Mud Room Makeover: Small Space, BIG Impact!

Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Sharing with Made to be a MommaDIY ShowoffMy Sister's SuitcaseSuburbs MamaRain on a Tin Roof

Here is a true story: We have the world's smallest mud room.

I know that some of you are thinking you'd give your left leg for any mud room space... But our's was mutilated by the previous owner and we were left with a 2.5-square-foot space outside of the garage door swing zone.  A space that must be walked through to get to the laundry room.  Oh, and did I mention you can see this from our main living area?




Even though the size of the space itself couldn't be altered, I did want to amp up the "welcome to our home" feel of this less-formal entry.  The beige walls on beige tiles didn't send much of a welcome message at all.  And even if we are the only ones to use this door, well, shouldn't we be loving the feel of our home the moment we walk in??  That was my thought process for this mini makeover. 

My original idea was to use a large-scale stencil.  But, after a little search on Pinterest I decided to create a graphic statement using only painter's tape.  Hello, herringbone.

The chevron trend is (not surprisingly) also catapulting the popularity of herringbone and you can find a lot of tutorials out there for making a herringbone wall.  BUT make sure you think about how the taped space will fit in.  Asymmetry bothers me.  A lot.

I tweaked a few other tutorials to create a method that made my symmetrical heart happy.




Here is my DIY two-tone herringbone wall tutorial:

First, decide how many columns you will want.  I chose 4 for a bigger-scale impact.  Next, measure the width of the wall, divide, and then adjust for the width of your tape.  My columns measured 15 inches wide with a 1 1/2 inch tape width between.




Now (using no sort of precise calculation) decide the height you'd like for your pattern.  I chose 10 inches.  It just looked right.  Measure and mark on your tape and use the mark as the lower line for your next tape line.  This is the only thing you really need to keep track of as you measure, mark, and tape- always align the bottom of your tape to the mark.

I chose to do the two middle columns first, measuring straight up to the ceiling, and them worked my way up the outer columns.  This took one nap (about 1 hour) from start to finish.




I bought 2 Behr color samples from Home Depot to decide on the main wall color and actually loved them both... and they looked great together!  This is how I decided to use both colors to make this a two-tone herringbone.  The lighter mint is Behr "April Mist" and the grey-blue is "Contemplation."  I painted the surrounding walls "April Mist."




I painted one color first, alternating diamonds (rhombus? whatever.), then I went back to fill in the opposite diamonds with my second color.  This took me another nap to finish.






Between naps, Lu used the paint stir-sticks to drum on the floor...






Let dry and then remove your tape.  My only mistake was doing this on a humid day and the tape pulled off some of the old paint underneath.  Ugh.  Thankfully I found an old can of beige paint in the basement to fill.  I really can't complain since my tape lines came out GREAT- Frog Tape is definitely worth the extra few dollars.




On the opposite wall (visible from our living area), I painted the old coat hook rack white.  I also used white spray paint to give an old scrollwork mirror a facelift and hung it for the perfect last-minute-check as we leave the house.  The white metal S (HomeGoods find that had been in the kitchen) I added for a personal family touch.  I also repainted the molding bright white to freshen up the space.




I kept everything white because the hooks will fill with stuff and I don't want it to look too busy.




Above the door to the laundry room I used an old black frame to hang this "Love Shines Here" free printable  that I had printed months ago.  Perfect spot!






Here's the final product!  What do you think??

7 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks, Jess! I keep wondering why I didn't do it sooner!

      Delete
  2. Congrats! You're one of my picks for features at Give Me The Goods! Make sure you come by and grab a feature button!
    Amber @
    Dimples & Pig Tales

    ReplyDelete
  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your herringbone wall turned out great! I love the color combo you chose! Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Love the herringbone! One of my favorite patterns! I'll be featuring this on my blog on Saturday.

    http://www.sumossweetstuff.com

    Thanks for linking up to the Block Party!
    Sumo:)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Sumo! I'm so honored and appreciative of the feature! Love your blog and the Block Party inspiration. :)

      Delete

I'd love to hear your thoughts! Leave a comment here...

 
Designed with ♥ by Nudge Media Design