Have you ever noticed the magazine photos of mudrooms and kid-friendly lockers usually look something like this?
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| Pottery Barn |
Beautiful baskets, fresh greenery, loads of oversized pillows, eye-catching accessories...
....and always a color-coordinated scarf or handbag on the hooks.
Well, you won't find a color-coordinated scarf or handbag in OUR kid-friendly lockers. Maybe I'm silly, but I tend to keep Mommy paraphernalia in my closet.
Fortunately, I was able to pull off some cute baskets.
=
I found the rather plain, upper greige-colored baskets at our local Fred Meyer with plans to personalize them somehow. When I ran across the jute-strung, wooden chalkboard signs at Michael's for $1.50 apiece, I knew they were just what I had in mind. (Secret: Although it looks like the signs are hanging from the front of the baskets, this Momma hot-glued them in place for reasons all you other Mommas know ~ Less moving parts = Less breakage.)
The kids store their hats, gloves and turtle fur in the upper baskets. The black chalkboard surface against the gray mesh ties in nicely with the blackish/gray baskets in the bottom cubbies, which we use for shoes and boots (....and Heely's....and Crocs....and flip-flops....).
Using building plans from this site, Fireman built the lockers for us right before Christmas. (Now that I think about it, these lockers ended up being my Christmas present because the other plans we had for each other kinda fell through ~ which is perfectly fine by me. What mom wouldn't love storage for Christmas?)
Here they are, fresh after caulking and just prior to sanding, priming, two coats of SW Creamy paint, and beadboard backing.
Look how deep those bottom cubbies are! Perfect for lots of foot gear storage...if you can find baskets narrow and deep enough. Michael's had just what we needed, so I waited for the 40% sale and purchased all five at once. Side note: I added felt pads to the bottom of our baskets to prevent scratching the surface of the cubbies every time a basket is pulled in and out. Highly recommend!
This locker system works beautifully. Even the four-year-old is careful to place her boots and shoes in her basket each time we come in the door, and all the bronze hooks (found at Lowe's) provide plenty of storage for snow gear, winter coats, fleece jackets, and even a little horsey purse (guess I should've taken a picture of that purse/handbag after all).
I guess the awful truth about mudrooms and lockers is that when they're being used every single day they just don't always look pretty.
But because this is my house and I can, I removed all the gear to show you what our lockers would look like without it.
Organized? Yes.
Architecturally pleasing? Yes again.
Full of life, activity, hints of laughter and of grime?
Not so much.
Which is why we'll take our lockers loaded up, please ~ with extra doses of laughter.
(In case some of you are wondering what we will ever store in the upper-most cubbies, we've already taken care of that. Everyone's Heely's are now officially stored way up high in those cubbies so they don't take up so much space in the lower baskets and push out needed snow boots.
Hmmm....I wonder why Heely's never make it into Pottery Barn photos?)
Labels: Entry, Family Room
