DH and I have done all the major outdoor improvements, and this year, finally renovating the house. A big goal is to have a functional mudroom to contain… mud, and hay, and hair, and… We are renovating existing space, so planning on two large wall units, and we’ll have another 14’ wall to use for a mix of cabinets for both laundry and pantry storage. I’ve worn out Pinterest, so wanted practical feedback from other farm owners, because what looks pretty may not work in real life. I know I don’t want racks over a bench, for example. Who would want to sit under the nasty, dripping coats??? Just curious about love/hate with your mudroom - must-haves and anything anyone maybe regrets having in theirs? Best floors? Storage/organization lessons learned?
How many jackets/dripping coats are you expecting to have?
I would put one, maybe two of those right by the door:
https://www.amazon.com/OxGord-Free-S…24544943&psc=1
Those free you much wall and under the wall space where you may hang them.
Once not dripping any more, you can then hang them in a closet or wall rack where they won’t bother any other.
They also come in pretty wood designs if that is too plain.
I have one and it is great for dirty and drippy outside clothes over some kind of area you can wipe out easily and by the door so there is no dripping anywhere to get them hung.
A boot tray by that for muddy boots helps.
I have a tile floor with large square tiles in my mudroom, with a tan colored grout. The tiles themselves hide the dirt and the color of the grout does too. I also partially tiled the wall where we take off our shoes and boots. That way if you splatter mud or worse when removing footwear it doesn’t damage paint on a wall and is super easy to clean up. We set footwear on boot trays.
We have coat hooks on cedar planks above a cedar bench, just like you do not want. Honestly, we have never had an issue with coats dripping on the bench, and it has now been set up this was for 5 + years.
We also have a half bath in the mudroom that is 3 steps in from the back door. That way you can use the facilities without tracking mud or whatever very far into the house.
may or may not apply but we added a small room (8 x 12’ ish) for my dogs directly off the mudroom - has their bowls and beds so muddy, shedding dogs can be contained until they dry off.
A scored concrete floor with a drain in the middle and a hose on the wall 
I sure don’t get the walk across white yuppy carpeting to get to a powder room thing . Not my life. :lol: A mop, dog, saddle sink. A toilet and a shower. Laundry and shelves for each person. They can laundry drop, shower and redress in one spot if needed. A laundry folding, crafts, projects table with recycling stored underneath.
Will you have room to dry your horse blankets in there? I would!
The style of house I grew up in didn’t have a mudroom but you could enter through the carport into the basement laundry and utility room. As I teen j remember doing that, calling for my mom to drop clean clothes down the basement stairs and then getting changed in the laundry room so my wet filthy clothes could go straight in the wash (think a teen mucking stalls in sneakers and bell bottom jeans in the rain). Concrete floor, though now it seems to have a piece of vinyl tiling sheet laid down on it.
I still like the idea of having the laundry tub, washer and dryer right there in the place that has the mudroom function, if the mudroom is heated and insulated, not just the porch.
Ack can’t imagine white carpet in my house.
My best friend had a great setup just inside the back entrance of their house (facing their barn). It was awesome. A short hallway with coat hooks and boot trays (maybe room for 8 hooks?) Door to the left was a bathroom with shower, laundry facilities and a long counter with storage. Door to the right entered the kitchen with a woodstove just inside.
My mudroom isn’t quite as strategic - no bathroom but I do have a walk-in mud sink/dog bathing station. It’s unfortunately an uninsulated room so the mud sink is seasonal (which is ok since no mud when it’s -10F) but if I want laundry out there I’ll have to insulate it.
What do you mean by “wall units?” My mud room is pretty small, with a bench, boot tray, hooks along one wall, dog beds, and a stack of towels. The floor is tile, so easy to sweep and mop. I don’t want laundry or storage in my mudroom since I do laundry from the house and don’t want to have to go into the mudroom to do it, especially if dirty wet dogs are locked inside the mudroom.
We designed and built in our house. As you come in, we have a rack with plenty of hooks to hang jackets. Boots have a place underneath. We have a built in bench with a shelf underneath to put short dirty shoes (hiking boots or other shorter shoes). We have the laundry room to one side with room for dirty dog crates. There is a deep sink in the laundry room for especially nasty things. We have a bathroom on the other side of the back hall with a shower big enough to fit dirty dogs. You can come in, strip, deposit clothes into the washer, and step into the shower before entering the rest of the house. You can also wash and towel dry the dogs after they roll in something disgusting. Works great!
