One Room Challenge - Mudroom Makeover week 4

 Another week of the #oneroomchallenge has just flown by, and here we are already at week 4. What?!

  So this is where I really start feeling the pressure, especially if things haven't gone as planned, because at this point you really only have a week and a half left - NOT 2 weeks, because in order to have the room done and ready to post, I have to have had time to take pictures of it ... in the daylight.

  BUT guess what?! Today was the Wednesday update for the 20 professional blogger participants that are being sponsored, and for the first time ever Linda, from Calling it Home, who is the brains behind this awesome biannual challenge, did something she's never done before. Have you already heard? She extended the challenge by 1 week. So now I have a whole other week to get this mudroom exactly how I want it. Yay!!! If you'd like to read why click here.

  So now the official finish line is Thursday, Nov 16th, not Nov. 9th like it would have been.  This would be really awesome, actually it is awesome, but would be if I hadn't already miscalculated and thought that the 16th was the end date...whoops! I am not sure why this time I never mentally figured that out, I just somehow landed on the date I thought was the end and never questioned it. Man I would've had a rude awakening that last week that's for sure, so thank you Linda for helping me out!

  So onto this week's update,

  Oh and please if this is your first time stopping in click on these links to get caught up on the previous weeks.

week 1 /  week 2 /  week 3

  We started this week off strong and got our carcass built into the wall! If you follow me on Instagram then you've already seen the progress shot but here are a few more pictures.

First we had to cut out the baseboards and then slide the piece into the corner of the room.  

Then we put molding around the bottom to match up with the existing molding. And because of excellent planning our bottom shelf hit flush with the top of the molding, Yay! I'm learning so much from my Dad.

Then we also attached the entire unit into a stud at a few places, just to make sure it wasn't going to budge, and then added the top molding and the facing.

 Thankfully my Dad, who is so talented, had fall break and was able to come help me 2 days in a row. So honestly because of him I have made great progress. Love you Dad!

Here is the shelving unit now built-in! 

I love it you guys!!! I was so excited to get priming and then the next Dad my Dad stopped by again and got the bench up! Seriously so excited to start using this now!

Ignore the painter's tape mock-up, just trying to gauge if and where I'll put everything.

Some fun things for the room have also arrived.

The wallpaper, I mentioned the little snafu with it on my Instagram earlier this week and of which i'll expound upon in my next post. Also the hooks on top of a little preview of some of the bender board we've primed for the shiplap. The hooks are great, especially for the price, and don't stick out too far, and there is the rug looking better next to the wallpaper and wooden mirror, and ... I've been a little bummed about my baskets.

  These two baskets are my top contenders, the black basket was my first choice, I love the leather handles most, especially against that black. And after the built-in is painted white it could bring in a nice contrast and a little drama, since I wanted too, but decided not to paint the built in a darker color.  BUT it is a little small and the more expensive out of the two.  (you cant tell from the picture, but it is not as deep as the blue basket therefore we wouldn't be maximizing our new and essential storage space.)

black cypress basket 

  The blue felt basket is big enough but also now with the face plates on the built-in, is just a little taller than ideal.  The handle is what is too tall here and there isn't much visual breathing space between the top of the basket and the face piece. You can see better in the pictures below. BUT the depth is much better and I love that its a soft and so the kids would not be scraping the bottom of the basket on the shelf each time they slid it out. And it is definitely more affordable, I will be buying 5 of these baskets.

blue felt basket 

  So the question is, Which one? Do I try to train those leather handles down to make them more accessible? or just continue the search. The blue felt basket actually ended up looking SO much better in person than how it looks on the website too. 

  Hmmm... It also needs to be a really good sturdy basket that will hold up to a LOT of use, which I feel like both of these are. If you know of any great contenders I'd love to hear your suggestions.

  So that's where I'm at, and thank you for stopping by! Hopefully you'll see more of a dramatic change in the room next week since I will finally be painting. The light fixture is also due to arrive any day and so hopefully that will be up as well. 

  Hope to see you next week and if you'd like to check out any of the other guest participants you can click here. 

  

One Room Challenge: Mudroom Makeover - Week 3

Welcome back everyone to the #oneroomchallenge, an online event put on by Linda from the blog, Calling it Home and her media partner @housebeautiful. And guess what?! I can't even believe it, but it is already week 3 which means we've reached the half way mark!!!?? No way! And you guys, im trying my best not to freak out. 

