We have a mudroom off of our kitchen side door, but it’s not quite there in terms of… well, anything really!
I use it for adding some seasonal cheer at the entrance that we use most, and for muddy shoes of course, but that’s about it.
I dream of filling it up with built-ins and hooks and benches and all that goodness sometime in the future, but for now what we have is a little drop zone inside our kitchen.
I love looking at the boring functional parts of peoples’ houses so I thought I’d show you ours today!
Chris installed this wall o’ hooks pretty quickly after we moved in here last Summer.
It’s the perfect place to casually hang your beach bag after a day in the sun.
Or grab your purse on the way out the door to go shopping.
The bench is a great place to keep your mosaic lantern handy.
Of course, it’s always good to have a bucket of burlap ready to go for when you need to head out to the garden and wrap your hedges in the Fall and Winter.
Sometimes I like to be able to fill up a carafe with water without having to walk all the way over to the cupboard.
Why use hooks for coats and hats when you could hang up a little Fall wreath instead?
OK, I’m joking. Well, maybe not about the wreath thing.
Here’s what this area really looks like:
Even if I try to pretend this little wall of hooks is just like my dream mudroom, it just doesn’t work.
And that’s just fine. Having this little area to put all of our ugly, brightly colored, real-life things really does make our lives easier. For this point in our lives, if I’m looking for the perfect mudroom/drop zone/entryway all I need to remember is to keep it simple and keep it real.
And to not be ridiculous.
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.