How many of us walk in and drop everything at the front door. Disaster!

It wreaks havoc on the home-front right from the first steps inside. It was happening to us and I aimed to change that and organize.

We had the typical colonial style; when you walk in, you see a stairway and a sliding door closet, then on one side is the dining room doorway, the other side is the living room doorway. I kept thinking why does anyone need to walk in and see my living room? so I said “let’s rip out the hallway closet & close off the living room doorway and create a long mudroom.  So far, so good. Here is our progress as we moved along..

First, the living room doorway was closed off, the closet removed and bead-board installed. Then I applied 5 coats of paint due to this being a very high traffic area.  Then we built some custom cubbies for the lower bench & upper cabinets, along with a recycle bin. Then I applied 5 coats of paint on those as well, don’t forget the winter coats that will be hanging.

       

Then comes the huge 3″ thick beams from a lumber yard, which are 14ft long! We hand cut and sanded and joined together with a male/female groove to create one massive bench.  Painstakingly sanded smooth with slight rough look and stained and urethane several coats (again think winter wet) to create a thing of beauty!

And this is where we are now, almost done. I cannot quite figure out how deep (or if I even want) the separator walls to go under each cubby. The bench is approximately 14″ deep and I want room for your rump, so I think about 6″ depth and 2ft per will be perfect, (maybe).  I have painted the recycle bin (pic to come), then we will bolt down the bench. The plank and the coat hooks are installed, looks awesome (pic to come).