Heirlooms in the Garage? Why Not?

So, I thought I'd update you on how the whole garage-mudroom thing has been working for us since we had it built last fall.

I love it! LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

It is wonderful to have this gorgeous, orderly wall of built-ins greet me multiple times a day. Each "locker" has ample room for multiple coats, and all of our baskets aren't even full yet.

I was hoping to improve the value of the house, and I think the project accomplishes that. The built-ins are more than we need, but I wanted to make sure it would appeal to a larger family if we sell our house at some point down the road.

Realistically, I need to tell you that the SHOES still make their way inside and onto the kitchen floor, but I'm happy they have a "home" in the garage. For sports equipment and dog paraphernalia alone, this mudroom rocks.

Earlier this week I decided to put three framed pictures on the wall. One is a watercolor my mom painted in high school of her family's home (now a bread store in Morgantown, WV). The next is a Mary Engelbreit print that reminds me of her because she had the same print (but smaller) taped to our fridge when I was growing up. The third is watercolor still life my mom painted shortly after she and my dad got married. I have the white pitcher depicted here in my dining room.

It might seem weird to have such meaningful items hanging in our garage. It might also seem that they could get damaged being so close to the elements. But two of these have been languishing in various unfinished basements over our last three moves, while the flower print was hanging in our out of the way guest room. Moving them to the garage means I see them multiple times every day and get to enjoy them! I don't think that anything will happen to them, but it it does, I will have seen them more in the past week than I did in the previous decade.

My own mom modeled this for me.

That lady was making gallery walls before any of us knew they were called gallery walls. Our front hallway was a mix of mirrors, large and small, expensive and cheap. Our tiny powder room served as a gallery for framed sepia-toned family pictures of grand parents and great grandparents in old fashioned suits and white dresses. She joked that maybe it was a little offensive to have family heirlooms surrounding a toilet, but the truth is, because she took them out of albums and hung them on the walls, I saw those photos multiple times every single day, I knew who was in them, and they  became much more a part of my childhood than they would have had they been anywhere else in our old farmhouse. Now a few of those photos are on on display here in my office, still part of my daily life.

I've been feeling pretty overwhelmed about hanging (or not hanging!) artwork on the walls in this house. I tell myself that I should paint first, and then I just put it off...again. I just can't seem to make decisions, and the sheer volume is daunting. So I'm glad I was able to quickly put something up, in the garage of all places, that makes me smile.

Mudroom Reveal!

Okay, let's talk mudrooms. Again.

I have always wanted a mudroom but none of the four houses Tim and I have lived in have been able to accommodate one.

This one doesn't either, unless you think outside the house box.

We realized we had some extra storage space one side of the garage, so we hung hooks there, stored a dresser for me to rehab (eventually), and used a beloved old church pew that belonged to my mom as a place to put backpacks.

It worked well for us, but after a year I had visions of something more, something drool-worthy that would make our lives more organized and would increase the value of the house when it's time to sell by blinding the buyers to the fact that there is no coat closet inside.

Here's the before:

Fine and functional, right?



Here's the after:

I wish I had used a decent camera instead of my phone, but trust me.

Drool-worthy.

And the workmanship is outstanding.

Maybe I'll post better pics with better lighting tomorrow, if I think you'll indulge me more mudroom pics without unsubscribing entirely.


And speaking of more pics, how about one of these narrow shelves by the door that hold sunscreen, ball caps, compact umbrellas, and the dog leash? Two of those baskets are empty, just waiting to hold something!

Or these four lockers, with storage for shoes below, and hats/gloves above? The very top shelves are too high for stuff we use every day, so I put some of Jack and Margaret's artwork up there for the time being.

 

 

This is an open area on the far right. I love how I drew an example of a board and batten look, and the contractor did it exactly how I wanted it. This will be for overflow, shopping bags, etc. We used black iron hooks above and two bee hooks below that the kids used to hang their coats on when they were preschoolers.

Here's one of Jack's Yankees hats that I wear at every opportunity.

 

Who doesn't love a bin? I was going to buy baskets or galvanized tubs for the shoes, but they were pretty expensive. When I found exactly seven of these green rubber bins on clearance at Target for 4.18 each, I knew what to do!

Shadow has a bin, of course.

The "junk drawer" of the garage: Stuff I can't figure out what to do with right now, but don't want to decide to get rid of yet.

 My favorite, the DONATE bin. Already overflowing. Easy to scoop up and take to the thrift shop.

 

And what about soccer?

 

 Another high shelf gets this sign from our old kitchen, plus my grandma's corn pitcher.

I spray painted baskets that I already had around the house.

These two don't quite match because I got them new at Michaels.

One reason I don't need to fill all my new shelves with ugly stuff like weed killer and paint cans is that we already had three HUGE cabinets with sliding doors in the front of the garage.

One is for gardening supplies, one for sports equipment, and one for coolers, vases, trays, small appliances, and party supplies.

Here's a closer look at them. Because they offer closed storage, I don't worry too much about keeping them organized. Does a shop vac count as "party supplies?"

 

Those big cupboards gave me the freedom to keep the new built-ins wide open.

 

 



I'm in LOVE.


To be honest, I must confess that in the dead of winter I will be keeping my coat inside the toasty house.

So what do YOU think?

Garage "Mudroom" Part 1

I have never had a garage in my life until this past year.

Bird doo, snow, and icy windshields, were all just a part of life. When we were looking for a new (30+ years old) house a little over a year ago, I wasn't too concerned about having a garage, but boy am I enjoying it!

I love the privacy, I love the extra storage space, and pushing the button is fun, too.

A nice aspect of our garage is that there are 3 large storage closets in front of where we park our cars. They have sliding doors and deep wooden shelves. We use one for garden supplies, one for sports equipment, and one for party supplies such as vases, platters, ice buckets and tubs. There is a ton of storage!

An area of the garage I want to improve is the right side that leads directly into our kitchen eating area. I told myself I would not buy another home with a kitchen all on its own in the front of the house, and certainly not one where you walked directly into the eating area, but here we are.

And even though there are only three of us here now, we still seem to pile a lot of stuff on the floor right inside the kitchen door. This house also does not have a coat closet, which is kind of strange, but that's because they removed the closet a long time ago to add a desk area in the kitchen during a  remodel.

We have a few hooks right inside the kitchen door for coats, and we TRY to use the garage for the rest. Shoes are a crap shoot.

I was going through my blog and found a post from 2009 where I presented some of my small-space solutions for houses without mudrooms. Looking back at that post now is poignant, and I saw a cute pic of Jack that I'd forgotten about.


Here's how that wall in our garage looks now. I love my old church pew from my house growing up:

It functions pretty well for us, but I got a wild hair a few weeks ago. If I did not have a house with a mudroom, why not outfit this area like a pseudo-mudroom, with built-ins and everything?

I think it will add value to the house and look oh so pretty. Here's some inspiration from Pinterest. Those big windows could pose a problem, but we'll see.

http://www.pinterest.com/aninchofgray/mudroom/


The work crew is getting here in 5 minutes, so I'll report back later. I'm so excited!