Cool, some good stuff, and I can clarify a few things. Our 1950s ranch house has an 18’6” x 20’ room that has a door to the garage and front, as well as our washer/dryer and a utility sink/counter and one closet I currently use for barn gear. We’re going to make an interior door into an adjacent bedroom, and add a narrow walk-in closet and full bath inside this big, basically empty room. The bath will be “Jack and Jill” so it opens into the mudroom area. We’re adding another exterior door to the back, and in the sort of L-shape around the new closet/bath, we want to install floor to ceiling closets (mudroom lockers) on either side of the garage door, between the two exterior doors, so it’s sort of a mudroom hallway. Along the front of the space, we have room for more cabinetry across from the washer/dryer, so I envision storage for cleaning supplies and pullout drying racks, folding table, etc. The front laundry hallway also opens to the kitchen, so some pantry storage as well. It’s all fully part of the house, so hot/cold water, insulated, HVAC, etc. I’d love it to look quite elegant with the neat floor to ceiling doors, so more wondering about organization inside. It sounds smart to leave one area with hooks for the wet stuff (we get snow here and things drip dry), perhaps the boot tray underneath… But I also like the idea of the peg boot rack things… Suffice to say, I’m more excited about the mudroom than the bedroomsðŸ˜
We used Ikea products for boot storage as well as a bench. The floors are mud colored vinyl plank flooring, and the kitchen and laundry are mud colored tile.
We have a clay tile mudroom. It has a large water hog type rug-it doesn’t have dips like a true water hog, but it is an outdoor space carpet and is so great. It doesn’t slip. And Because it’s flat, you can just sweep it with a broom to get the mud-snow-pine needles-etc off. And it absorbs most of the wet and mud and debris from the dogs. We got it out of our rich neighbor’s trash, honestly, so I don’t know where it came from originally, but I don’t know how we got by without it.
With such a huge space, maybe a bench that is 2-3’ out from your hooks for coats / outdoor gear. That way you could sit while dealing with footwear. I would make the hook/locker space large enough to house a few coats and boots per season, or maybe all of the seasons if you have enough space. In some ways I like a hook better than a coat hanger.
Depending on layout of the entry and such, you could have a half bath/full bath pretty near the entry ( a friend of mine had a full bath, but it was a corner shower with a hand held wand. Great for washing people, pets and other things that may need a rinse prior to entry to the “real” mud room.
Having a washer and dryer in this space is not a bad idea, even if it is only used for dog towels and unbelievably dirty barn/outdoor wear. Having drawers or a dresser to contain pet towels, people towels, and emergency changes of clothing.
Having a space for dog crates and or beds in here is also nice. It can be a great place to contain a dirty, sick or dog that needs confinement.
A utility sink and a place to hang a hook above.
Pantry space…pull out drawers of varying depths! Most of the cabinets in my kitchen are drawers on the lower portion of the cabinets and I love them. Make sure the upper cabinets go all the way to the ceiling. If they don’t the upper area is just a dust catcher and not a great place to store anything. Have a dedicated space for a step stool/ladder that makes getting to the upper reaches easy.
Having space for an extra fridge is nice, especially if you won’t have one for the barn. This will allow you to keep things that need to be refrigerated for the barn (vaccines/meds) close at hand without having to track mud through the house.
LOTS of counter space!!
An outdoor carpet / waterdog type can be great. It will help the space be non slip, add some texture / color contrast and can be power washed out side when needing to be refreshed.
My current house came with a simple mudroom via the back door. 1/2 bath with shower, washer and dryer and huge coat closet. It’s between the garage and house also. There is a second fridge in there, used for beer, water, drinks for grandkids, Thanksgiving food, etc. I put up a small coat rack for daily coats in winter, hats, ear plugs, flashlights, ect.
There also are 4 big cabinets with a large counter next to the W/D. I use the cabinets for boxes of gloves, berry-picking containers, laundry supplies and misc stuff. I too have boot trays for winter. There are outlets on the wall above the floor cabinets to recharge flashlight batteries and the dustbuster.
The floor is simple tile and I (occasionally) sweep up hay and dirt. I plan to add wall cabinets above to store my canning supplies and canned foodstuffs. A wonderful 3 step stool lives beside the fridge and a simple stool sits by the door for putting on/off boots.
All this to say, it’s the very best idea for a house. I didn’t have one in Florida and my floors and psyche suffered needlessly. Whatever design you come up with will be great, it may even become your favorite room in the house. Mine includes a window over the W/D so I can watch the horses while I load the washer. If yours faces the pastures, I would insist on a big window!
