While planning with Malisa on her mudroom design, she wanted to get as much storage as possible. The actual cubby space is fairly narrow at about 4′. The ceilings are 9′ tall. I thought if she built all the way to the ceiling with the surrounding walls painted a contrasting color, it might end up looking like a white tower in a dark alcove. BUT, if she applied wainscot up to the ceiling all around the alcove and painted it the same color as the lockers we could trick the eye into thinking the whole alcove was part of the Built-In. Catch up: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Mudroom Built ins
So, after she built the boxes for her lockers, Malisa’s next step was to put v-groove paneling on the walls and trim out the doorways. Since the ceilings are 9 feet and the panels only come in eight foot lengths, she made sure to place the seams strategically.
Malisa trimmed out the doorways with molding. Trimming out the large doorway from the hallway into the alcove added visual interest and importance to the doorway, and gave Malisa a natural place to stop the paneling.
In order to make sure that the none of the other moldings would be proud to the craftsman style trim, Malisa added an extra strip along the outside to make them deeper.
I love how Malisa customized the bottom face frame to give her bench a more polished furniture look!
Next Malisa built her doors.
She chose to do inset doors — and she rocked them!
Like a true apprentice, Malisa did her prep work in her PJ’s 😉
One coat of primer.
Two coats of paint. She chose to use the same paint that the existing trim was painted in: Kwal-Howell Hi-Hide White in semi-gloss, builder grade– with Floetrol added for extra time and workability.
This is the point when a project get’s REALLY exciting.
Once everything is caulked and primed and painted it starts looking REALLY pretty!
Read Malisa’s Final Reveal
sawdust Nana says
This mud room is a fantastic design, and a remarkable use of space, and I am going to do the very same in my high ceiling mud room. Thanks for the inspiration and the entire design instructions. It will be my first woodworking project.