After nearly five years of living in this house, we finally figured out what to do with the tiny nook off of our breakfast area/kitchen. It was originally intended for a china cabinet or hutch, but since I own neither it’s gone through alternating states of emptiness and being storage central for the past few years.
Check out this “before” picture from two and a half years ago (we don’t even have this table and chairs set anymore!). This is seriously the only picture I could find since I tend to shoot my photos from the opposite angle. At the time the nook housed a water cooler and water bottles along with our homemade Kitchen Helper (before it was even painted).
The space was nothing special, even though it did a pretty decent job at keeping some of the more unsightly items out of the way. Since we no longer have a water cooler, and our ninja toddler would rather scale the cabinets and sit on the countertop than use the Kitchen Helper, we finally found ourselves with a blank slate to work with.
We enter into our house through the garage and straight into the kitchen, so the benches and coat closet that we have in our front entry way weren’t being utilized at all. I found myself picking up endless amounts of shoes, sweatshirts and dirty socks from the corners of the kitchen floor all. the. time.
Though he was initially concerned about the location of a “mud room” being just off of our eating area, I finally convinced my husband that it was the perfect place for us to come home and drop off our gear. It turns out that it’s working even better than I expected, and I seriously could not be any happier with it! {Aside from the fact that I probably should have styled it up and made it look pretty before I took pictures of it for you, but I’m keepin’ it real, yo.} The kids even manage to get their backpacks and sweathsirts on to the hooks, and their shoes end up back in their baskets…well, sometimes, at least.
Here’s how it all came together: the baskets and bench came as a set from Target (we’ve had ours for a few years, and it’s held up great though we don’t use the cushions), and the coat rack on the side wall is also from Target (similar here). The large coat rack is a 1×6 board from Home Depot, painted black and with robe hooks also from Home Depot. The coat rack is topped by an Ikea Bjarnum shelf that usually holds decorative items (and my purse whenever the ninja toddler starts getting grabby). The side wall has four large 3M Command hooks for holding our colletion of aprons.
Yep, I said “swim bags.” Because even though it’s October, it was still 100 degrees here today! Since the “mud room” nook is right next to our sliding glass door to the backyard, it also serves as a great place for hanging up our towels when we get out of the pool. Now all I need is a big rug in front to catch all those big drips of pool water!
Jennette says
Any chance you know the name and brand of the paint on the walls? I love the color!
Heidi says
Sure do! It’s Tumbled Stone by Kelly Moore 🙂
Jennette says
Thank you!!
Cindy says
how did you hang the coat rack? the one you made out of a painted board and towel hooks? I just made something similar and can’t figure out how exactly to hang it. any input would be appreciated. looks great btw…
Heidi says
Thanks, Cindy! Our rack is attached by screwing directly through the rack and into the wall studs. 🙂
Four Marrs and One Venus says
Oh yeah.. bring out the noodles– RIGHT?! This weather is Super Crazy!!!! You Finally figured out this area and holy hell it looks fantastic! Great job girl!