Country Cottage Mudroom Closet Ideas that Are Functional & Beautiful

Our goal is to add a mudroom someday, but until then, we decided to take one of our closets and make it function better with these cottage mudroom closet ideas.

If you watched the YouTube video from last week then you know this closet used to have a long rod for hanging coats and such, then it had floor-to-ceiling shelves behind that.

While in theory, this sounds like an amazing amount of storage, the mudroom closet storage with not functional this way.

To reach anything on the shelves I have to move the coats that are on the rod.

Before

This is the way our master bedroom closet is designed as well.

Nothing is more frustrating than holding clothes/coats out of the way while I grab what I want off the shelves behind them.

My hair gets caught on zippers, and my hair clip gets knocked off my head.

It’s little stuff.

But it adds up and before I know it I’m not utilizing the space as efficiently as I could because I’m so annoyed.

So, today I want to share some ideas for how we plan to turn this chaotic storage into a beautiful country cottage mudroom closet, with efficient storage.

Watch Cottage Mudroom Closet Ideas Video HERE

Priority points for our DIY country cottage mudroom closet ideas

Affordable mudroom closet makeover

This is the most important thing on our priority list.

We’re not looking for this makeover to be an expensive one.

This is just a small makeover to help our lives function better until we can add a full mudroom off the end of this long hallway.

That is something I feel like I don’t talk about often enough.

Begin with the end in mind.

In this case, I don’t just mean the end of this specific project.

We are hoping to turn a small corner of our garage into a full mudroom soon.

But in the meantime, a closet makeover will improve our lives a lot.

Functional country cottage mudroom closet makeover

This closet is huge for a hallway closet.

It’s 32 inches deep and 58 inches long.

Which is why I understand why the people who owned this house before us added shelves in the back.

There was certainly “space” for the rod in front and the shelves behind.

But as far as the way a closet functions with that design, it is terrible.

So I want to increase the amount of storage space on the side of the closet where it won’t get in the way of grabbing something from the shelf off the back.

For us this is our workhorse closet.

It needs to efficiently hold our milking supplies, barn clothes, winter gear, shoes, and hats.

Simple cottage mudroom closet design

I want this closet to flow seamlessly with the design of the rest of our house.

The kitchen is a perfect example of what I want this cottage mudroom closet to look like when it’s done.

I want to mix wood tones with a nice cottage color.

I also want to have a couple of peg rails so that the girls can independently hang their outside gear up.

When I think of country cottage style it feels more “unfitted” to me.

Less “built-in” and more independent structures into a space.

I also want to leave the vertical paneling that is in this closet.

That will not only keep this project budget-friendly, it will also add additional country cottage style.

DIY country style mudroom closet organization ideas

Cottage mudroom closet ideas | hooks or pegs

My husband and I are going back and forth with peg rails and hooks for this closet.

I want peg rails because I love the look and feel they add.

But my husband thinks that hooks are going to be more functional because they typically have two places to hang items from on one hook.

I’m looking for ways to increase the storage while keeping the peg theme going throughout the house.

But we’ll see.

I do want this space to be functional above being beautiful.

The good news is, I think regardless of which style we choose, we will be able to achieve function and form.

I found these hooks on Etsy, and while they don’t have two hooks I really love this style.

I would probably go with black or brass.

Cottage mudroom closet ideas | bench

I want a bench in the closet for a couple of reasons.

One is that it will make life easier for the girls.

If we have a bench that they can climb on and use to hang up their coats and such it’s going to less work on my shoulders.

I’m forever grabbing coats that are just thrown on the floor of the closets right now.

It drives me nuts.

Also, a bench will be nice as a “drop zone” for things when we are carrying veggies from the garden in the house.

In our old house, I put our little bench in our entryway and it worked so nice.

I want to have that here at our new house.

Cottage mudroom closet ideas | shelves

I love shelves.

I feel like I’ve been talking about shelves for the past month non-stop haha!

Cabinets are nice for many different purposes.

But shelves are cheaper and help create that “unfitted” country cottage style that I like so much.

Cottage mudroom closet without doors

There are a couple reasons we don’t want doors for our new mudroom.

One is because the mudroom closet door is close enough to the garage door that they hit each other when they are both open at the same time.

Another reason we want to go without doors is because it opens up the space so much.

This closet is already a decent size at 32″ x 58″.

But by taking the doors off it feels even bigger!

It will also make it more functional as a “drop zone” to remove the doors.

My inspiration for our cottage mudroom closet ideas

Thank you so much for stopping by.

I can’t wait to show you this project when its all finished.

Hopefully that is just a couple weeks from now.

Until then I have a few other posts that you can check out to get more country cottage inspiration.

More Country Cottage Inspiration

Thrifty Cottage Kitchen DIYs

Country Cottage Living Room Ideas

Cozy Kitchen Decorating Ideas

Country Cottage Dining Room Elements

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Have a great week! XoXo

Open Your Doors,
Aliya

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