Mudroom Ideas with Shoe Organization

If your home has no entryway organization then you know it’s extremely hard to keep clean. That was the case with us. Home from school and shoes are where?! Center of the living room of course! 😀 It’s not that we didn’t have a shoe rack at all. We did, (photo below shows before makeover)  it just wasn’t very pretty and hardly makes you want to organize your shoes on it.  Before starting on our little corner makeover I was debating between two styles for the shoe organization part of our mudroom. First I was thinking to go with something very simple. Just a plain shelf with squares to insert your shoes into. Unfortunately my better half wasn’t a big fan of that idea. I knew that whatever I ended up with I wanted it to be very minimalist. So we’re talking lots or whites and natural textures.

Oh gosh yes those tile floors are hideous. (photo below) I’ve been so tempted to paint them… I’ve painted laminate floors before but, I haven’t tried tile yet. Anyone try painting tile?

 Entryway Bench

Okay, so you see that little corner where the old shoe rack stands! (photo below. yes again.. 😀 ) Well, I thought wouldn’t it be perfect to have a bench there. It’s the perfect little nook between the stairs and wall.  I’ll be honest I was quite worried about the shoe rack being right behind the bench. Meaning you can’t really lean back because the shoes are their but, I thought it through a million and one times and decided that it’s not like it’s a couch. We only need something to sit on to put shoes on. That’s it!! Nothing too comfy. With that in mind we finally started on this mudroom makeover. :D:D I tell you when thinking gets to thinking sometimes you just gotta turn it off! HAHA

Here’s the Video

YUK!

So first things first. I needed to gut the baseboards. Oh boy! It was quite NASTY! Tod enjoyed it though! LOL I don’t know what it is with cats and spiders! Yes those are the colors our walls used to be. Which brings me to say if you’re wondering why there’s so much cob webs under these baseboards lets just say this home is 50+ years old and wasn’t exactly built properly! Meaning non of the baseboards were sealed with caulking. AT ALL!! Which lead to nice little spider homes that grew and multiplied.

Entryway Bench – DIY

To make our bench we started off by cutting out panels out of plywood to make a box .

Just like this. We then used 2×3’s to frame is off on the inside.

I then secured my 2×3’s into the walls.

I sealed off all the cracks and crannies! YEY!! No more sneaky cob webs!

Then I gave it a nice coat of white paint.

Adding the Lid

This is where I forgot to take photos again.  My apologies.  We added a 2×3 beam in the middle of the bench and added the lid to one half of it with door hinges. The other half of the bench closer to the wall doesn’t open. (To clarify the shelf in front of the bench with the shoes laying against it was just me making measurements and it was caught in action sorry It has nothing to do with the bench. ) My video has pretty clear instructions on making this bench. Don’t forget to watch it.

Shoe Organization Coming right up!

To make our shelves we started off by making sure the first 2×3 was secured onto the wall evenly. We used a level for this. Then we went on by sticking a shelf between each 2×3 as we secured them all to the wall. This will give you the right distance between each 2×3. Make sure and apply pressure when securing! You want your shelves to have a tight fit.

Here’s what it looked like unpainted.

You don’t have to use a shelf to measure the distance between each 2×3. It’s a bit bulky that way. We ended up cutting a piece of scrap wood towards the end and it was much easier. (bottom photo)

To finish it off I gave it a coat of paint and that’s it!

Final Result

Here’s what my entryway looks like now! Much better right?!  Oh and by the way if you haven’t noticed that log holder on the right is the same old shoe rack I threw away! LOL My hubby decided to DIY a log holder out of it! I guess her time isn’t over yet!

Okay total model status! I have no idea how he does it. I tell him to fix his hat and this happens! HOW?!!! 😀 😀 😀

Honestly I am so in love with my new plant. YES! I bought it just for this photo-shoot! LOL. Just kidding. It was time for a new plant! Plus I’ve wanted this plant for so long and home depot had this little guy for only $12. I’ve been looking online for a good year already and anything that looked at least half bit as healthy was around $30.  (I think this plant is called the mother of pearl – correct me if I’m wrong)

Here’s how the shelves look close up from the side.  If you’re wondering how strong they are. They’re pretty strong. Not strong enough for someone to sit on but, they’re stronger then they look.

I made these minimalist style coat hooks to match. Good News, since they were highly requested by ya’ll on Instagram I’ll be posting the tutorial soon.

That’s it for this DIY, See ya soon! 😀 😀

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