Here is the home of a friend of mine. It may inspire you. It was in our local home magazine yesterday. Good luck.

Here is a link that might be useful: Des Moines Mud Room

In the link above/below you have to click to see the entry/mud room picture - go through about 8 pictures or so. It made me wonder if I should take out my coat closet in my mud room and put in an extended number of 'lockers'. I only have 2 and would like a long set like this one. This person has 4 kids...

6x6 sounds tight to me, even without a laundry, but any mudroom is way better than none. Mine is about 12x12 (with laundry), but I wish it were larger.

At a minimum. you'll need closet space (or at least cubbies, but I prefer an actual closet because it's neater), and room for a bench for putting on boots or changing shoes. It would be good to also have a table or shelf to put things that are going out.

What room will the mudroom be attached to? That could make a big difference in how you use the space. Mine is attached to my kitchen (probably the most common configuration), and I keep my trashcan and recycling bin there. I also have cupboards where I store vases and lesser-used kitchen items that won't fit in my small kitchen.

Here's what I did. The only space we had was a hall closet and after moving here from the west coast I wanted a mud room in the worst way, so I got creative. It is just like any other room in the house, it has hardwood floors, crown molding and decorative trim.

Ours is a work in progress (we're almost there!) We have 5 kids and wanted a space to corral backpacks and jackets and such. When you enter our house from the garage there is a long hallway that leads down to the laundry room. In the builder's original floorplan that hallway was 3.5 ft wide with a small coat closet. DH asked the builder to open up the hallway by removing the closet and truncating the back of the very large kitchen pantry. This left us with an alcove that was about 9 ft wide and three ft deep. I found an inspiration photo right here on the forum (courtesy of soonermagic):

Here is our almost completed version:

We still need to add the crown moulding and the drawers.

We use the upper cabinets to store DH's motorcycle helmet, the kids' swim stuff and sports' equipment. The taller cabinet will store DH's golf clubs, raquetball stuff..etc.

Lukkiirish--really great solution for you! I love that hanging thing (don't know what to call it!) on the side. Where did you find it?

Thanks!

Our home was built in 1910 and didn't have a garage at the time. One was later built but was not connected. My husband's family moved here in 1968 and made a "courtyard" in between the garage and house. My husband and I connected the two about 6 years ago after he and I moved in. It is a finished room that is heated but is not done yet. Right now I am storing outdoor plants and chairs in the there. I also have my washer and dryer in here. I keep all of my daughter's coats and stuff in that armoire in the corner. I have some gardening things in the brown cabinet that I wanna paint at some point. I have a chest freezer in another corner. This is our dogs hangout room too. It gets nice sunlight so they enjoy laying on the rug getting warm.

view from our back tv room, it was the original back door to outside.

view from the garage door to the house

view to the front and of laundry area. this is not the "front door" of our house but here in New England everyone always uses the side door, which this is.

still need to paint the ceiling... the many projects of an old home!

Hi Tracy, thanks so much, it has worked out really well. I got the hanging thing (2 actually, 1 on each side) from Ikea. It's a magazine holder, but the pockets were the perfect size for gloves, scarves and hats.

Lukkiirish--, what a cute, creative "mud room." Love it!

Out front entry rarely gets used so I needed a mudroom ( our builder preferred to call it our "rear foyer") that was not only functional but would be a reasonably presentable first impression for guests. On top of that the space is only 7X7. The room has a full closet and cubby's and coat hooks because in all my years of marriage I have never been able to get my DH to hang up his coat on a hanger. He will , however, hang it up on a hook as he comes in the door. In addition , we have a mail sorting/ charging station,a tilt out wastebasket and a cubby for a water cooler. Its a lot to cram in to a small space but we also built a large laundry room right next door which takes a little pressure off the mudroom . I love it.My only regret was not putting my electrical outlets behind closed doors. I hate seeing the clutter when all of our electronics are charging.

In our old house all the mess that I am now able to confine to our mudroom seemed to find its way to my kitchen island and my DH's coat would hang on the back of the nearest chair. It drove me crazy and I was convinced that this little space in our new house was going to save our marriage (LOL).

Because the room is so small it was hard to take pictures but I included some anyway. I hope you get the idea.

