Colorful Mudrooms

Colorful mudrooms — even when the color is neutral — offer a hint of personality in the entryway of a house.

For a long time most mudrooms I saw were white, just like kitchens. As places to house boots, hats, umbrellas, jackets, dog leashes and assorted other outdoor gear the use of white made them a bit fussy for me. In addition to color, a mudroom (or boot room) by definition serves a function. In a way it’s a glorified closet but a public one. Elaborate woodwork is not always required. Even a small space can benefit from a shelf rack with pegs and a storage bench like the ones from a U.K. source The Dormy House in the cheerful blue cottage entry [top]. Etsy is awash with artisan versions of similar shelves and Pottery Barn has a few as well. This light blue is a perfect cottagey color and a favorite of mine. In my monitor it looks very close to Benjamin Moore’s Skylark Song 778.

Getting just the right gray for an entry can be challenging since gray inevitably has undertones. This classic Gustavian gray is a serene neutral without being blah. It picks up the gray grout between the brick pavers of the floor and also has a reddish undertone. BM’s Excalibur Gray 2118-50 looks to be a close match. And the wide planking on the walls and closet doors, plus the cushioned bench, helps give this transitional space a casual, lived-in look.

A restored home on Philadelphia’s main line takes advantage of a stone wall in the two-tone entry. The toast-color woodwork (Sherwin Williams Zeus SW 7744) is practical with kids in the house as it puts the mud in the mudroom without any muck! At the same time it blends easily with stone tones. The surprise is the salmon wall opposite but that likely comes from highlights in the floor. Zeus is the type of color I very much favor. It would work equally well on base cabinets in a kitchen.

Yes, this mudroom is lavender and even the herringbone brick under the bench has violet tones as well. Like many homes in the New York suburbs, this one by DeGraw & DeHann Architects, requires glove, mitten and scarf storage neatly made available with inexpensive lined pull out baskets. The bench has a bead board back with hooks above. Opposite this practical and flexible set up, however, is a massive bank of storage closets for coats. It’s unusual to find lavender in an entry though some might even consider a color like the similar BM’s Lavender Mist 2070-60 to work as a neutral.

It’s funny how often I pick out rooms in homes designed by Smith & Vansant without knowing it. With this leafy green mudroom it’s a double since the New Hampshire Farmhouse Kitchen is in the same home. While the kitchen tile is mostly evergreen, a lighter gray-green like Benjamin Moore’s Central Park 431 straddles the aesthetics of a farm house with an Arts & Crafts feel. The rustic bench in this mudroom entry feels just right for no-nonsense New England.

(Source: House to Home, Country Living, Greenable, DeGraw & DeHann Architects, Smith & Vansant)

For more, see Mudrooms for Flowers and Mudroom and Entry Storage Smarts

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