Apologies in advance for skimming the above and this very long response, but some thoughts anyway. Our mudroom includes a door to the front on the south side (centered on wall), a door to the garage on the west side (closer to the north wall), a door to the backyard on the north side (close to the garage) and abuts out kitchen/ sitting area on the east side (see note below). Something going on in each direction.
Don’t know about you, but all of our friends enter our house through the kitchen door, rather than the real front door, which would mean into out messy mudroom. We usually come in from the barn or yard via the garage door or back door. So…
We divided our mudroom in half with an east/ west axis, with a centered door between the halves. The floor is a dark stone tile with medium gray grout. Never shows dirt.
The south side aka our “guest mudroom” has a built in bench under a window where toys are kept for visiting grandkids. (They love it!). The opposite wall has a built in closet/ shelves for the coats and boots that don’t go to the barn and an old armoire that holds dog toys, gloves, hats, candles, excess cookbooks etc. behind its doors. The bench and the closet are made of casework (pantry doors are the right size for our closets YMMV). There are hooks on either side of the door that leads to the kitchen/sitting for guest coats and an old farm bench seat for guests.
The rear mudroom has a sink and counter with cabinets above and below, another bench which houses out of season footwear, bug spray, sun screen, etc. Opposite that are a front load washer and dryer with cabinets above. In the ell between the door to the front mudroom and the door to the garage there is a 2nd fridge (glad I’m not the only one!) and cabinetry top and bottom where all the warehouse food stuffs go. A cabinet with drawers near nearer the sink contains a full set of tools and repair needs, the cab over the washer holds all the detergent and cleaning stuff and a small cab over the sink holds a few vases and gardening stuff. All lower cabinets have a black formica counter top and hold baskets of barn hats/ gloves, jars of dog food, too many ball caps, etc. There is an old fashioned wall mounted brass coat rack next to the bench and over a heat vent. That’s where barn coats and any wet stuff goes. It’s heavenly to get into a warm jacket on frigid days!
We added a very small enclosed porch on the north facing door because the winter wind can really whip here. It acts as an airlock, so to speak, and has a doggie door should they be too miserable to stay out, or want to get out during good weather (when we leave the interior door open).
Note about the doors to kitchen/ sitting area and between the mudrooms; to save space they are all pocket doors. We used stock French doors, so there is lots of light even when they’re closed. There is a small fireplace between them in the sitting area so closing them really makes it feel cozy on a cold day.
Second note: we kept as much plumbing as possible on interior walls. Where pipes had to abut an exterior wall (ie washing machine) we kept them exposed on the inside of the wall with lots of insulation in the wall behind to avoid freezing and to be able to catch and repair leaks ASAP.
I agree that you’ll love whatever you do. Coming up with the design for this area was lots of fun, so my only advice is to think through how you will actually use it and what your needs are for the space. Best of luck!
Omg, frugalannie - I want pics!!! Sounds awesome, and similar to what we hope to achieve. I’ve made lists of everything we want to have function, to help us design the storage layout. We will be starting late Feb/early March, and I can’t wait!
Our mudroom is small but has been the best thing we’ve done to the house. We live in an 1800’s farmhouse so main entrance went right to the kitchen. The mudroom is now our main entrance and has a second door into the kitchen. Tile floor that looks sort of old/imperfect so dirt doesn’t show as much. We have a large wooden “locker” style coat rack that has three open compartments with hooks and a bench with three drawers (great for gloves, hats, headlamp storage). On the other side we have boot trays and another bench that holds “clean” shoes.
Wish it was a little bigger and had room for our dog crates and a sink. Still a great feature, especially in the winter!
Best thing in our whole house is the mudroom - I drew a dog wash that our carpenter and tiler envisioned perfectly -
big enough to let our Boxer jump in and be tied to a chain hanging from the overhead rail. The rail holds anything, ironing, dripping coats, and the wash is big enough to have room for a bcket and mop, and it has a wall hung tap and shower. Looks geat and gets the most comments.
Door into living room is solid maple and made into a Dutch (stable) door. Dog can dry off, and then be admitted into l/r but not feel isolated. It is more useful than I thouhgt it would be as she can be shut in or out especially when people come.
Concrete floor with in-floor heating throughout the house - it’s the best - dog can stay nice and warm lying on her bed while she dries off.
Antique coat and hat rail holds leashes, collars, etc., of which we seem to have rather more than one dog needs.
Coats have a closet near the in-floor heating system and they dry off perfectly…
I would really love to see pics of these features, especially the dog wash station. I have seen one in an upscale model, but Foxtrot’s sounds even better!
