The Mudroom

Our house has a pretty unique floor plan, which I love.  When you enter the front door, you come in to what we affectionately call, "The Mudroom."  It probably deserves a more glamorous name but when the realtor showed me the house for the first time, that's what she called it.  And it stuck.

You can go straight through the mudroom and out onto the deck.  If you turn right, you can go through a door to the garage and if you turn left, you enter the house.

This is the first few years.

Standing in the room facing the front door.

 It may be hard to see in this picture but I painted, "The Benediction," all around the room at the top of the walls.  "The Lord bless you and keep you.  The Lord make His face to shine upon you and give you peace."  I added a few more sentences to make it fit..."The Lord bless your coming and going.  Blessed be the name of the Lord."

This was the other side of the room.  The door to the house is on your left.  The patio door on the right.

We bought this hutch at our second hand store.  I stripped it and painted it.  

A few years later I edited the wall over the bench.

I wanted a large bench in this room and couldn't find anything.  So we bought a king-sized headboard and footboard and Mark made a bench.  It was originally stained a light color and I stained right over the original finish and made it more closely match our other furniture.

Later, I moved this clock into the room and repainted the hutch.  (The bottom half of it is now in the dining room - painted aqua.)

The door to the garage is on your left.  You can see the closet door that's next to front door on your right.

We were all driving down the street one day when I shouted, "STOP!"  One of our neighbors were having a yard sale and sitting in the middle of their yard was this table.  It was twice as long and the legs were a rusty green.  They told us they'd found it in the river!  We took it home and remade it and I love it!

It was this way for about 8 years.  And then I got tired of it.  I was really in love with blue and white and was collecting plates and vases, etc. and decided to repaint this room.

I first painted the whole room, including the ceiling, with a contractor grade pure white.  I taped off where we were going to add mouldings.  I bought a wall stencil on line and began to paint.  It took me three months.

Mark and our son, Mark Ethan, added mouldings and new closet doors.

My assistant  husband, Mark

Our son, Mark

And here is the 'finished' room.

The angel and fleur de lis in this picture have both been painted black.

This picture was taken before we finished the mouldings.

The other side of the room.  A new door to the left.

I got this 'gate' that's on the wall at Hobby Lobby at one of their 75% off clearance sales.  Love it!  The roosters in this picture used to be painted realistically but they held still too long and got painted white.

I love how fresh and bright the room turned out.  But I had a hard time accessorizing it.  My rule of thumb is to find a fabric I like and decorate around it.  It's a lot easier to match paint color to fabric color than the other way around.  I matched this paint to the blue toile that was in the living room and it turned out a little more 'purple' than I wanted.

You may have noticed that the word 'finished' was in quotes.  That's because I'm going to repaint.  It's been a hard decision because it took me SO long to finish and I really do like it but...now it doesn't match.  It's been this way for only a year and a half.

After many paint swatches and painting a piece of plywood over and over again, tormenting my family with, "What do you think?", I have decide on Sherwin Williams' Interesting Aqua.  The can is sitting in the room ready for me to start.  I think I can do it.  What do you think?

Oh!  And I found plans for a big 'side board' that has now been added onto the list of things to build.   ana-white rustic-x-kitchen island  I think I'd like to put it in here in place of the bench.  We will edit it to be appropriate for this room but I love the x's.  This is my inspiration picture.

I think I have all the things in this picture and no place to put them - except the 'chia' head and I don't want him - her?  I debated for quite a while whether to paint my walls like this.  I think it's gorgeous but I can't spend another 3 months stenciling.  I'm hoping my stencil pattern will show through my new aqua paint and I won't lose it completely!

Have a great day full of joy!

"For I know the plans I have for you", says the LORD. "Plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."  Jeremiah 29:11