Mudroom & Laundry Room Combo Ideas

Do you have a laundry mudroom space in your home? Whether the two are combined in one space or separate, this makeover will give you mudroom laundry room ideas that are pretty, but most importantly, functional.

This is one of those projects in which I eat my words.

Full on crow.

So here’s the thing.

A few years back, when everyone and their mama was giving their laundry rooms these beautiful makeovers, I was like, “Nope. Totally not spending money to make my laundry room look better when no one ever sees it.”

Also, I hate bandwagons. And that seemed like a kind of bandwagon thing. So I totally ran running in the opposite direction.

Back then though, we lived in the Beloved Foreclosure. And the laundry room was in the garage, hence there really wasn’t a laundry room at all, more like a spot for the washer and dryer. So duh, totally not putting in pretty tile or an elaborate wallpaper there.

And then we moved into the 70’s Landing Pad.

And in the 70’s Landing Pad, we have a laundry room that opens to the den. And also to our backyard. So it also functions like a mudroom for us. We use this space a good bit. And when people are over, they see this space. And there was no door to close it all up.

And it was looking like this…

Disclosure: Aiden Lane provided me with the bench and ironing center. All opinions are 100% mine. This post contains affiliate links for your shopping convenience. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.

It’s been two years since we moved into the house and y’all, we hadn’t done a thing to this space. Well, I had ripped down the curtains in a fit of anger one day, but besides that, the walls and trim were still adorned with cornflower blue.

On top of it all, the room was just gross. The walls and tile floor all needed a good scrubbing like five years ago.

Obviously, it was also ugly.

I knew this space needed to look better. I couldn’t just close a door and it be hidden. And, I wanted it to look better.

But I didn’t really know where to start or what I wanted to do with it besides that it needed to be a functional laundry room and it would be good to also use it as a mudroom to drop and store things that we take outside to play with and things for the pool.

Mudroom Laundry Room

Finally, inspiration struck and the whole design plan came together for this space in under 24 hours when I happened upon this wallpaper one afternoon.

This light bulb moment is when it also became obvious to me that I was about to eat crow.

So I did what I said I wouldn’t do. I spent money on my laundry room. I also made it function as a mudroom to justify the costs more in my head. 😉

The space is now light, bright, airy, colorful and I love every damn inch of it. As it turns out, that crow didn’t taste half bad.

Laundry Mudroom Ideas

Let’s start as you enter the room…

Bright Fresh Paint and a Deep Cleaning

Wall Paint / Beach Towel / DIY Island

This is looking into the laundry / mudroom from the den. Obviously, I painted all the walls and trim. The trim and back door got a fresh coat of white paint and the walls got a coat of Vanilla Paste – bye bye cornflower blue. Now, I refused to replace the tile in here. Instead, I spent a few days scrubbing it clean with my SteamMachine and it’s brass brush attachment.

Y’all, this tile was disgusting – I wore out four of those brass brushes. I hadn’t realized just how bad it was. For the most part, it cleaned up really well. There are some spots on the grout that didn’t clean up, but I think they are permanent stains and that’s alright – it’s just a mudroom and laundry room.

Maximize Storage

Beach Towel / Leaf Hooks (similar)

I tried to take advantage of just about every inch of wall space I had and maximize it for storage and function. On this wall, I hung three hooks to hold wet towels as people come in from the pool.  I also splurged on a new beach towel because it coordinated perfectly with that flamingo art print. Also, we use the heck out of beach towels around here with our pool so it won’t just be hanging there looking pretty.

Make It Fun with Art

Flamingo Print

Since most of the walls in here are neutral, I wanted to bring in lots of playfulness and color with art. This flamingo print called Bird Bath fit the bill. I think it has a slight Palm Beach vintage type feel to it and y’all know, I’m a sucker for that. Plus, anytime I see a flamingo or a flamingo art print, I always think of the Circus at age two carrying around plastic flamingos from the screened in porch at our old house kissing and loving on them.

Go for a Bold Wallpaper

Swimmers Wallpaper

This wallpaper was what spurred the whole makeover. I fell in love with its somewhat vintage, but colorful and playful feel. The fact that it was so colorful made it basically effortless to coordinate other things in the room with the wallpaper – I had a slew of colors to choose from that would work well with it.

Don’t forget special art.

Shadow Box

Also on this wall, I added one single piece of “art” – one of the Circus’ swimsuits from when she was a baby. From the time I found the Swimmers wallpaper, I knew putting one of her swimsuits on the wall was only fitting. I bought this shadow box from Michael’s, ironed the swimsuit really well then used pins and double sided tape to mount it inside the frame.

