Before & After: A tiny mudroom gets a cheerful makeover!

A popular layout plan in a smaller home is to have a laundry area share space with a back entryway. Just in case your house has the same floor plan, I want to show you how we transformed our small Little Lake House small mudroom into a functional, beautiful space! Come have a look at this small mudroom makeover.

In 2020, we purchased a dilapidated lakefront cabin and transformed it into a cozy vacation rental. You can read more about our lake house renovation adventure here.

The small mudroom BEFORE

The small side entry is a combination mudroom and laundry room. It’s a very narrow space, but it has to function well for our guests. Not only is it a place for people to store their jackets and shoes, but it also has a laundry area and a utility closet.

Beginning the small mudroom makeover

To begin this small mudroom makeover, we ripped out all the drywall and old insulation and started right from scratch. This allowed us to move walls and change the space easily (I mean, as easily as walls are ever changed around!) and really make this space our own. We decided to leave this wall open and make it into a functional storage nook instead of a laundry closet.  After it was re-drywalled, we put up some shiplap and crown moulding on the ceiling, and then we painted the whole thing. We then installed some plain white shaker cabinets.

Cheerful paint colours

The colour palette for the entire house is very neutral, and all the trim, ceilings, and doors are painted with Behr Ultra Pure White. I love this colour so much, it is a clean pure white and reflects so much light. The entryway walls are painted Silky White. We initially put an old TV stand against the wall opposite the washer and dryer, and it works really well as an entryway storage bench.  And we put a few hooks on the wall too. But I wanted more for this space! So, I decided to give it some colour. For this space, I chose some earthy, happy colours in yellow, green, grey and white, in durable Behr paint. 

Creating the built-in look hook wall & bench

To replace the single line of hooks, I picked up some trim and beadboard to make a hook wall. I cut a piece of pine to create some open shelving, and put it above the trimmed out area using brackets and screws. This gives us storage space for baskets, which means even more storage! I then trimmed out the bench, so that it would look finished and hide the fact that our old house doesn’t have quite level floors. This is just an appearance of being built-in, and I can still move it to clean! Of course, I then caulked all the seams I created with the trim on the wall for a professional look.  Then, I painted the whole thing Corn Stalk yellow, including the drawers of the bench and the shelf and its brackets. It’s amazing what paint will do, isn’t it?

To add interest to the space, I used all the paint colours found there to make a modern art piece on a canvas with a wooden frame. This ties everything together beautifully. I also took the green colour I chose and painted a terra cotta pot with a round design, which looks so nice with a plant in it sitting on the bench. Finally, I took a seagrass basket and added one of the neutral paint colours to the bottom of it, and put it next to the bench to hold blankets.

A few more accessories like rugs and a mirror and this space is finished! I love how it turned out. I especially love the impact the yellow paint had in the space!

Check out the video for even more details about how we transformed this entryway/laundry room and what products we used:

Now tell me: What do you think of this cheerful small mudroom makeover?!