Mud Room Lockers

Mud Room Lockers

(approx $400 in total cost)

After enclosing the breezeway between our garage and house, we were left with the perfect space for all of our junk. It took me a long time to figure out how to maximize the space without it feeling cramped. After hours of Pinterest searches, I pieced together my plan and laid it out using masking tape to help me visualize the layout. The tape line closest to the wall represents the upper cabinetry and the line farthest from the wall represents the lower section. The perpendicular lines gave me a visual on what the width of the lockers should look like. 

I was a bit limited on budget for this project, so rather than build full boxes, I left the back wall open. Also because I am using MDF in a mudroom, I raised the MDF off the floor 1/2" in order to avoid any possible water damage. (If I lived in a snowy or wetter area, I would have utilized a more water resilient material, but since we are in the desert, this has been great for us). Because the boxes were essentially floating, this created a challenge to keep things level and straight while waiting for the pinewood trim that would give it the needed support. 

The bench is made from 4 (1x4) pine planks, the seams were glued, then secured with screws using my Kreg jig. 

The large pantry was built as a box and rests on a pinewood platform. 

At this point in the project, I had not thought about how much space I would have above my lockers and cubby holes and it was at this point that I decided that I should add cabinetry all the way to the ceiling. 

It would have been much easier to build each locker as a box first, but my goal was to minimize the amount of wood to use. It complicated the project slightly but saved me a lot in wood supplies. 

When adding the face, I had some primed pinewood leftover from one project and decided I could upcycle it to this project. It worked out much better than it looks in this photo.  

I made the doors myself using poplar wood as the trim and sheet of quality 1/2" pine as the face. 

The hardest part of the project is taking the time to prep for paint with filling and holes and caulking every corner. 

I taped off the bench area since I was going to stain it rather than painting it. 

After getting the cabinetry painted, I stained the bench using a walnut stain and a lacquer on top. 

Adding the lacquer to the stain. 

I was really happy with how this project turned out. I installed these in Fall of 2016, it has been about 4 years as of this post and the cabinetry looks great (except now its filled with junk. Everything has held up very well.

What I love about this project: 

The additional storage was much needed for our little house, we store our odd kitchen items (popcorn maker, fondue set) in the upper cabinetry and the lockers are filled with either coats in the winter or towels in the summer. Somehow though, the kids still manage to just chuck their things on the floor despite all of the avialble places for them to put thier things. I have liked having the large pantry cabinet for big items. It was originally design to allow our vacuum to be stored outside, but that has not been as convenient as I originally thought. We have still managed to find many uses for it.

What I would do differently: 

One thing I immediately regretted was that I used a paint with a low sheen (it was what I had from another project). I ended up coating the whole thing with polyurethane which made it a lot better. The reason is that white is really hard to maintain, especially outside. A higher sheen makes it easier to wipe dirt and smudges.

I also would have stained and lacquered the bench before installation. It would have made it much easier than trying to tape off everything twice to protect the stain from the paint, then the paint from the stain.