Weekend Project: Mudroom Makeover

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It doesn’t always take a lot of time to make a big impact in your home. Check out my simple weekend mudroom updates.

It’s been nearly two years since I built our mudroom bench and coat hook corner. It’s been the perfect drop zone for coats and boots and gloves and it’s been a great spot to stage items when we are getting ready to head out of the house.

Our mudroom has held up well and we still find it a pretty spot to enter our home after a long day but lately I’ve been feeling like it’s ready for a little refresh. So in less than a weekend and a little effort I gave our mudroom a makeover.

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For so many years we gravitated toward beachy blues for our home as a reminder of the beach but now that we have the beach cottage, I think B and I have been wanting something new at home. Rich dark greens have been on the top of my list so I decided the mudroom would be the perfect spot to bring a moody deep green to life.

After narrowing down my choices, I ended up going with a pretty teal color (Sherwin Williams Still Water) that has both blue and green in it. This was important to me because of the blue penny tile above the laundry sink. They aren’t the same color but I feel like they “talk” to each other enough that it works.

Originally I thought I was going to go with Benjamin Moore Jack Pine but worried it may still be too green for this space. You can see the two together below to get an idea of the difference. I will find a spot of use Jack Pine at some point. It’s beautiful too!

I painted both the bench and the wall behind the bench and it’s the perfect punch of color in an otherwise white space.

For summer, I added a pretty plaid rug which plays nicely with the painted bench. I also swapped out the baskets for natural, woven ones from Amazon. On the upper shelf, I made a few simple changes as well just to lighten things up for summer.

The old crock was given to us from B’s grandparents. They used to use it to make sauerkraut but it’s not fit for that purpose anymore. I’ve used it around the house for various things but loved the idea of using it here as a spot to keep linens and dishcloths from the kitchen more contained while waiting to be washed.

How I painted my laminate bench:

If you are wondering how I painted the laminate bench, I’ll give you the simple process I used. I was a little nervous about painting the bench since it has a laminate finish. While I think we’d both like to eventually do a solid wood built-in out here, I figured I should at least give it a try.

I used my favorite hard core primer, Zinsser Bin Primer. This stuff is as good as it gets. I used it to paint the interior of the truck camper, I used it to spot treat knots on trim throughout our house, all the shiplap at the beach cottage and figured it would be perfect here as well.

I gave the entire bench a good coat of the primer and let it sit till fully dry. I would actually recommend waiting until the next day to put the finish paint on. I had one spot that felt dry to the touch but ended up smearing when I painted it the first time.

I then painted two coats of my top color. B and I have started buying our paint directly from Sherwin Williams. While I’ve long been a big fan of the Valspar products from Lowe’s, we’ve found that the Sherwin Williams store has many more options for paint base based on your intended use. I’ll have more to share on this topic soon because it’s good to know.