BEHIND CLOSED DOORS: UTILITY CLOSET

We use our garage to enter the house on a daily basis and all of our coats and shoes go either in the garage or mudroom/laundry room, which you can see on the left of the photo above. I’ve posted about this space before, which you can read all about HERE. Our front utility closet is what I’m showing you today. There’s really nothing fancy about it at all, but what I wanted to discuss is the fact that I use it as a utility closet rather than a coat closet. When designing the house with our builder, we tried to maximize space as much as possible while keeping an open, airy feel to the house. The front closet, was originally on the left of the front door as you enter and the dining room was on the right. We changed many things in the layout and ended up tucking in the coset on the right.

Most of you know by now that we finished the interior of the house ourselves and this was one of those many little nooks that never actually got finished, until two weeks ago! It was one of those monstrosity-type projects that just seemed overwhelming to do with every thought, so it just got put off. It stayed an absolute mess for years! We always intended on finishing it as a coat closet however, it ended up being a catch all for my work materials, crafts, cleaning supplies, our vacuum, etc. Each time I would go to reach for the vacuum, I would have a bought of anxiety, wondering when and how it would ever get done! We’d finally had enough of it and it was time. And guess what? Two weeks later, we have a fully functioning, beautiful closet! Take a look and see…It has a bench-like component to it, which is there because of ceiling in the staircase going to the basement. We decide to build shelves from the base of that ‘bench’ to the ceiling for lots of storage. We do plan on adding wall hooks for guest’s coats, perhaps with a shallow shelf above it as well. There’s a window in the closet that we kept here when designing the house, as it was part of the front elevation and we felt the exterior needed to have the window.. We hung the vacuum on the wall next to the window – no more wrestling matches for me!The floor is raised, also because of the staircase. We finished it with the same hardwood flooring as everywhere else for a clean and consistent look. My husband wanted the trim to tie in as well, so we used a combination of baseboard, chair rail and quarter round. We used mdf shelving and sides with pre-drilled holes for adjustable shelving. Eventually when we decide to sell the house, we plan to remove some shelving and add a rod for hanging coats as well.On the bottom shelf, we keep our pet supplies in the large bins and a caddy full of cleaning supplies, which I use daily. On the second, third and fourth shelves, I keep work supplies, sewing and some craft supplies.At the very top is extra cleaning supplies, kleenex and paper towels. As you can see, there’s nothing pretty in here! I will eventually buy some cute baskets for a uniform look that has a more styled and decorated feel, once we hang the coat hooks and shelf. So I’m not finished with this space yet and it isn’t as pretty as I’d like, but I can assure you it is light years ahead of what it was! I really wish I had some before shots!! We’ll probably eventually upgrade the selves to wood rather than mdf, for a nicer, richer look as well.
Stay tuned for an eventual update of this space! Have a great week! xo