Squeeze in a bench with storage.

Hart Storage Bench

Since this is the room where everyone usually heads to the pool and/or backyard from, a place to sit down and put some sunscreen on or take some muddy shoes off was needed. However, as I said earlier, I also wanted to create as much storage as I could for this space. This Hart Storage Bench from Target met both those criteria.

Hart Storage Bench

First off, it’s gorgeous. To me, this bench has a classic feel that won’t easily date and I feel like it might also have a touch of Hampton/Nantucket style in there too. I’ve never been to either place, but ya know, that’s what this bench tells me. 😉 Second, it seems extremely  well made. You do have to put it together, but this thing is solid. Third, it has hidden storage! And last but not least, all that for under $150!

Hart Storage Bench

The seat of the bench is divided into two sections that each lift up for hidden storage. I stashed away all our extra beach towels in here and still have room left to grow.

Incorporate a Workspace for Laundry or Small Outdoor Projects

Turning to the right of the bench, is a backdoor that leads outside as well as the kitchen island from our previous house.

DIY Island

When my in-laws remodeled the kitchen at our old house (remember – they moved into the Beloved Foreclosure after we bought the 70’s Landing Pad), they wanted a kitchen island with more hidden storage. Since Grunt and I built the kitchen island that was there ourselves (while I was pregnant and with barn wood from my great grandfather’s barn), I wanted to hold on to the island. We brought it to our house and put it against this wall in the laundry room as a folding center of sorts.

I found the red and aqua buckets at Target in their seasonal/summer section and was so excited to find them since they matched perfectly with the Swimmers wallpaper. They were just $6 a piece too! They hold work shoes and larger outdoor play items like basketballs, etc. – great storage space!

Be Playful

Play the Day Away Art Print

When I found this Play the Day Away art print, it was obvious it would work perfectly in the mudroom laundry room, but I also loved it because it’s a little reminder to literally play the day away and have a good time right before you walk out the backdoor.

Also, if you’ve seen any of my Instagram Stories lately, you know I’ve been working on my cut flower garden this summer. Those sunflowers were cut straight from that garden!

Don’t try to hide the washer and dryer away.

Turning the corner again, is where our washer and dryer are housed.

If you remember from the before photo, this space had doors on it. We actually opted to take those doors off and get them out of the way to make it a little easier to do laundry. I should also state here that Grunt Labor does all our laundry and if taking doors off to make it easier makes him happier while doing the laundry, then I’ll do that and whatever else it takes so that I don’t have to do the laundry. Praise Jesus for men who do the laundry, because otherwise our family would be running around either naked or in smelly clothes.

I did give this entire closet/now alcove a coat of paint to brighten it up. I also replaced the shelf that was above the washer and dryer as the old one was gross and one side was being held up with a vertical 1″ x 4″ coming up from the ground.

Maximize Wall Space

To the right of the washer /dryer area, we installed a wall mount ironing center.

Wall Mount Ironing Center

Previously, the ironing board was stashed to the side of the dryer and the iron was in the upstairs closet. I realize this made no sense at all. Needless to say, when something needed ironed, I really evaluated how badly it needed ironed before I lugged everything out. And more often than not, I ended up wearing something that was a little wrinkled. This ironing center makes it so much easier to get things ironed.

Wall Mount Ironing Center

All you do is open the door, flip down the ironing board and pull out your iron, starch, whatever you need. It can all be stored right there in the cabinet. There’s even a couple of hooks for you to hang stuff on if needed.

There was also another open closet area in this space when we first got the house. We opted to remove some of the trim around the opening in order to fit the refrigerator in here that had once been in the kitchen. This frig holds lots of cold drinks that people can easily run in and get when they are outside.

Get Creative with Storage

There was a little wall space here left for claiming and I did just that by adding more storage here. I hung vintage metal locker baskets with cup hooks (be sure to hit studs or use anchors if you do this!) to hold more outdoor related items. The top one has all our sunscreens and the bottom one holds smaller pool toys like water guns, etc. I went with the cup hooks so that the whole basket could easily be taken off the wall to take outside and then just brought back in and popped up on the wall again.

That’s it for this mudroom laundry room makeover, but probably not the first time I’ll have to eat my words. 😉

Share any modern mudroom laundry ideas you have in the comments!

Looking for more great ways to organize and maximize storage?

DIY Clothes Rack – an easy fix for extra clothes storage!

5 Simple Storage and Organization Ideas – simple, but effective and affordable!

Colorful Mudroom Makeover – bright, colorful and super functional!

10+ Kitchen Ideas for Decorating, Organizing and Storage – the hardest working room in the house!

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