Of course the room is not even close to being done, so this week will be pretty intense, at least I hope it is so that I can take a big leap forward. I know because this is a mudroom and not very big, Its about 6'x5' , it shouldn't be too hard to complete in 6 weeks. BUT with 4 kids, one who is extra clingy these days and pretty much my worst sleeper and napper to date, he's 10 months old, I'm feeling like I have no time to work on the room.

Thankfully we made some progress since last week.

Here are the links to  

week 1 & week 2 

if you'd like to get all caught up and see the "before" and design plan.

Last week I wasn't sure what wallpaper to get but was leaning towards the grasscloth, which by the way - THANK YOU to all of you internet helpers, I really appreciated your thoughts here and on Instagram. But I ultimately decided to stick with it and pulled the trigger yesterday and placed my order. I also found the same, or what looks to be the same paper on Joss and Main for a better price so that was exciting.

Hopefully it will turn out wonderful in this little, but highly used space. 

So I had my wonderful Dad come over last week and we came up with our measurements and this little sketch for the built in and bench we are planning on putting into the mudroom. It was SO helpful to talk it through with someone who has done this before. I thought I had a pretty good idea of what to expect, but I quickly realized I was forgetting things like how the width of my shelves would have to be figured into my spacing for how high I wanted each one to be. Make sense? Probably a rookie mistake, and who knows when I would've realized it, but thankfully my dad always has my back.

Then on Saturday we were able to get started, definitely not in my Dad's timeline, he's not really following the 6 week challenge and didn't see why I wanted to rush, but he was so so sweet and changed his plans for me, Love you Dad!

 He even went to the store and bought my lumber that morning, which was only two sheets of plywood. (so far anyway) One sheet with both sides looking pretty and the other with just one side looking nice (that piece will go against the wall and saved me a few bucks.)

Can you see the wood grain? this one was the cheaper plywood, where the picture above this one was the more expensive. Different types of wood so the grain looks a little different, but you'll never know because most of it will be painted white.

 First we needed to build the carcass, by cutting the 2-8 foot tall pieces, and then we measured and routed where we wanted the shelves, cut the shelves and then assembled. Sounds so simple, and it was because we had a pro helping us.
 
And believe me, what took us probably a couple hours to build would've taken my husband and I probably 2 days. I'm positive we would've run into little hurdles or have to go buy more lumbar from mistakes. Thankfully we were able to avoid that with the help of a master craftsman.

 This is where the carcass was looking like a coffin. Who knew these words would be used to build my built-in?

Starting to make sense now.

This is the back, where we ended up adding some left over bead board that my Dad had left over from his own projects.

Then later that night we brought it home, I cleared out the space for the first time since moving in a little over a year ago, and now the room looks SO BIG... to me anyway.

And voila! We still need to get it actually built-in, painted, faced, and then start on the bench and hopefully another shelf, but it was so fun seeing it in the space.  It definitely helped me realize visually how much space we'll have and STORAGE space, what we need most.

Each of the kids were SO excited and were calling dibs on which shelf would be theirs. 

So what do you think?

Like I said, half way?! The room has a lot farther to go. I'm getting really excited though that we are SO CLOSE to having a finished functional space, but will we finish by week 6?

We better! If you are loving following along, like I am, with all of the room makeovers click over here to see all of the other guest participants, I'm sure they are doing better than I am with their time schedule.

Also if you'd like to see even more you can follow along with the 20 selected professional participants here who update on Wednesdays. So many inspiring designers, and spaces.

And Thank You for stopping by, hope you come back next week when hopefully much much more progress will be made. And I will definitely post more updates this week on Instagram if you'd like to follow along.

One Room Challenge Mudroom Makeover - Week 2

Here we are at week 2 of the #oneroomchallenge. Just a quick reminder that we have Linda from Calling It Home who is hosting and responsible for this fabulous biannual event! I've been loving all of the participants that I have been able to check out so far. Definitely have chosen a few favorites to follow. You can check out the other guest participants, like me, here. 

And here is a link to week 1 if you'd like to see the space we will makeover.

And if you didn't know, there are 20 professional bloggers that have been chosen to participate and they update every Wednesday, you can check them all out here, and you guys... They are all SO good! Actually I'm so so excited about who was chosen this time ( The Makerista, The Painted House, Little Green Notebook, Old Home Love, ...just to name a few) and can't wait to see how their rooms turn out.

Unfortunately not much has happened in the actual space to give you a picture update. I did have the rug I ordered show up, its a beauty but now I'm second guessing if its actually going to work with my existing floors.

