Mud Room Musings

We have a small entry hall in the back of the house that is just off the driveway. We currently have hooks hanging on the walls and I would like build a mud room bench and some shelves to go along with the current hooks.

We store all of our coats, jackets, hats, gloves, car keys, and shoes in this area so it needs to be functional as well as cute. I am looking for 3 main things: a bench with shoe storage beneath it, shelving or cabinets that go all the way to the ceiling, and beadboard backing with hanging hooks,

Below are some ideas that I have been collecting from the internet on what I want my mudroom to look like and how I want it to function.

1. This little beauty is probably the most simple to accomplish what we need with what we want. It has basic straight lines and we could do it with shelf brackets and just store the shoes in baskets under the bench.

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2. This is one of my favorite ones. I think that the colors of the knobs are stinking adorable. I like the way that the bench curves around the wall. This one is about the same size as what we could make. Plus we could extend the cabinet all the way to the ceiling and add a second row of hooks without it getting too crowded.

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3. This is another one that  is pretty cute. It's got the beadboard and the shelf goes all the way to the top, like  I want ours to do. I like separated partitions on the tip that match the separations on teh bottom.

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4. This one is cute. The height of the shelf would be easy to add a second row for hats, purses, and the like. I like that it has legit drawers instead of open bin space.

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5. This would be my ideal bottom bench if we can figure out how to build it. It looks like it might be a bit more complex to make than some of the things above. I really like the storage for the shoes and the small drawers for putting mittens and hats in. I plan on making a cushion to go with the bench and this demonstrates what that might look like.

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6. This next one shows what it might look like if we had a second row of hooks on the mud room wall. I also like the partitioned shelves on the top (and the fact that they go all the way to the ceiling). As of right now, the hubby thinks that looks too complicated to build, but I think we could do it. Youtube baby.

Let me know in the comments what you think, or if you find something that you think I might like but haven't thought of yet.