Our Mighty Mudroom
Design: Studio Kahaani
There was a bit of a chill in the air this morning as I walked my littles to camp, and it was the first day that my mind truly switched to back to school planning mode. Growing up with four distinctive seasons, the cooling temperatures and crisp evenings were more of an academic signal for me than the calendar. It doesn’t hurt that fall is my favourite season.
Design: Studio Kahaani
These are a few photos of our mud room between seasonal chaos - it will surely look very different a month from now! It’s a medium sized space as mudrooms go, and a fairly large one for urban standards. But when we were planning additions to our historic Victorian home, this was a necessary luxury for me - especially given the range of winter paraphernalia and sports accessories that are an inevitable part of living in Ottawa. And the result is that our main front door area, which is very centrally located in the main part of the house, remains neat and tidy.
I added the wooden wall hooks in a scattered pattern for visual interest and additional storage. The handmade felted wool baskets are handy for containing smaller items, and soft enough that if they’re pulled down by little hands then there’s nothing hard falling on any heads! The baskets are no longer available, but these are similar.
While I opted for IKEA cabinets on the other side of the mudroom (photos in this post), in order to maximize this side of the space and increase durability I went with custom cabinetry in solid wood. I looked around for a while until I finally found a local woodworker who built these cabinets precisely based on my sketches and measurements (including a bench height that was planned to fit my tall Hunter boots!), down to the stain and finish. It has very little wear and tear considering how much abuse it endures, and has served us well for our first full year of seasonal cycles. For now, I fully intend to savour the last few weeks of summer with the kids and our slower paced schedule. And for those of you with an earlier back to school schedule and routine, happy return!
Design: Studio Kahaani
