The most secretly coveted feature in Merrimack Valley homes isn’t a swimming pool or a designer kitchen or an outdoor kitchen — it’s a mudroom. If the kitchen is the heart of the home, the mudroom is its central artery.
The mudroom, or family foyer, is the home’s casual entryway, while the formal front doorway is usually reserved for guests. The backdoor family entry traces to the days when farmers would remove their dirty clothes and
boots before entering the house. Many older houses still have them, a laundry room or screened-in porch that may connect the main house to a barn, or just a laundry/pantry area between the back door and the kitchen.
As a nation dependent on our cars, the most trafficked door is usually attached to the garage, thus making the main house key a garage door opener. While keeping the dirt out of the home’s living space, the mudroom acts as a central hub providing access to the kitchen, the garage, the yard and, quite often, the basement and laundry. Andover architect Mark Yanowitz, owner of Verdeco Designs likens a good mudroom to “Superman’s phone booth, a transitional space where one can adjust the re-entries into their public and private worlds.”
Especially appealing to families with children, a functional mudroom offers solutions to storage issues before problems arise. Though some of us are fortunate enough to have homes with space that can serve as a mudroom, if your home is mudroom-deficient adding one can be a wonderful solution.
Andover resident Abby O’Hara thrives on solving detailed and challenging design problems. She was vice chairwoman of the Main Street Committee that helped to re-engineer Andover’s historical downtown to better accommodate the needs of heavier-than-expected traffic and pedestrians. “Do you know how many cars pass through downtown Andover? Nineteen thousand per day!” O’Hara says. She applied her knowledge of traffic management in her Colonial Revival house, which, like many century-old homes, suffers from a lack of storage space.
Major repairs occupied the O’Hara family for the first five years they lived in their house, so Abby experienced life with three small children and a husband without so much as one first-floor closet. Her hallway was an obstacle course of boots, toys, coats and life’s debris. When the time came for serious renovations, Abby hired Andover architect Rob Bramhall to help her realize her dreams.
“Abby built the kitchen addition just so she could have that mudroom,” her husband says. And what a mudroom it is. Natural light and a flush mount ceiling lamp illuminate the vestibule. The lamp reflects light off the mismatched crystal doorknobs that serve as coat hooks. With the main hallway on the left, straight ahead there is an easy-to-open swinging door that leads into the family’s mudroom.
As Abby had wanted, her mudroom comfortably accommodates children with bulging backpacks. Its multifunctional benches, sized for both children and adults, can be used for seating, storage and as step stools. Each family member has a generously sized cubby, complete with outlets for recharging gadgets. The mudroom doesn’t have an outside wall, so O’Hara ensured natural lighting by adding a transom over the swinging door to catch the vestibule’s bright light. A solar tube skylight provides enough natural light to keep the room from feeling dark and scary. Abby sees her mudroom as a way to teach her children to live an orderly life, and to reduce conflicts by getting her out of the business of keeping them organized.
Photos by Kevin Harkins.
Laura Moulson has three young children and doesn’t like messes. It was easy for her to communicate what she desired in her family foyer to architect Mark Yanowitz. Laura and her husband, Chris, purchased the home with the intention of keeping its mid-century modern character, but adapting the floor plan to better suit their growing family’s needs.
The mudroom is separated from the kitchen by a glass door. It was critical for Laura to welcome the sight of her mudroom, not be assaulted by it. Yanowitz designed a pristine hallway, with a smaller, kid-friendly mudroom right off the main entry, which can be closed off by space saving pocket doors. Open cubbies and benches with little-person dimensions make it easy for the children to store their own gear. Laura and her husband have full-size closets of their own.
Laura likes the spartan look of the entrance. The curved wall and three stairs leading to the kitchen provide warmth and additional seating for shoe removal. A skylight, windows and half-window side door provide natural light, as well as views of the exterior for visitor and climate checks. In addition to providing great storage opportunities, the Moulson’s mudroom leads directly to the kitchen, pantry, garage, basement and laundry facilities. This room is a workhorse that manages to artfully disguise its function and please the eye.
Home improvement stores now offer a plethora of storage solutions that can help create a mudroom concept in that sweet spot between the entrance and the living space. Whether you’re lucky enough to have an existing space designed to function as a mudroom, or you choose to add one, the hardworking mudroom deserves its day in the sun.
