a peek inside the fishbowl

Source: sadieanddasie.wordpress.com via Danielle on Pinterest

I wonder how many people live in this house, because if there’s more than one person living here it can’t possibly work. Newsflash! YOUR MUDROOM WILL NEVER LOOK LIKE THIS, especially if you are a family of four. Most families have a lot of stuff that goes through this area and also needs to be stored here. Think about it: you got yer coats, hats, mitts, boots, shoes (indoor, outdoor, dress shoes), purses, backpacks, gym bags, sporting equipment, etc exhausting etc. And what happens during the shoulder seasons? Spring in Ottawa can be hot and sunny (add flip flops and sun hats to the list above), wet and rainy (add rain coats and rain boots to the list above), or downright cold. There were times when we’ve had winter AND summer gear in one small closet. And it was always overflowing. So it’s easy to understand why there was no way I was going to get sucked in by a designer vision of what this room was supposed to be. Our mudroom needed to be the hardest working room in the house. In my view it required a few important things.

• a place to hide all of our gear. ALL OF IT. I didn’t want to see shoes/bookbags/helmets/etc. EVER AGAIN.
• a floor that was easy to keep clean, not just by me but by anyone!
• a two piece bathroom with a sink big enough to wash the dog. (Which I first wrote about here.)

Ok. On to the photos!  I am really trying to keep it real and show how we really live. So this is pretty much what our home looks like. (Please note, you can click to enlarge each photo.) Here’s the side entrance, which we now use instead of the front door. It’s actually the exact same style and colour as our new front door. It’s metal, black on one side, white on the inside. I wanted a door with a small window at the top to let in a little bit of daylight yet didn’t want one that’s too big for privacy and security reasons. If I stand on my tiptoes I might see the top of the head of the person standing outside.

Here’s the view as soon as you step inside. (We are dog sitting by the way. That’s Coco!) On your left is a giant closet. On the right is a small hallway. The family room is straight ahead, but more on that later.

Storage space has always been a big issue for us, and here was our opportunity to create MEGA STORAGE. In my view, the solution was a giant PAX unit from Ikea, and that’s what’s on the left as soon as you walk in. We had our architect include a special nook for it so it looks built in. It’s raised by about six inches because that’s where the exterior wall used to be. We chose a unit with sliding doors (they take up much less space) and a dark glass front. The dark glass wasn’t planned. I had wanted sliding mirrors but Ikea wasn’t selling those at the time. We went with these doors because we thought it looked cool and as an added bonus, they were on sale. I think the dark glass is a bit more sophisticated and I like that there’s just enough reflection to throw more light in the area. We can see ourselves in it fairly well too, although the view isn’t as clear as a mirror, as you can see:

It’s BIG. Here’s one side, with the door open:

Those baskets slide out. The other half has more coats and four levels of shoe shelves. Our configuration fits a lot of shoes, but I actually keep all of my dress shoes in my bedroom closet. When the architect first designed this room for us he planned for additional closets on the right and left of the short hall that leads to the bathroom. I felt this space could be used differently so we scrapped the extra closets (even though it sounds counter-intuitive) and replaced them with hooks and a place to sit. So this is what the space looks like when you take a step inside and turn to your right:

Here’s a slightly different view. As you can see, small coat hooks are affixed to the white wood panelling. They are deliberately small. The intention is that these are only for school backpacks and the like, not for a pile of coats. If the coat is wet, it hangs on a hook. If it’s dry, it goes in the closet. My kids are still learning the finer points of this plan. ;) I really like the vintage trunk. Those are, er, empty wine bottles on the left and a pile of messy grocery bags on the right. The trunk holds our ice skates and some winter gear. It’s covered with a piece of dark purple faux-fur I had lying around, and a couple of pillows.

This is the opposite side:

It’s kind of a mess right now. I’m still looking for furniture to fill this space. Ideally I’d like a long sleek console table that has a couple of drawers for keys and sunglasses, and I’d like it open below so we can have a place for boots to dry in the winter. I’m on the lookout for a boot tray that can hold more than three pairs of boots. This is also where I dump my purse everyday. That cute stool is from a store called Wicker Emporium. They have a lot of great furniture there. The shiny metal bucket is my idea of an umbrella stand. It’s from Canadian Tire. Moving onward another step or two is the bathroom.

