Sharing another one of our home’s mudrooms and entryways today! This one is located in the back of our house and is used as kind of a “Mom’s mudroom”. Here’s a look at our current back hall mudroom!
It looks like we’re on a little tour of our various mudrooms and entryways lately! I recently shared some updates I did in our main mudroom space and today I’m sharing a few more little things I did in this back hall area. For those that have just started following along recently, we live in a 120-year-old farmhouse and we have a pretty traditional old layout with lots of little rooms and lots of exterior doors leading outside to different areas around the house. It’s quite a different way of living compared to today’s open concept homes with a main front door, a back door, and a garage entrance, but it actually works so well for us. There are so many ways that these old home layouts are just so practical. We added our main mudroom onto to our house a few years ago and that serves as our main entrance from the driveway since we don’t use our actual front door very often, but we also have this little hall leading to a back door off our primary bedroom that I’ve kind of adopted as my own personal mudroom space, away from all the mess of kids’ coats, boots, and backpacks in the other one. Today I thought I’d take you on a little tour of this back hall mudroom and talk about how it works so well for us.
Pictured Above: Aged brass door knob | White sneakers | Tote bag | Smaller water hyacinth baskets up top | Large water hyacinth cubes for cubbies
My Back Hall Mudroom Storage Solutions
There is just a ton of storage in this little space. I would go so far as to say that I’m not sure this house would work for us without this space, since our home is well over 100 years old now and has very little closet space, as is the case with so many older homes. This space functions as a linen closet, a mudroom, out-of-season clothing and shoe storage, and it stores all of my styling supplies for our photography business as well, if you can believe it.
We added the wall of built-ins about eight years ago now and they just hold so much. The little nook we left in the middle has turned out to be such a handy little counter space in this room where we don’t have room for a little table to put things down on when we’re putting things away, or just if I want place to put some seasonal branches or flowers to make this super utilitarian area more welcoming.
As you know, trying to keep things in my home as timeless as possible is a big priority for me, so one of the little changes I made recently is switching out the frame on this nautical print that I have hanging in the little nook. I still love the print, but I was just using a cheapo frame before. I upgraded it to this more substantial wood frame that looks like it could have been here forever and I love the visible knot at the top of the frame. Little things like that just make all the difference. 🙂
One thing I’ve learned is that real, sturdy baskets are infinitely better than fabric storage cubes in so many ways. You can fill them up and pull them down from shelves as much as you like and they never break down or lose their shape. Plus they just make the space look so much more finished compared to the cheapo bins I was using before. These are the larger baskets I have for the cubbies beneath, which hold out of season snow pants, ski jackets, and boots. These are the smaller baskets, which happen to match perfectly, that I got for the shelf up above the hooks.
Speaking of baskets, one fun little trick that I use is to find a lidded basket at the thrift store, something like an old picnic basket works well, and use that as your donation bin. That way if you find an item of clothing that you no longer want to keep, you can just toss it in there without it looking messy and cluttered in a corner somewhere.
Making the Best of a Bad Door
I painted the back door black recently and I think it really made a big difference in the space. We don’t love this door. I love the general style, but it’s old and in rough shape and does need to be replaced eventually. It was a dark grey previously and had a sad old stainless steel door knob, but I decided to make the best of it and turn it into a bit of a feature in the space for now, just for fun. I painted the door in my favorite Onyx black paint color from Benjamin Moore. I also found this aged brass door knob on Amazon that really made the door feel so much more appropriate for our old house. I love the square back plate!
Pictured Above: Aged brass door knob | White sneakers | Tote bag | Smaller water hyacinth baskets up top | Large water hyacinth cubes for cubbies
We also removed the old screen door that was on this doorway so that our view outside to the creek would be less obstructed. The deck outside is actually currently under construction, so the view isn’t so nice up close as of right now, but if you stand back like this, all you see are the trees and the field outside, which is just fine for now.
So that’s our little back hall mudroom area! I hope you enjoyed the little tour and maybe got an idea or two for your own mudroom/entryway area if your home is lacking in storage like ours is. 🙂
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Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.