Muddling Around
The mudroom, or family foyer, is the home’s casual entryway, while the formal front doorway is usually reserved for guests. The backdoor family entry traces to the days when farmers would remove their dirty clothes and
boots before entering the house. Many older houses still have them, a laundry room or screened-in porch that may connect the main house to a barn, or just a laundry/pantry area between the back door and the kitchen.
As a nation dependent on our cars, the most trafficked door is usually attached to the garage, thus making the main house key a garage door opener. While keeping the dirt out of the home’s living space, the mudroom acts as a central hub providing access to the kitchen, the garage, the yard and, quite often, the basement and laundry. Andover architect Mark Yanowitz, owner of Verdeco Designs likens a good mudroom to “Superman’s phone booth, a transitional space where one can adjust the re-entries into their public and private worlds.”
Especially appealing to families with children, a functional mudroom offers solutions to storage issues before problems arise. Though some of us are fortunate enough to have homes with space that can serve as a mudroom, if your home is mudroom-deficient adding one can be a wonderful solution.
Andover resident Abby O’Hara thrives on solving detailed and challenging design problems. She was vice chairwoman of the Main Street Committee that helped to re-engineer Andover’s historical downtown to better accommodate the needs of heavier-than-expected traffic and pedestrians. “Do you know how many cars pass through downtown Andover? Nineteen thousand per day!” O’Hara says. She applied her knowledge of traffic management in her Colonial Revival house, which, like many century-old homes, suffers from a lack of storage space.
Major repairs occupied the O’Hara family for the first five years they lived in their house, so Abby experienced life with three small children and a husband without so much as one first-floor closet. Her hallway was an obstacle course of boots, toys, coats and life’s debris. When the time came for serious renovations, Abby hired Andover architect Rob Bramhall to help her realize her dreams.
“Abby built the kitchen addition just so she could have that mudroom,” her husband says. And what a mudroom it is. Natural light and a flush mount ceiling lamp illuminate the vestibule. The lamp reflects light off the mismatched crystal doorknobs that serve as coat hooks. With the main hallway on the left, straight ahead there is an easy-to-open swinging door that leads into the family’s mudroom.
As Abby had wanted, her mudroom comfortably accommodates children with bulging backpacks. Its multifunctional benches, sized for both children and adults, can be used for seating, storage and as step stools. Each family member has a generously sized cubby, complete with outlets for recharging gadgets. The mudroom doesn’t have an outside wall, so O’Hara ensured natural lighting by adding a transom over the swinging door to catch the vestibule’s bright light. A solar tube skylight provides enough natural light to keep the room from feeling dark and scary. Abby sees her mudroom as a way to teach her children to live an orderly life, and to reduce conflicts by getting her out of the business of keeping them organized.
Photos by Kevin Harkins.
Laura Moulson has three young children and doesn’t like messes. It was easy for her to communicate what she desired in her family foyer to architect Mark Yanowitz. Laura and her husband, Chris, purchased the home with the intention of keeping its mid-century modern character, but adapting the floor plan to better suit their growing family’s needs.
The mudroom is separated from the kitchen by a glass door. It was critical for Laura to welcome the sight of her mudroom, not be assaulted by it. Yanowitz designed a pristine hallway, with a smaller, kid-friendly mudroom right off the main entry, which can be closed off by space saving pocket doors. Open cubbies and benches with little-person dimensions make it easy for the children to store their own gear. Laura and her husband have full-size closets of their own.
Laura likes the spartan look of the entrance. The curved wall and three stairs leading to the kitchen provide warmth and additional seating for shoe removal. A skylight, windows and half-window side door provide natural light, as well as views of the exterior for visitor and climate checks. In addition to providing great storage opportunities, the Moulson’s mudroom leads directly to the kitchen, pantry, garage, basement and laundry facilities. This room is a workhorse that manages to artfully disguise its function and please the eye.
Home improvement stores now offer a plethora of storage solutions that can help create a mudroom concept in that sweet spot between the entrance and the living space. Whether you’re lucky enough to have an existing space designed to function as a mudroom, or you choose to add one, the hardworking mudroom deserves its day in the sun.