Mudroom blues....

I love our house. It has a lot of character and potential. There is one pitfall to our almost 100 year old home- it lacks storage. When guests come in our front door, they immediately block anyone coming down the stairs as the door is right at the bottom of the stairway. No mudroom space there.
At the back door, you immediately enter the kitchen. The side door, well that's where the mudroom is. Really, it's not even a mudroom but just a hallway leading down to the basement or up to the second floor. For years, I've been trying to come up with a space where people can hang their coats and remove their shoes.

A few years ago, we decided coats would go upstairs in the landing area/doorway from "mudroom". When we have guests, this is generally where coats go. That leaves the shoes.... Ideally, I would love to have a tray for shoes and a basket with slipper for guests to wear around the house to keep their tootsies warm. With a house this old, it gets drafty and chilly.

Anyway, back to the current "mudroom". It's simply an area that is a catch-all. I HATE it. I want to fix it, but I'm not sure how. I would take pics, but it's really that bad. There is no shoe organization, things just pile up on the stairs or in the cubby area under the stairs, there is limited walk way. One plus, there are a bunch of hooks for coats and bags- unfortunately not enough for our house!

So, I'm thinking I'm going to try to rearrange things this year. A few things I want to tackle in 2012- the "mudroom", the balcony off the spare bedroom, painting the dining room, and fixing up the kitchen as much as our budget will allow.

I figure the mudroom is easy to start with, so I'm looking for inspiration. This is what I've found so far.

I would love a spot like this- but storage for shoes under the bench (think open shelving there). Image from here.

Would love to do this in the kitchen/back door or at the bottom of the stairs. CUTE! The bench wouldn't work though as it would block the stairs. Image from bhg

Maybe a shoe rack like this would be better. Cubbies didn't work for us... or maybe we have too many shoes... Nah!
Image via

Love the chore board. I'm doing one in the kitchen at E's level this summer. :) Image from The Yellow Cape Cod

Want this in my mudroom area too. :) Image from here.

Similar to what we have, just the hooks aren't as cute and no cute bench. Wondering if this would work at the bottom of the stairs. Image from Michael Partenio.