You open the door, and this is what you see:

This is the other side. It’s a dual-flush Toto toilet that was bought at Astro on sale. We had issues with one of the two toilets we purchased from there, and with Astro. Nothing big, just annoying. You can email me if you want more info about it. We still need to hang something on that wall. I think a vintage poster would look pretty cool. Or maybe a photo wall of some kind. Not sure yet.

The mirror over the sink goes from wall to wall, and extends almost up to the ceiling. I’m quite happy with the sink:

It’s a white cast-iron kitchen sink by Kohler. The model is called Cape Dory and was ordered from Preston Hardware – sight unseen – so it was a bit of a leap. It’s huge, and I love it. No regrets here. It was bought mostly for Piper (see?) but we use it all the time in place of our laundry sink. It is like MILDLY like washing your hands in a trough or a grade school sink, but it saves us many trips upstairs to the tub (with Piper in tow) or a trip downstairs to the laundry sink in the basement. We have used this sink to fill buckets, rinse dirty boots, wash large and awkward items (backpacks, recycling/garbage bins, stew pots), and it’s been fantastic. Despite the fact that I did a lot of handwringing over that decision (is it crazy? too big?) and many people looked at me like I had two heads, I’m glad I stuck to my guns on this one.

The faucet is the pull-out spray kind and it is great for paw rinsing and cleaning the corners of the sink. The cabinet is custom, and was designed and built by the same guy who did our kitchen (BCR Woodworking). The colour is exactly the same as the cabinetry in the kitchen. We opted for marble tiles instead of a traditional counter. They are from Lowe’s, and I chose them because they have a streak of copper running though them, just like the floor tiles.

A bit about the floor

We had originally wanted to go with something called Marmoleum, an eco-friendly linoleum, but it was out of our price range and we couldn’t find a pattern we liked. Then we started to shop around for vinyl (remember, we wanted a very hard working floor) but we hated pretty much everything out there. We ended up at Lowe’s and found dark porcelain tiles. They were very inexpensive. I like them because they’re a mottled range of dark colours: grey with a tiny bit of dark copper. (Here’s a photo that may show the colour a little better.) We opted for dark tiles because we were going for contrast in several different places and it seemed to make sense. Our kitchen, for example, is light creamy cabinetry and dark granite counters. We’ve been living here since the end of October and I’m pretty happy with the floor. It does show winter dirt, but I don’t really care. I had to let go of the messy floor thing, otherwise I’d drive myself crazy. So every couple days I vaccumm and mop. We extended the floor right into the bathroom, because, er, sometimes you need to go while you’re still wearing your boots, right? I bought a good mop called a Rubbermaid Reveal. The head has cleaning pads you can wash, and you use your own floor cleaner. It’s been super, and only mop-related regret is that we didn’t plan for its storage right into this room. It would have been handy to have at arm’s reach right when you need it. Oh well. I really need a new runner in the hallway leading into the bathroom because the old one is awfully worn out. (You can see that here.) The rug comes in handy because it absorbs the wet stuff and saves me from mopping so much. I toss it in the wash every once in awhile.

Here’s what the mudroom looks like, looking in from the family room. Note the sliding pocket door!

We haven’t had many occasions to use it, but it has come in handy a few times. I have closed it after giving Piper a bath while I ran upstairs to get a towel. It’s also been great when we were going in and out of the house with ski equipment and groceries and didn’t want the dog to get out (as well as heat!). But let’s face it, it’s mostly there in case company comes and the mudroom is a mess. Here’s the view from a few steps back. And another one from the kitchen area.

I just realized I’ve written a lot about the mudroom. Sigh. I’m sorry if this was a little much, but if you’re keen to see how it all went down you can read back to these posts: Reno post #007 – a small unveiling and several big thoughts Reno post #10 – mud room design Reno post #34 – more about the mudroom.

I hope this has been helpful for those of you who are planning your own renovation! For my next post I think I’m going to talk about the kitchen.