mudroom inspiration

Since we have moved in to our home... actually, since the day that we walked through the house before we even made an offer, we knew that we would want to renovate the mud room.

It was a dark, very dingy room that was just kind of thrown together and neglected. I think it was actually a porch that was converted into two spaces, our laundry room and mudroom. The laundry room was actually finished out nicely, but the poor mudroom was just in shambles. Considering we almost always enter the house through the mudroom, it was driving us crazy to be greeted by old, nasty carpet, weirdly dark slate blue/grey walls that were peeling, and depending on the season - either freeeeezing or scorching hot temperatures (since it was so poorly insulated).

Thankfully, after two years of living in our house, we have finally come to a point where we are ready to renovate and make this space the beautiful room it deserves to be! So, I present to you, my design board for this soon-to-be-fresh space of ours:

Isn't it beautiful?!

Thanks to Pinterest (picture 1 and picture 2), I've had so much visual inspiration for what I wanted for this space. I craved an area that was fresh and light to walk in to -- as well as a functional and practical place that served as a holding tank for the mountain of shoes that we accumulate during the week as well as for our jackets, winter accessories, and other random things that come with being a family of four (+ a dog!).

I am a sucker for the bright and airy and ever since I watched my very first episode of Fixer Upper (Love me some Chip and Jo Jo!), I've been wanting to implement some shiplap into our home somewhere, anywhere, everywhere!

Here's the (rough) floorplan to give you an idea of what we're working with:

The floors: We laid the tile a few weeks ago and it is just so, so gorgeous that I can't even contain myself. We went with the Porcelain "Wood" Tile in a Dapple Gray color and it looks amazing! Originally I had wanted the herringbone pattern on the floors (similar to pictures in the design board), but we went with just the standard, staggered design and I am pleased as punch with the way it turned out. We are thinking that eventually we will want to lay a similar tile in the kitchen and foyer and I was worried that having the herringbone in the mudroom compared to the regular design in the rest of the rooms would just not look right.

The benches: Next up from the floor would be the bench(es). I wanted a place where the kids could sit down and either put on or take off their shoes. We came up with an L-shaped bench with half of it being closed off on the bottom and having an opening top for storage (think: hats, gloves, scarves, umbrellas, etc.) and the other half being open on the bottom to keep all of the shoes out of the way. So, I was thinking of making the bottom portion of the storage bench a white shiplap frame and then having the seats resemble the reclaimed wood pictured at the top.

The walls: I'm still not sure what I want to do about the walls. I would love to shiplap the whole room! Buuut, I think Nick would kill me after all of the hard work he has done on the dry wall in that room. So, we shall see what we come up with. For now, I'm definitely thinking to keep all of the walls a neutral white to keep the space feeling bright, since it is such a small room.

The doors: Months ago I painted our kitchen door that beautiful Robin's Egg blue color with spray paint from Home Depot. I absolutely fell in love with it and, to this day, I am still so happy when I walk into the kitchen and see it. I am not quite committed to painting the outside door any other color than white, so that'll probably stay a blank canvas until the room is mostly complete and I can gauge what color would suite it best.

The coat hooks: We have these hooks in our foyer and I think they are so classic looking. I am super excited about putting some at not only adult height, but kid height so that it's easier for Peyton, Rhett, and any future little ones to hang up their own jackets or backpacks.

The ceiling: First, and foremost, we've already purchased and hung this light fixture and I can't tell you just how beautiful it is! We tried it with an Edison bulb, but the light that it gave off was just too yellow. So, for now we just have a regular light bulb there. As far as the ceiling goes, if we don't end up decking the whole room out in shiplap (or even if we do!), I would LOVE to do a white bead-board ceiling.

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And there you have it. I can not wait to see this room reach completion! Hopefully finishing that will give us the gumption we need to get started on our kitchen. Or maybe to at least re-paint the rest of our 1st floor.. and by "we", I mean "Nick" --  Just don't tell him I said that ;)

xo,

Sara

Chalkboard Wall Tutorial

Ever since we began the search for our home, I had envisioned having a chalkboard wall somewhere in the house. So, this has been a long-time-coming project for us. Nicholas finally made my dreams come true a few weeks ago when, on a whim, we went to our local Home Depot and picked up all of the necessary items to create this masterpiece on the blank wall in our kitchen.

  

What you'll need:

- Rust-Oleum Specialty 30-oz. Flat Black Chalkboard Paint

**make sure to have the associates at the paint center shake your paint can before purchasing**

(they also have the kind that you can have tinted to be whatever color your heart desires!)

- Enough trim to frame your chalkboard (if you're going to frame it). We used this kind:

(you can trim the molding down to whatever length you need, free of charge, right in the aisle at Home Depot.)

- 2 inch finishing nails to mount your trim/frame

- A regular high-density paint roller, painter's tape, tray, etc.

*you do NOT need this kind of roller, which is what the associates at HD told us to purchase and it didn't work well at all. You could see the spiral lines in the paint once it applied, and it did not roll out the paint well - it was as if you were just pushing the paint on with a sponge*

 - hammer, level, willing assistants, moral support, etc.

That's it!

Now, let's get started:

1- Have a spot picked out for your chalkboard and clean the walls with a damp cloth before applying anything. To be honest, we didn't clean our walls first but I feel that you probably should.

2- Measure your space // frame out your board-to-be with painter's tape:

**be sure to use your level!**

3- Pour a little of the paint into your tray and get started!

Also known as: grab & drink watch your stud-of-a-fiancé get to work ;)

**Keep pouring more paint into the tray, as necessary. You don't want to dump more than you need in there so as you don't waste any of it.**

4- Allow paint to dry.

It dries to the touch within 30 mins. (aka: enough to start framing) and dries completely within 24 hours (I think).

4- Watch as your dog and your daughter fall asleep on the kitchen floor while your worker-man realizes that, because our walls are plaster they are also uneven and therefore make framing this board a pain in the a**.



5- Here is where the moral support comes in:

Your worker man works late into the night, cursing up a storm, trying to get this frame to work.

Finally, he gives up for the evening and goes to bed (after ruining the trim because our first mistake with this was thinking that we need screws to attach the trim to the wall. No, no, no - finishing nails are the way to go!)

6- Wake up the next day with a fresh outlook on the project. Go purchase another set of trim and finishing nails and a protractor to cut those tricky angles/corners in the trim. Complete said project in no time at all.

7- Caulk any gaps in the corners you might have and then paint over them & the nail heads with extra white paint you may have laying around the house.

8- Voila! You are finished.

^^pay no mind to our messy laundry room^^

There are still a few items that I have yet to purchase in order to complete this project:

- We still need a pail to hold all of our chalk so that it is more easily accessible.

I'm thinking something along the lines of this:

via

- A few chalk pens, though I've seen in reviews that they aren't great for wall chalkboards because they don't come off as easily. We shall see, though.

- Something to clean the chalkboard off better.

I have read that magic erasers and Windex wipes work well, so I'll have to give those a try!

All in all, I could not be any happier with the finished product!

We love using it to just doodle on, write down our grocery list, and it really just make this home feel more like "ours" now that we've added this special, personal touch to one of our main living spaces.

And I am so thankful to have such a crafty man willing to go along with (& enjoy!) my crazy décor ideas.

xo,

Sara