Thanks for all the great pictures and comments so far. I did search through the old threads, and saw a lot of great ideas, but don't quite have it in my head what I want and need in the room yet.

lukkiirish--I LOVE what you have done with your space. This may be the best use of a smaller space I have seen. I love that it is decorated and pretty. I was also going to ask where those magazine racks came from and am so glad you answered it already...Love those!

whenicit-Love your friends' house! I am from Clive myself, but live between Lincoln and Omaha now.

dilettante-I know 6*6 sounds tight to me too! I am going to be more limited on my width than depth, but also have to consider price. DH is thinking he can do this all on a small budget. The room would be right next to a small entry landing that we use now(it has some built in shelves that DH wants to get rid of and be more a "decorative" area instead of a clutter situation) From that landing you either go downstairs or up 3 stairs and into the kitchen. I have a pretty good sized pantry downstairs in a full unfinished basement that I can later arrange according to my desires. I don't have as many cabinets in my kitchen as I have in previous houses, but if I arrange it right, I am okay. I keep my canned goods and duplicates in the pantry, and **TRY** not to buy a lot of junk food anyway. I would however love to have a 20 inch wide floor-to-ceiling cabinet with adjustable shelves to store any extra small kitchen appliances and such.

southernfrenchie-This is kinda what I have been thinking for part of the room anyway with the lockers like you have. We have 3 children, aged 5,3, and 6 months, so I need to decide if we need 3 or 5 lockers. I would also like to do a large or two smaller closets for extra coat storage, snowsuit, and shoe storage. I think it would make the most sense to do the 5 lockers, especially if we ever sold the house.

sidney4- I am glad to see your area because mine would be about the same size. I don't really need the office area, just a minimal shelf for mail and papers for DH and me. I think I need to draw up the interior plans, and give them to DH so he knows how big it needs to be :) How much space is in your walkway?

I would like to store the dog and cat food and one trash can in this area, which would be nice to have under a counter, but I don't know as if I want a counter because everyone's **** will just be on it all the time.

Thanks, Lukkiirish. Too bad they don't sell from their website because we don't have an Ikea nearby.

Here's ours... I posted this in another thread a few months ago (We chose the coffee brown granite BTW)...

We have a powder room at the end of the hallway, so that takes care of the sink. There is a coat closet opposite the hooks for longer/dressier coats that aren't used that often. Next to the closet is our drop station/mail center/ charging station.

There is a pullout trash can/recyling bin and a pull-out for a paper shredder. The mail bins and phone charging station are from Pottery Barn (Daily system).

We didn't have much space. The bench is 60" wide and 17" deep, the cabinets go up to 8 feet and the mail center is about 40" wide.

tracey_b -- I can't get Ikea website to pull up, so I am not even sure if the magazine rack is still available, but Ikea has/did have 2 privately owned stores. Those stores will ship items from their store directly to customers. I had a set of shelves sent to me that way. I think the store I called was in Texas, so try those stores first.

lishaana--how wide is your locker section? I am trying to figure out the width I need for 5 locker sections all next to each other.

Also, does anyone's door from the house open away from the mudroom, but have to have the locker section in the wall that butts up to the door, and straight ahead? Trying to figure out how that would look best from the door, and how far to walk forward before the lockers would start?

I walked the side of my house, and have about 7 feet between 2 windows, so the inside width of the mudroom would be about 6 feet. It is just a matter of how long to make it. The outside door would be on the longer wall opposite the lockers, and I would also like to do a coat closet. Does anyone have a doored closet that wraps around a corner?

tracey_b -- I can't get Ikea website to pull up, so I am not even sure if the magazine rack is still available, but Ikea has/did have 2 privately owned stores. Those stores will ship items from their store directly to customers. I had a set of shelves sent to me that way. I think the store I called was in Texas, so try those stores first.

lishaana--how wide is your locker section? I am trying to figure out the width I need for 5 locker sections all next to each other.

Also, does anyone's door from the house open away from the mudroom, but have to have the locker section in the wall that butts up to the door, and straight ahead? Trying to figure out how that would look best from the door, and how far to walk forward before the lockers would start?

I walked the side of my house, and have about 7 feet between 2 windows, so the inside width of the mudroom would be about 6 feet. It is just a matter of how long to make it. The outside door would be on the longer wall opposite the lockers, and I would also like to do a coat closet. Does anyone have a doored closet that wraps around a corner?

