The Laundry Room/Mud Room of My Actual Dreams.

Hi Friends,

Today is an exciting day and a day ten months in the making! I finally get to show you all our completed back entry space! Let me remind you where we started:

Let’s take a moment to take this all in. At the end of this hallway is the door that leads into our garage. This spot is our main entrance into our house every day and you can see how non-functional it was. The hallway was narrow and the only place to set your stuff down at the end of the day was the tiny closet in the middle. Anytime more than one person was back here, it was so crowded. Not to mention there was one light for the entire space. The door closest to the garage housed this bathroom:

While it was evident it had been recently updated, there was so much wasted space in here. A couple weeks after we went under contract on the house I was talking to Zac and I had an idea. “We should turn the giant bathroom and tiny hall closet into a laundry and mud room off the garage.” Since our laundry for all our upstairs bedrooms was in the basement he thought it was a good idea and it stuck. Five months after we moved in, we demoed everything in this part of the house and started working on adding our dream laundry and mud room space.

We started by opening up the entire bathroom and closet area to the hallway which made the space feel so much bigger. No more cramped tunnel hallway. Before you judge us for eliminating a bathroom, we didn’t actually do that. We just moved it to the other side of the hallway. Same with the hall closet.

There were really only benefits to opening everything up. We have so much room to drop shoes and take off coats at the end of the day and we gained natural light via a window that was previously inside the bathroom. On this side of the room, we added a stackable washer/dryer and a deep utility sink.

You guys know I have a thing for faucets. This one is the Delta Pivotal pull down in black stainless finish and it has touch functionality which has already come in handy in here. I added a matching soap dispenser so we wouldn’t have bottles cluttering up the sink area too. Our previous home didn’t have a sink in the laundry closet so I feel really blessed to be able to have one here.

This bold countertop and backsplash combination might be my favorite thing in the space. I had picked out the splash planning on a black quartz counter but as soon as we saw this red marble at the stone yard, the black was out. We went with this Napolean Bordeaux marble on the tops and a kept the same geometric marble splash made up of thassos white, prince gray, black nero and pink onyx stones. I know it’s not for everyone but I think it’s so much fun!

I had these cabinets custom built at a local shop but to save on costs I just had them build out flat panel doors. I added my own trim to the door faces to frame out the individual boxes and then painted them myself too using SW Emerald Urethane semi-gloss enamel in Big Chill. I love that the color is a nice soft gray that helps to balance out all the patterned/colored marble. I finished them off by adding polished nickel finger pulls.

Zac’s one request for the space? A bench to sit on while he puts on his shoes in the morning. I built this one out of red oak and stained it with Varathane’s Dark Walnut stain. I love the warmth that it adds to the the space against all the gray enamel. Once it was sealed and dry, I added hooks in polished nickel to coordinate with the pulls.

My one must have for this space? A tall cabinet where I can hide my vacuum while it docks on its charger. You know you’re getting older when… 😂

This cute little tray makes a perfect key drop at the end of the day. And makes sure they don’t get lost in the house somewhere. Not that that has ever happened before. 😉

I know marble floors are super impractical in a Minnesota mud room, but I went for it…and then bought good rugs. This black and white marble basketweave tile is so beautiful. The depth that natural stone has is just something that can’t be matched.

I outfitted our new single panel doors with these gorgeous polished nickel lever handles from Baldwin. They’re heavy, solid brass – going to outlive me for sure – and I love them. You ever opened a door just so you can use the handle? Me either.

Our guest bedroom door stayed put, but got replaced to match the rest of the new doors. I added so much trim to this tiny space too. New base, casing, crown and ceiling medallions throughout. All painted the same color and sheen as the cabinets.

If you haven’t noticed, I have a bit of a polished nickel thing going back here. I didn’t want this heat supply to feel left out so I dressed it up with this fancy cover in my new favorite finish.

Love this new view when I come home every day. Except it’s winter right now so it’s usually pitch dark. Ha. Good thing we ran three statement pendants down the hallway to brighten things up. These are the Hudson Valley Gatsby pendants in (you guessed it) polished nickel. The circles are individual pieces of alabaster stone and the light that filters through the stone is just lovely.

Looking at this space and saying “I did that” is just the craziest thing to me. Our first big project in our new house is complete and we’re verryy slowly starting to make this place our own. I’d love to hear your feedback on our new space! Or if you have questions, leave them below. Thanks for being here and following along!