The Room: 3 Beautiful Mud Rooms That Work Overtime

Rural Retreat

This space gives new definition (and square footage) to the “room” part of the mud room equation. Part of a rural home in central Alberta, it serves as a landing point from the garage—for groceries, coats and boots, as usual—but it’s also a workshop space too, says designer Nyla Free of Nyla Free Designs, whose team has also remained close with the homeowners. “At Christmas, we’ve used the area to make evergreen wreaths, and to help with floral arrangements for their daughter’s wedding,” she says. “It has durable surfaces, so you can just make a mess and not worry about it.” Those surfaces include a wood-grain, easy-to-clean porcelain hex tile floor from Julian Tile that picks up the hardwood flooring in the rest of the home, a tough Caesarstone counter in Raven and the oak millwork on the island and built-in storage, whitewashed and given a raked finish that creates a distressed appearance. “It’s very forgiving if it should get knocked, or get a little mark here and there,” says Free. “It just adds a little more character.”

READ MORE: 7 Excellent Mudroom Designs for the Most-Used Space in the House

Flower Power

Gregory Funk of Rose and Funk designed this space before it was purchased, so instead of a specific homeowner, he took inspiration from its locale. It’s in the village of Fort Langley, a historic site near Vancouver that, despite its small population (roughly 3,800), has a bustling townsite of boutique shops and restaurants. “Part of the magic of living in Fort Langley is that everything is in walking distance,” says Funk. “We’re in the middle of farmland, but you walk to the grocery store, and on the way home you might pop into the florist to grab flowers for your dinner that night with friends.” It’s that scenario that inspired this floral-forward mud room, with a deep apron-front sink perfect for trimming bouquets (and also washing produce from the garden—or a pooch who played in a puddle). The shiplap on the cabinets is an update on classic panelled walls, while the brick flooring is designed to age with grace: it only gets more beautiful the more it’s used. And while mud rooms aren’t typically a splash-out zone in terms of budget (that’s saved for the kitchen and bathrooms), some of the cost-effective materials selected here are still lovely: the backsplash, for example, has the appearance of a hand-cut white tile, but it’s a budget-friendly product from Ames Tile.

READ MORE: The Room: 3 Laundry Rooms That Make Dirty Work Look Good

Tight Ship

When you’re a family of four with two young kids and a much-loved pooch, your mud room needs to do some heavy lifting. For this space in Calgary, the plan from designer Reena Sotropa of Reena Sotropa In House Design was sturdy materials and highly efficient storage that makes the most of a tight space. Because the window and door trim throughout the home is black, the team brought a nod to that into this room—albeit with a gentler shade, Kendall Charcoal from Benjamin Moore. (“You get the moody vibe without it being jet black and hard to upkeep,” says Sotropa.) Jurassic Black granite lines the top of the bench for a tough and enduring surface, while Tierra Sol Basaltina porcelain tiles line the floor. “In Calgary, we have walk-off mats for nine months of the year,” says Sotropa with a chuckle, noting that fancy inlays or decorative flooring would just be interrupted by that mat. “So I choose to do fairly simple, durable floors in spaces like this.” And because the climate often means folks are wearing wet shoes when they enter, Sotropa designed open space under the bench for shoes to easily be tucked away while they dry off, with the tile running straight underneath. “We’re always really conscious in a mud room to make sure the design is going to hold up to water and dirt.”

READ MORE: A Home That’s Designed to Grow with This Family of Five