My sweet Dad ordered some old hooks for me off of eBay. I was telling him what I wanted, he showed me some and I said "yeah like that" and then next thing I know he ordered them for me. Can't wait to see them, hopefully soon! I'll definitely update you on my Instagram if you want to follow along.

So now lets get into the inspiration pics that I promised you. 

source

Our mudroom needs lots of storage, something our whole home is lacking, but especially important in the mudroom where all of the kids drop everything when they come home.

We are going to have a similar set-up with a built in bench and built-in on the left side to hold baskets that will hide all of the necessary mess we create each day. I'm really loving these new leather handled baskets at target.

We will also be doing the same shiplap we put on our office ceiling, here in the mudroom, on the back wall where the bench and hooks will be. Because we had some leftover and wanted to tie it in throughout the house. (we have a little on our kitchen island and the fireplace.)

This next image is one of my favorites and I can't get it out of my mind. I LOVE so much about it, but especially want to recreate the wooden pegs, and hopefully the leather cushions, if not for this challenge then some day in the future.

source

I also love the dark built-ins with the leather pulls, but for our mudroom we need to keep it bright and open, and I want it to flow better into our kitchen and great room which is very light and bright.  So we are going with white.

source

But don't worry there will be some color that I'll pull in from the wallpaper.

I'm so excited about this you guys! However I can't decide if I want to play it safe with something subtle because I have plans for something more bold and whimsical in the adjoining laundry room, or use a pattern that would be more interesting and fun.

source

Here are a few wallpapers I am debating. (By the way, all of these are peel and stick, so they are easy to install, not messy, and easily removable when I decide to change things up)

blue grasscloth , chevron lines (don't judge at "chevron", this is a good one, I promise),

  wave, and watson arrowhead

Please let me know what your favorite is. 

I think it will really help freshen up my rug, if I keep it, the ivory background turned out looking more muddy :( but it really is a great quality and beautiful rug. It may just be my gray laminate wood floors that make it appear "muddy". 

frame, light, peg rail, indigo pillow, olive pillow, mirror

So what do you think? Hopefully this gives you a better idea of where I'm going with this. And the projects are finally starting tomorrow, lumber and paint here I come. Hopefully I can make those trips without all of my kids this time around. :) 

Fall 2017 One Room Challenge - Mudroom Makeover

Week One

And we're back with another One Room Challenge! Thankfully last spring when I convinced my husband to let me participate as a guest participant, we made over our home office, and even though it was a whirlwind of fun, stress, and exhaustion he ended up loving the space! We all did. So we wanted to do it again.

If you haven't heard of the One Room Challenge that Linda from Calling it Home created you can learn more about it here, and even join in, there is still time! Its a design challenge where you only have 6 weeks to completely overhaul a room. I love it and look forward to it every spring and fall. Its so fun to follow along with everyone and get inspiration, learn from their mistakes and triumphs, and when you participate you get so much support and encouragement from this community and even make new friends.

Because we built this house just over a year ago we have plenty of rooms to choose from, but we chose THE MUDROOM. And mostly it is because its completely lacking function right now. And this family of 6 needs function.

We moved in over a year ago and you would think by now I would have some sort of hook hung up in there or basket... but we don't. And I'm feeling it you guys. This room has become such a PAIN, especially to keep clean and when it is clean it doesn't even look clean. So its time for that all to change and I'm so excited to get started.

Here are the "before" pictures

The mudroom is pretty open to our main living space. in fact it opens right up into the dining and kitchen area. 

But its not too bad right? ... wait for it.

 There it is, I didn't clean it first but this is definitely a "good day" for the mudroom. It can get overwhelmed with shoes and now jackets which will soon be coats gloves and hats too. So we will definitely be adding more storage. 

 It will also forever be a drop zone for my diaper bag (while we are in that stage anyway), thankfully the baby is 9 months old now so we aren't lugging the car seat in quite as often.

We will keep this old metal cabinet but not in here. I've been wanting to strip the paint off  and uncover its true beauty but its not suited for this room, and the kids love that it holds their little games and activities so they have easy access.

 This builder grade light will definitely be replaced.

And here is the most functional part of the room. 

Our key hooks will most likely stay. The "Hello" sign was made at Pinners conference last fall and although it is fun I'm ready to move it out. And I think you'll like the replacement. The door to the left leads to the garage and the door to the right is our laundry room. 

Join me next week to see my game plan/ mood board and inspiration behind my design.

And follow me on  instagram to see any updates.