Finally, mudroom finished

After fifteen months of living here  I am happy to announce that we have finished our mudroom. You'd think that a small room like this  just wouldn't make a difference to the  organization in our home, well that's what I thought, but no.  Now we have freed up the entrance, no more muddy shoes to trip over, everything  has its place, it's so much tidier too.  

I have commissioned Gaby to complete a canvas (see above) that depicts what one might find in a mudroom and when she's finished it will be placed in front of the electricity meter which is rather ugly.

The two trail shoes here were drawn by Marie-Kate, Gaby wasn't too happy when MK actually smeared some soil from a plant pot below them, but in reality it looks great.

Gaby's work a long with a mouse that she says is a rat.

This is the door to the MR that's leads off the entrance, a lick of Charlotte's locks to liven it up a little

I used chalk board paint so we could write memos down, especially for stationary shopping as the children always need stuff and tell me after I've been shopping!

I bought some sky planters for the window (see the blinds have gone), I really like these.

I made the coat rack you can see, initially I wanted to just an old pallet (I think I talked about this in another post) but in the end opted for new wooden planks, two different sizes that are screwed onto a wooden frame.  I used all of my left over Farrow and Ball paints (Charlotte's locks, Arsenic, Brinjal) and one yellow paint

And I bought some new plastic baskets for gloves, hats et cetera...

This is where the children hang their coats, unfortunately coatless today as they're all at school

There's a door behind those shelves that we never use, but rather rush and block it completely, we've insulated it and put some tongue and groove in front and then shelves.  I need to find a little mirror or something for the space above the last shelf.

Next to the shelves is cupboard where we keep all the backpacks (for now), the doors have been painted with chalk board paint too. If you turn after the plant, you'll find a welly rack and then the door for the basement.

Well that's it, our tiny 5 square meter mudroom finished and crossed off the to do list.

Time for me to rest, I'm sick with a sinus infection and am feeling very sorry for myself.  I did manage though, before becoming ill to run 8 kilometers, it was really muddy and very cold. Alain came too and I used a i phone application called Runtastic that is great and for one of my split I ran an average of 19 km per hour, this is fast for me.

Mud Room...bit of progress, just a bit though

This room is the second smallest room we have in our house, and it's proving to be a hard room to get done, it's such an embarrassment now, that we have to finish it and quickly. 
Here's a view from above the room, half the window is on the first half landing and the other half in the dreaded mud room.
I probably won't keep the blinds when the room below is finished.

 Last week I starting filling in all the cracks in the walls (still not finished) and yesterday Alain started the wood that you can see here.  We *I am going to carry on the wood under the electric counter and then stop.

 This is the wall look up and towards our entrance, the marks you can see are where I've filled in many holes with plaster.  I was thinking when it's done to paint it in Charlotte's locks and then put this coat rack here, see below (yes why here?  well my kids are lazy, and I reckon that there's more chance they'll hang their coats up just inside the mud room, than having to go down 3 stairs and walk half a meter.

I find this rack pretty awesome, it's called "slastic" and was designed by Ana Mir and Emili Padros and what is so good about it is that you are allowed to draw on the walls with it, well when ones hangs ones coat, thanks to the five colored pencils it comes with.

Here's a close up so you see what I mean.  You can put a sheet of paper behind on even a canvas...I try in with paper first, and when a lot of mess has been made (which won't take long, as they are going to just love it) I thought I'd take in down and then get them to complete it,  then frame it.

Back to the hard reality of this room...this is the wall and door that leads down to our basement.  No photos, it really is worse than ever with all the mess that's been stashed away down there.


* I'm on my own this week (as of this morning) Alain has abandoned ship and flies off to South Korea this lunch-time....the question is, am I am to finish it on my own?