleaning supplies stored underneath. I know it looks like a dangerous situation for a house with young kiddos, but Lucy has never been one to get into things she isn't supposed to (Honestly we've never even baby proofed past outlets and a gate at the steps). By the time Mila is up and crawling around this room will be in shape and the cleaning supplies will be stored off the floor.  

 

When you face the other way you can see our oil tank against the far wall (eyesore #5). The door on the right leads to our garage. You can see on both the far wall and garage wall that there are brackets for shelves already installed. This would be nice, except when Jordan tried to hang shelves they fell right down. We plan to remove these as we want to repaint the room anyway.

 

It's a little difficult to see, but the far corner contains our paint supplies as well as a stash of wall art and rugs that we haven't decided what to do with, yet. The vaccuum, shop vac and rug shampooer are just hanging out in front of the oil tank.

 

After chatting a bit we decided that we'd like to somehow install a track unit along the ceiling about a foot or so in front of the oil tank that we can hang a wall-to-wall curtain to create a 'wall' that closes off the tank from the rest of the room. We would also use the empty space (well empty once we remove all the clutter) to the left of the tank to install real shelves and store all our cleaning supplies and hide our vaccuums behind that curtain.

 

Here are the two light sources I mentioned above. I'm not really sure the reason for the placement of the track light aside from the fact that the stagers had a card table under the window. I'd like to find a more modern, smaller track light to replace this one that still gives significant light. The flush mount will be replaced with the Crate and Barrel pendant I shared in last week's post. I also have plans for some window treatments thanks to a great deal I scored on a clearance curtain from Pottery Barn. My idea will put my sewing skills to the test. I also ordered the Chevron Knot Rug from West Elm earlier this week since it's currently on sale!

 

There you have it. Our ugly little utility room. These photos really make me want to get moving.

 

Do you have any 'ugly' rooms you're itching to makeover?