Before and After: Mudroom Chaos Controlled

A high-energy family creates an orderly flight path for kids, dogs, and friends who come and go via the back door. Here's a look at the "Before" photo

By Deborah Baldwin

Kitchen Floor Catchall: Before

Mudrooms have to have it both ways: serving at once to trap debris and disorder while turning a pretty face to incoming traffic. Some households think of them as containment zones. “Before, the kitchen floor was our catchall,” says Liz McBride, referring to the footballs, backpacks, shoes, and outerwear her three young sons like to shed as they walk in the door. Add one outdoorsy husband, Mike, a black Lab named Maddie, and a family passion for hiking on trails paved with South Carolina clay, and you sense what their Fort Mill house was up against.

Shown: The back door opened into the kitchen, where flotsam washed up on the floor and a catchall desk.

Chaos Controlled: After

With design/build help from Mary Ludemann, the couple added a mudroom with tough finishes, assigned storage spots, and a heavy-duty sink. When they aren’t using the basin to fill the dog bowl or scrub off mud, “I treat it as an emergency salon—my boys come down some mornings looking like porcupines,” Liz says, only half in jest. Tall wainscoting and baseboards fend off “dog dishes and kids who kick off their shoes,” says Ludemann. Adds Liz, “Our friends and neighbors don’t bother with the front door—they come right to our beautiful new entry in back.”

Shown: The new space gets its airy look from a 10-foot ceiling plus lots of glass and light-reflecting finishes.

Paint: Sherwin-Williams Bracing Blue (walls) and Extra White (trim)