Where there’s muck there’s a mudroom
Amudroom is a transitional space to either clean off after a dirty day out or get prepped to hit the outdoors. Gaining in popularity in Kiwi homes, a perfect mudroom houses everything you would need for the entire family’s comings and goings.
Even if your place isn’t big enough for a dedicated mudroom, there are a few things you can do to ease the transition from the mucky outdoors to clean and tidy indoors life.
A little nook inside the front or back door housing hooks, a seat and storage space could be all you need, if it’s designed well.
Designer Treena Swift said when creating a mudroom, it was a good time to look at the function of the house and see what was not working.
‘‘Perhaps it’s a place to feed the pets of the house, or a place for the kids to put their gear when coming in from school or activities,’’ Swift said.
‘‘It might be that you have a wardrobe full of shoes and they’re on a different level of the house, so a quick change means climbing stairs. Or it could also be that the laundry room needs a new home,’’ she said.
Swift said it was always good to start with the problems the space needed to solve and then design the space around that.
Hooks, drawers, lockers, shoe cubbies and cupboards to store all those awkward items, such as brooms and mops, is what a good mudroom is all about.
An urban mudroom might be quite different from a rural farmhouse mudroom – which deals with real dirt and mud – but essentially both act as a decontamination zone of sorts.
For those designing a new house, mudrooms could include a built-in rinse station for your dirty pooch or to wash sand off if
living near the beach.
Armstrong Interiors designer Lacey Exton said mudrooms were historically found in Europe but she was finding they were becoming more desirable as a functional space within Kiwi homes.
‘‘Farm families, skiers, beachside homes and baches are the types of homes we most commonly see them, to help separate daily activities from the clean home,’’ she said.
Exton said mudrooms shouldn’t be overly stylised and the flooring should be hard, like a stone or ceramic tile. ‘‘Adding colour and texture using paint and wallpaper can help to personalise the space,’’ she said.
Interior designer Deborah Still suggested seating with pullout drawers underneath for footwear and enough coat hooks to cater for the whole family’s wet-weather gear.
Flooring should be easy care and a middle-of-the-range colour so that dirt and dust didn’t show up and the sink area needed to be big enough to soak dirty clothing.
Still said incorporating the laundry and mudroom would be ideal if possible and having a shower in the mudroom so that all dirt and dust was contained in one area would be the ultimate.
‘‘Perhaps it’s a place to feed the pets of the house, or a place for the kids to put their gear when coming in from school or activities.’’
Treena Swift
Designer