Mudrooms, Pantries and Pocket Doors

Hello!

The kids finally went back to school today, so I’m hoping to be back on the road to a routine!  I had a small panic attack yesterday when it was announced that the high school and one of the elementary schools had flooding due to frozen pipes, but thankfully, the high school is open for business.  The elementary school is closed, so some parents are still dealing with an extended holiday break!

I don’t know if it’s the new year and all of the organizing that takes place at this time of year, or just the fact that my laundry room/mud room combo is a perpetual nightmare, but I find myself dreaming of a more functional space every. single. year.

I love that this mudroom built-in goes all the way to the ceiling and has both closed and open storage.  Plus, easy access for the kids to kick off their shoes, right into an open cubby.  A wise reader (and mother of three sons) left a comment on organizing my teen son’s room, saying that boys (and men) “will not put things up if they have to take more than one step to do it.”  So, kicking your shoes off, into an open cubby is one step, right?  Well, two, if you count entering the laundry room as a step.

Can you even imagine having this much storage?  Oh my goodness – totally dreamy – I love everything about this.

This locker-style mudroom is also appealing – everything hidden away and so visually attractive.

Laundry Room

Another one with cabinets all the way to the ceiling – great for storing season items like hats and mittens, with plenty of space for coats and shoes.  I’m loving the color too, and I just noticed that the tile is similar to what I have in my laundry room.  Nice to see that gray cabinets can work with beige tile.

Here’s a space with lots of open storage and some additional closed storage at the end.  While I love the idea of open storage, I worry that it would end up looking cluttered in real life (for us, anyway).  But I love how the built-ins run along the entire wall, and there is still clearance for the door.

Which brings me to the next thing that’s been on my mind – pocket doors.  I love them and I feel like they’re really underutilized in the design of many homes today.  I can think of two places in my home, right off the bat, that would be uber-functional if pocket doors had been incorporated – the pantry and the laundry room.

On a good day (where I’m having a party, or people visiting), my laundry room can look like this.  So, that would be, not very often.

But you can see what I mean about increasing the functionality with a pocket door.  With the current setup, the door opens and swings in, cutting off a whole lot of potentially usable space, making my idea of a dream mudroom, a little less dreamy.  If I had a pocket door, that would free up a whole lot of space.  Better yet, if I had a pocket door and moved the door over to the left a bit, I could have a whole wall of built-ins.

Something along these lines, where the door is more centered.

While I don’t have room for double pocket doors, you can see that this laundry room setup wouldn’t work if you had traditional doors.

I came across this awesome makeover on Sawdustgirl, and just love it.  So much more functional with the addition of the pocket door.  Never mind the amazing mudroom built-ins!

The same idea holds true for our pantry.

The pantry door is always open, and it’s tempting to take the door off the hinges altogether, just to free up the wall space that’s behind it!  It would be a great spot for calendars, grocery lists and school notes since I’m lacking a good place for a command center.  But again, a great spot for a pocket door, since there are times that you want the door shut.

Of course, I’m finding all sorts of beautiful pantry pocket door ideas out there.

Hello, gorgeous…  The pocket door to the pantry is as amazing as the pantry itself!

Or even double pocket doors for this hard working pantry.

Holy pantry-of-awesomeness!  A gorgeous butler’s pantry with an equally stunning pocket door.  I love the contrast of the warm, rustic wood against the white kitchen, and I love the glass window panes too.  It keeps everything light and bright, and that way you could still admire the pantry-of-awesomeness with the door closed.  That’s what I would do, anyway.

Ok, hold the phone.  A double seeded glass pocket door that leads to a crazy cool butler’s pantry?  Shut. UP.

And would you just look at the mudroom in this house?  Equally awesome.

Coming back down to earth now…  It definitely gets my wheels turning, thinking of options and possibilities.  The downside is that we have electric outlets near the doors to both our pantry and laundry room, so I suspect we would have to bring in a pro to help tackle a project like this.  It’s definitely worth exploring though, as I really think a couple of pocket doors could make a big difference in the function of these two highly used spaces.

Have you added pocket doors or amazing mud room built-ins to your home?  Did you tackle the project yourself?  Or were you lucky enough to have them as a detail in your home when you bought it?  

Please share – I’d love to hear about it!

7 Comments

  • Reply
    Sheila
    January 9, 2014 at 2:33 pm

    I love pocket doors. We almost bought an old home that had them. The doors were the whole reason I wanted the house to begin with. They reminded me of my childhood home which had pocket doors between the living room and the "sitting room". Loved that house.

  • Reply
    Simply LKJ
    January 9, 2014 at 3:23 pm

    Great inspiration pics. And yes, we have SEVERAL areas in our home that pocket doors would have made so much more sense and saved us precious square footage!!

  • Reply
    Fiona
    January 9, 2014 at 4:54 pm

    I have a pocket door near our garage entryway. I love it, but we don't have outlets or switches on the section of wall that has the door. We had trouble installing coat racks on the wall with door because the anchors and screws used to secure the rack to the wall would prevent the door from going back into the wall completely.

  • Reply
    Lisa @ Shine Your Light
    January 9, 2014 at 9:34 pm

    Wow, amazing inspirations, Jenny! We are planning two pocket doors as part of our new kitchen – one into our powder room and another next to it, into a pantry. My father in law said it's not hard to build, and you're right, it makes so much sense in some spaces!

  • Reply
    *colette*
    January 9, 2014 at 10:41 pm

    I used to have pocket doors in my old (tiny) home and they were such space savers… always a conversation piece too. You're lucky your laundry room is so big… you have many options!

  • Reply
    Toby Almy
    January 22, 2014 at 7:46 pm

    Great inspirations! Organizing might consume lots of your energy, yet will delight your spirit after seeing the output. Cabinets, drawers, and divisions are very helpful for storage and compartmentalization of items, especially at the pantry. Hope you'll be able to finish your organizing tasks as soon as possible. 🙂

    Toby Almy @ TittleBrothers

  • Reply
    Chris Hemsworth
    August 8, 2014 at 1:24 pm

    Beautiful. I liked the kitchen cabinets and drawers because kitchen is one such place you need ample space and can't afford to mess up with things. And the way these doors have been installed will help to store everything and still will make your kitchen spacious. Even the pocket doors looks worth investing.

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