How we built our Mudroom Addition

This house didn't come with a mudroom. Our house also doesn't have a front walkway. So, everyone comes through the garage door, and into a hallway that leads to our kitchen. There's no good spot for shoes. Steve cut down a tree and created a beautiful coat rack that we hang in the hallway, but it started to get really busy in that hallway with jackets, backpacks, hats, gloves, multiple pairs of shoes, etc.

With little kids running around, in and out, having dogs, I wanted to have a hall tree. Where we'd put it, I wasn't sure. But this is what I was kinda thinking of:

I was thinking we could make room near our door for something similar to this. 

Perhaps not as many shelving units for shoes, but you get the idea. I wanted to spend less than $500.

Now, again, if you've been following me, here is where Steve took an idea and went completely nuts. 

The door you see here leads into our house. Before this structure was built, we just had stairs that went up to that door. 

View from my parking spot in the garage.

Drywall is up! New exterior door placed. After putting this door in, we realized that even with the ceiling lights, it's dark in there. We are thinking of replacing that door with one with more windows. 

Floors and paint! We went with vinyl flooring here. It's durable and inexpensive! We chose a happy blue to go on the walls.

The hall tree gets framed out.

The final product. This is looking in from the garage.

I freaking love it! Way more elaborate than I was thinking. 

This is looking out from inside our house (1/2 bath/laundry area is to my immediate right)

From start to finish, I think it took Steve 2 months. Of course he took breaks here and there. Once the structure was up, he took a break for a couple of weeks. Then drywall went up, took a break. Floors went in, took a break. Hall tree frame was done, took a break. 

Now, whenever people come over, or we're just getting home, all of our STUFF can be left in the mudroom and not tracked through the house. We have a "home" for everything and it feels so good to have this extra space. Especially coming in from playing outside in the snow - boots, wet clothes, snow pants, heavy jackets, scarves, etc. can all get dumped here. 

He didn't use a plan for the hall tree. He looked up MANY references however, before going all in. One thing to know about my husband, is that he is thorough. If we get something new, he will read the instruction manual cover to cover. Every time. He pinned several things on Pinterest, and watched many a YouTube videos to be able to come up with this structure.