One piece of furniture can tick so many boxes it can be life changing. With kids comes stuff. Shoes, bags, sporting equipment and all manner of stuff they are not prepared to part with (put in the bin) but don’t actually want to keep (take to their room)
I’ve always loved the organised space that is a mudroom. I’ve seen some great spaces in Australia, often a transition between garage and kitchen or back family room that has space for school bags, sports kit and other assorted kid stuff.
My house didn’t have a mud room, it didn’t even have a garage, but it did have a large entry area.
But – this entry area was dark. It had timber panelling, and then it had doors. One on each wall. We had the front door, opposite that was the doorway to the hall and the rest of the house, on the right was a double width opening to the lounge (I removed the actual doors) and on the left was a door to the master bedroom. Too. Many. Doors.
Then the master bedroom had the door from the entry, a door from the hallway and a door to the ensuite (which also had a door back to the hall)
Enter the magical door eliminating, light enhancing, clutter eliminating and child stuff organising piece of furniture…
The family looked at this and thought I’d finally lost it. Even telling them I was going to paint it, sand it and wax it, no one could see past this enormous ugly brown wall unit that actually made the space look worse than before.
Two coats of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, white and a grey sample pot mixed to the palest cloud grey, wax and new handles and we had organisation central. A draw and a cupboard for each child (and one for me) A place for shoes, school bags, hats and readers and anything else that would normally be dumped at the front door.
Not only that, but we lost a door! On the other side in the bedroom a set of hooks on the back of the door provided extra storage and nothing in this period home was permanently altered, pleasing all natural timber enthusiasts (not me – I would paint that too!)
And now this unit has a new home in my office, and it still performs a fabulous role as organisation central