Closet to Mud Room Conversion

I do this thing where I see something that I really want to change in my house, usually to make life easier and more organized and then I obsess.  The last time this happened we turned our formal dining room into a library.   This time, I needed to get a handle on our front hall closet before school started.  The kids bags were always hanging on the back of the door knob to the garage or thrown on the floor of the closet which would lead to us searching frantically at the last minute as we tried to get out the door.  And finding the right shoes, forget about it!  That is partially the reason the boys can usually be found in two different colored crocs and Peanut is almost always sporting two right feet (the other reason is their unique fashion sense).  Now we have backpacks, lunch boxes, speech therapy bags, and preschool bags - life is going to just get messier and more complicated.  So I started planning and Papa Bear started groaning.  Finally I threatened to use the power tools to start the project on my own and Papa Bear took over (must remember that trick for the future).  And now after just a few weekends of working on it, we have ourselves a mini-mudrooom where our messy messy closet used to be.

Now each of us has an area and the kids have a bench to sit on to put on shoes and get ready.  It is perfect.  Now for the next project....poor Papa Bear!

Before

After I picked up the crowbar, Papa Bear took over

Real Teal from Benjamin Moore and the start of the bench

Peanut was a huge help!

Little Man couldn't be left out.  Get the man a real hammer!

Papa Bear and I each get a side wall

The custom built bench

After - The Finished Product