DIY Mudroom with Reclaimed Wood
DIY Mudroom with Reclaimed Wood
Hi friends, today I’m back at my middle son’s house installing a mudroom. Up until a few days ago it was a room that housed a couple refrigerators. And since that wasn’t a look that they necessarily wanted to keep, they’ve been talking about converting it into a mudroom for quite a while. With a million other projects on their plates, not to mention work, a mudroom was not their top prioity.
Their mudroom to be is situated right next to their garage door entrance, a perfect place to get on those coats and boots and hop in the car.
I was at my local dump pile and had their mudroom in the back of my mind when I spied this 3 compartment bench? shelf?…it looks to be IKEA.
If I had 2 of these I would have been almost finished creating a diy mudroom…but instead I found a couple large pieces of 1 inch particle board, enough to build my very own IKEA shelf/bench, just without the allen wrenches and fancy screws.
I also grabbed a couple old doors thinking they’d make a great backing but I ended up not using those.
Taking measurements from the first shelf and transferring them onto my reclaimed wood, I attempted to replicate the first shelf as well as I could.
I could give you all my measurements but it would be far easier to just find 2 IKEA shelves. These pictures will just give you an idea of how the bench was constructed.
Once all the boards were cut, it was time to glue and nail.
Another piece of discarded 1/4 plywood was used for the back. Since the wood was too short to cover the entire back of the bench, make sure the seam ends on one of the vertical pieces.
Cut and staple the backing board,
I used spray paint to give an initial coat of paint on the interior of my new shelf. (Mine is on the right if you couldn’t tell 🙂 ) What the spray paint highlighted were the areas that needed extra trim to cover rough and unfinished edges.
Normally you might use iron on edgebanding to finish countertops, furniture…but that would require a trip to the store and more money. I used some cedar strips from the same wood dump pile, cut them to size and nailed on to my project.
I also finished the bench ends to look like my inspiration piece.
One last addition to the bench before it’s ready for its final paint job, a 2×4 base so that it sits up off the ground and is more of a bench height.
The 2×4’s were screwed on from the inside of the bench.
The 2×4 base also got a layer of the cedar trim to cover up some flaws.
I painted the bench with Rustoleum black semi gloss latex paint and finished the top with 3 additional pieces of pine, tongue and groove boards leftover from my fireplace makeover.
I sanded the top and finished with some of the clear wax I use for chalk paint.
I sprayed my new coat hooks, railroad spikes, with 2 coats of clear varnish to keep the rust from transferring to coats.
On an old piece of 2×6 (this is old wood, it really measured 2’x6″) I measured out equal distance for my railroad spikes and predrilled with a 5/8″ drill bit, about 1 1/2 inches in depth.
Hammer in the spikes, they should be pretty secure. If they ever do loosen, just add a blob of E6000, industrial strength adhesive, to the hole.
I laid the entire mudroom on my floor at home using old 2×4’s to add a little pizazz.
I was ready for installation, it was time to move into the refrigerator room. They weren’t quite ready for me, but this is stage one, you have to start somewhere.
There were a couple issues with the room that I hadn’t anticipated. There is a ceiling vent right above where we wanted to put this mudroom structure. That’s easy, instead of sitting flush with the ceiling we lowered the cabinet about 4 inches.
Second, the previous owner had a bad habit of adding wall sockets that stuck out from the wall. There was no avoiding that one, we’re just going around it by sawing a channel in the back of the 2×4 on the right so that it sits flush against the wall.
I painted the wall before installing the 2×4 trim to make it look like one continuous piece.
On Phase 2 of project mudroom, we will probably get rid of the wayward outlet, but until then it got a coat of paint to blend in with everything else.
The black paint between the 2×4’s is still wet and therefore a little blotchy, but instead of paint you may also want to consider bead board, wallpaper, corrugated tin, or shiplap.
Since this is just phase 1, and the happy homeowners still want to change out the linoleum on the floor, the bench has just been slid into place and can easily slide right back out.
Since I had laid out the mudroom wall on my floor, the middle and side 2×4’s had to be cut to length to fit this space then screwed into place.
You may notice that I added another piece of wood to the top of the railroad spike rack for a shelf to add a bit more storage.
If you like railroad spikes, you may also like this past coat holder or wine rack.
Again, this is just the beginning of their mudroom. I would love to see the removal of the weird plug, switch out the linoleum for tile, add an area rug and color on the walls. Probably a picture or two on the walls as well.
It may take another year (or 2) to finish this project but you can’t finish a project unless you get started.
Until next time, stay inspired.
If you love mudrooms, make sure you check out my Pinterest page. I’ve been collecting mudroom pics for over a year now. So many ideas, so little time!
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That mudroom will help them immensely until they are ready to really do the whole room. Good job Joan.