House tour - mud room & powder room

One of the most functional rooms in our home is the mud room.  When we designed our house, we built the entire first floor around having a mud room.  It's a place to dump handbags, backpacks, coats and car keys.  I wanted the space to be functional and fun, with a utility sink.  We also put in a pocket door, in the event that we get a dog and need to block the space off from the main living area.

Another consideration when designing the first floor of our home was where to put the powder room.  We didn't want our guests to feel too close to the main living area when using the bathroom.  With that being said, we put the powder room adjacent to the mud room.  It feels private and since it sits on the south side of the house, we were able to put a window in the powder room to allow for some natural lighting.  Since the powder room shares a wall with the garage, we had our architect add a large linen closet.  Currently I'm storing my Swiffer and a few seasonal decorations as well as extra hand towels.

Stepping into the mud room from the garage.  Kentwood Originals Maple Del Rio flooring, Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter on the walls

Mud room bench, $36 at a flea market.  Rug by Dash & Albert, online flash sale.  Coat hooks, IKEA.

Mud room bench - one of my favorite pieces in the house! 

The door to the garage.  Knobs and back plate custom assembled by Schlage, polished chrome finish.

Pocket door, separating the mud room and main living area

 The work horse of our mudroom is the cabinets and counter.  We have all of our reusable bags and art supplies in the lower left doors.  Underneath the sink is where we keep our mop bucket and all of the cleaners for our hardwood floors.  The drawers just underneath the counter is where we keep our maps, keys and sunglasses.  The upper cabinets house our extra paper towels, cleaning supplies and baby wipes.  Costco baby wipes are one of my favorite cleaning products!  I use them on the millwork, countertops, the track of our sliding doors, virtually anywhere that requires a gentle cleaner.

Mud room cabinetry.  Kohler faucet and cast iron sink with Formica Sand Crystal counters.  Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter on the walls

Formica Sand Crystal countertops.

Powder room.  Pental Alpine quartz remnant used on the countertop with matte subway tile backsplash.   Faucet by Kohler, Bancroft series.

Powder room sink.  Kohler Bancroft lavatory faucet, Kohler undermount sink, Pental Alpine quartz counters with subway tile backsplash.

Linen closet in the powder room - custom knobs and back plate by Schlage, polished chrome finish.

 I wanted to take a minute to talk about floor registers.  Our contractor supplied us with two choices: tan or white.  Obviously neither of those color selections work with the hardwood flooring that we installed.  I scoured all of our local big box stores and came up empty.  Since I was working with a difficult size (2x10"), I took to searching online.  I was really excited to find these registers by A Touch of Brass.

Remember: when ordering your floor registers, the size that you purchase is that of the actual opening of the duct.  The actual register that you see on the floor is larger than 2x10".

Oil Rubbed Bronze floor register, by A Touch of Brass