Oh, and my husband and I are notorious for forgetting to take 'before' shots, so please forgive me. I found one on my other computer. If I ever find another free minute to myself, I'll try to add it to this thread.
A little history for those who don't know. The original part of our house was built by my husband's great-great-grandfather. Around 1969, my husband's great-uncle bought the property and added an extensive addition. This mudroom is part of the addition. It was built very much with the uncle's hobbies in mind. There was an enormous tub with a lid that he used to wash his show dogs, and a stove, cabinets and sink for canning. There was also a shower to use after coming in from outside, and the floor was concrete. My goal for the room was to make it more functional for us (obviously) but also to go with as classic a look as possible. The rest of the house (sans addition) is an 1865 brick Itailanate farmhouse.
Here's the view from the steps leading down from our kitchen. There's a door on the left that leads to the garage and a door on the right that goes to the yard. My original plan was 16 inch slate for the floor, but the grading for the drain made using such a large tile impossible unless I wanted to pour a whole new concrete floor. I also wanted to go with green cabinets, but my husband was a bit wary about doing anything other than white. We were also going to go with marble countertops until one of the places we visited told us it was a terrible idea for a laundry room, because detergent would etch it more than we'd probably like. And though I had always pictured an elaborate custom bench/locker system built into the left side, I decided a simple church pew with baskets beneath and hooks above was both flexible, functional, and far, far cheaper. We said we could put the lockers in later if we wanted, but the pew works so well I doubt we ever will.
The sink was in the room, and part of a rusted out kitchen cabinet set that could not be salvaged. My husband thought we should throw it out, but I convinced him that refinishing the sink was a better idea that getting a cheap utility sink. Not only did it only cost $350 to get it refinished, but it saved us money in the end because we needed less granite for the countertops. I just love that it went from a rusty, dinged up piece destined for the garbage to the focal point of the room.
My husband's biggest concern was enclosing the washer and dryer inside cabinetry. I showed him lots of pictures, but he insisted that anyone who did was an idiot because they would have no way to access the water shutoff in an emergency, and you wouldn't be able to unplug either one without pulling out the entire unit. The washer and dryer were originally sitting out in the open under the other window, but their placement meant we walked into the laundry area of the room right off the garage, and I wanted them moved down against the wall. He proposed an access panel on the wall beside the washer so the shutoff could be reached, and the cabinet guy built an access panel into the cabinet to the right of the dryer so we could unplug it. The cabinets were also built so that the piece of wood directly above the washer and dryer could be removed if we ever purchased units that were taller than the ones we already one.
The photo with the access panel is also where the shower was previously. The shower and tile were in great shape, but they were 1-inch white tiles with red ones interspersed and all were very badly discolored from iron stains. We originally received a quote to refinish the tile, and planned to keep the shower, but when all was said and done it was going to be at least $1500 to save a shower we had no intentions of using. We opted to have it torn out and had shelves put in instead, and added a rod to hang clothes on.
The remaining 5% is minor but annoying. The doors leading outside still need painted, and I haven't figured out yet how I'm going to hang the ironing board on the wall. I've also had those two washboards sitting about the washer and dryer for a year now, trying to figure out how to hang them side-by-side above the sink. And I've been hunting for the right size and style table to set my laundry baskets on for the better part of two years. I'm tired of bending down to put my laundry away. I saw one with a porcelain top that was absolutely perfect, but it was about six months before the reno started, and I thought "That was so easy, I'm sure I'll find another one when the time is right." I'm sure you can all guess how that has gone. All in all, I'm extremely happy with how it turned out.