Thanks Nostalgicfarm, we get a lot of use out of that little spot. LOL

Tracy, It's a bummer that Ikea doesn't sell those on line, but I did find this which would work equally as well. It's available on Amazon, Target and lots of other places. You can make it vertical or horizontal which is kind of cool. It's called Linea and I've included a link to one of the stores I found it at. Hope that helps! --Lukki

Here is a link that might be useful: Linea Magazine Rack

Alright, I went outside with a tape measurer and got a lot larger of measurements than when I walked it off :) DH had told me 6*6, but my with between windows is 9.5, so that would give me about 8.5 width. I also have 16 feet before I get to a tree! I don't think he would be up for going 16 feet, but we have a sidewalk that ends about 12 feet from the house, so I think that would be a good place to at least go to.

I NEED 5 (want) open lockers
I REALLY want a separate bench with nothing above it and 1-3 slide out drawers underneath to hold cat and dog food, and possible other pet items.
I would also like against the wall next to the house a kitchen/cleaning closet that also maybe wraps around the corner with the other side being a coat closet that could hold DH and MINE extra coats, shoes, and guests purses/coats. I should have a little over 5.5 feet on the wall next to the house door, so I could do 20" deep cabinets/closet and 3 feet wide(not counting the corner) which I think will be about the perfect depth and a great amount of space to hold house stuff.

I would like to have my bench against the farthest wall from the house that would be 8.5 feet with 2 corner lockers next to it. The problem is I don't know if I did that, what the best way to put 3 more lockers in. Should they be lined up on the same wall?

We don't have room for a dedicated mudroom either but thanks to lukkiirish's mudcloset, we're using ours the same way. I'm still working on refining the look though which is a little difficult with 2 little ones upending their shoe storage all the time. :)

nostalgicfarm,

I say the bigger you can go, the better. I wish I had a mail center / charging station. We have 5 lockers (one for each kid) and a closet. I believe our alcove was 8'10" wide to be exact. Our lockers are 16 3/4" each, not including the wood partitions in between. This is perfect for hanging coats and setting backpacks down, though I admit the fit is tight for my middle schooler's bulging backpack. The closet cabinet is 20" wide (again, not counting the wood partitions). DH is also planning on installing a slide out drawer for our athletic shoes in the bottom of the closet cabinet. It will hold 2 pairs of mine and 2 pairs of his. I do wish I had more room for our shoes. when I come into the house I need to take mine off and put them on the shoe rack in my bedroom closet. But our issue is that we have 5 kids - the lockers are for them mostly.

We take our recyclables directly to the bin in the garage, so that's not really an essential for us. We keep our dog food in bins on the floor of the walk-in pantry. We have a closet under our stairwell where we keep vacuums, mops, dusters...etc.

But everything you've decribed sounds great. It's exciting to think you'll be getting a whole addition : ).

Here is our (messy!) mudroom.

In the photo below you can see the broom closet door. Just before that on the right is our utility sink area (so messy right now that I won't show it!). Just past the closet to the right is the door to the garage, and then to the left is the pocket door into the kitchen. HTH!

hoosiergirl,
Our lockers are just as messy. I opted to post the least messy photos so nostalgicfarm could see the "design" without being distracted by our tremendous clutter : )

Thanks for making me feel a little less like a slob, Southernfrenchie ;-) Your lockers and cabinets are really nice!

Nostalgic- Sorry I didn't see your question earler...

the bench/hook area is 60" wide(5 feet) for 4. about 15" each. I would have gone wider if I could have. I think 18" each locker would work best.

This thread is Laundry Rooms and Mud Rooms photos:
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/decor/gal0203314831470.html?28

This thread is Entries photos:
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/decor/gal0222253725206.html?26

A 6x6 mudroom is a workable footprint if you plan the layout carefully and commit to vertical storage. With nine or ten feet of wall height, you can run cubbies from floor to ceiling and recover a lot of functional area. I'd put a solid wood bench along the longest wall — about 18 to 19 inches deep and 18 inches off the floor — with cubbies above for each family member. Keep double coat hooks at two heights: around 42 inches for kids and 56 inches for adults. If you have a dog, a low hook at 24 inches saves a lot of bending. The floor matters too — tile or sealed hardwood handles wet boots and muddy paws far better than anything that requires special cleaning. A good mudroom earns its square footage every single day.

Here are photos of our laundry/mudroom on our recently completed home. We used Dry-Away racks for clothes drying in second photo.