Creating a Mudroom Area in an Entryway

 So, while technically we don’t live in a small house (it’s 2800 square feet, a good size but not huge) — it is very short on storage and organization.

We used to have a console table in our entry, that you can see here… but I have to admit it was just a junk catcher, and overall useless with no storage at all.  And, although I still LOVE the table itself we decided that it would have to find a new home.

The design inspiration came from an image in my head that I saw ages ago and now can’t find… anyway, that picture had storage bins on casters.

So, when I saw these large galvanized bins for only 12.44!!  (I know, the price is amazing!) I decided they would be perfect for cute AND functional storage!

I’ll show you how I added the casters to the storage baskets later.  Today I am going to reveal the space and what I used.

We already had pictures on the wall.  These are 50 year old frames from my grandpa’s house and I LOVE them, so there is no way I am taking them down.

Funny story, when we were photographing our last house before we moved, I asked my husband to draw something new to put in these frames and I needed them yesterday…   So, at 2:00 in the AM in the morning, he drew these fast sketches from pictures of a family portrait session and I LOVE the looseness and artistic feeling of them.  Bless him, he is a keeper!  

Anywho, they are one of my favorite things in my whole house, so I decided not to even touch them.  But the size of the frames did dictate the size of the furniture beneath.  So finding something pre-made was causing some issues.

Instead of the console table, we realized that we needed a bench for sitting down and putting on shoes or sorting through your bin.

I really love this bench, but it wasn’t quite long enough and too long to have two.

We actually tested out the space (which you can see on our instagram) with some existing benches, but the 4′ foot benches were too short alone and too long to double up.

The previous setup with the console table had been the same width as the frames and it never quite looked balanced to me.

Since we wanted the bench to be wider that the frames above we decided to go ahead and build a bench to the exact size we needed.

Get the easy waterfall bench building plan and video tutorial here.  

I feel like having the bench be wider helped the lower portion of the space to feel grounded.

Once the bench was built and the bins were all decked out, with casters and numbers (so each person has an assigned bin) the fun part was just adding a bit of softness.

 

We did that with a throw blanket, a few pillows and the rug.

It’s been a few years since this update, so the exact products aren’t available anymore 🙁 The links below are to similar products from the same product line. 

I loved the texture of the neutral diamond pillows and the shine of the gold metallic square pillows — the gold spot are actually sewn on embroidery, and very pretty!

The tribal pattern pillow is one I have kicking around the house that i threw in for color, so if you want something similar they did that this cute southwestern Diamonds pillow that is very similar.

The throw is actually a twin size cotton blanket, in soft silver. I like bigger throw blankets when we are hanging out watching movies, so I just went for a bigger blanket since I feel like it will have more uses!

Finally we added a rug, and I REALLY like the cream floral vine rug, it is neutral, really soft and well UNDER $100!