I have been busy traveling for work the past two weeks. While I was away, Mr. Spring decided to surprise me with a mini mudroom. I know…. He is definitely a keeper.
Like most people, we rarely use our front door. We come in our side door 99.9 per cent of the time, so right inside our house is the drop zone. When we first moved into our house, this area was all shelves. I decided that I like to sit when I am putting on my heavy duty snow boots, so I wanted to have a bench. A while back when my mom came to visit, we removed the shelves and slid in a bench we already owned. She and I roughly added some beadboard and called it a day.
I placed some bins that I already had on top of the top shelf which we didn’t tear down. Gracie likes to pose at this spot because often when we go down these stairs, she thinks she gets to go on a car ride.
Our original fix worked but it didn’t look finished. It always bothered Mr. Spring, and he wanted to do a built-in with storage underneath. He even took pictures for our blog during the process to go along with the surprise.
We love watching This Old House on television, and this past Christmas, Mr. Spring received a book titled This Old House Easy Upgrades Built-ins, Shelves, and Storage. Overall, Mr. Spring said he was happy with the explanation and directions.
When I was out of town the first week, he was busy around town purchasing supplies and cutting the wood in our driveway. He even told the neighbors not to mention to me that he was working on a project. Here, he ripped out the last shelf and started to build the box.
At the beginning of my second work week out of town, Mr. Spring dropped me off at the airport at 5 a.m., drove back home, and started working away on installing the bench before he headed to work. The joys of living in an old house and not having things straight made this bench a little harder to install. Trying to get it level gave him an extra challenge. You can really see how uneven our floor is at the back of our house (built in 1928) by the angle of the bottom board.
This hidden storage will come in handy as a place to hide our shoes and snow boots.
Next up, he was able to reuse the bead board that Mom and I semi-installed.
I arrived back home Saturday afternoon, and this is what it had looked like that morning before he installed the rest of the decorative shelf and painted. Remember – I had no clue this was all going on, and when I came home, I walked in the back door to discover it.
I am in love not only with the new mudroom bench, but how my husband is painting furniture white. This really fits with our house and the style. It is a good flow into our kitchen and really helps brighten up the area.
I can’t wait till my next business trip to see what Mr. Spring has up his sleeve.
Gracie loves the camera. Can’t you tell? And I love our new bench.
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Cheers!
Linking to Savvy Southern Style Wow Us Wednesday and French Country Cottage
This Old House book image from google.
HOW CUTE IS THAT!!!!?
Oh my heavens, you are one lucky girl!
I love how it turned out. Fantastic!
And I cannot even believe he remembered
to take blogging pictures. Wow! Please tell
him the blogging ladies ARE super
impressed! BRAVO Mr. 2S!!!
xoxo
Alison
Mr. Spring did a fantastic job!! Your new mudroom bench area is wonderful! What a nice surprise for you.
Mary Alice
Perfect! Your hubby did such a great job. We have a ‘mini mudroom’ by our back door but it is stained espresso…like other things in the house. It makes everything in that area so dark. I’d like to paint it white like yours. 🙂
Love your mini mudroom! It’s so pretty! And love that the bench is functional as well as good looking! And your doggie is such a cutie!! 🙂
I just recently painted our original 1921 storage bench in our front entry and wanted to add a Pottery Barn type storage shelf/coat rack above, but didn’t want to pay the high price tag. Thank you for sharing the step by step instructions to your fabulous makeover! This is just what I had in mind, wicker baskets and all!
Love it! Nice job, Mr. Spring! We could use someone like you in Dayton!
Can you please clone Mr. Spring !! What a great husband ! And Gracie is pretty adorable too – what a beauty she is. Oh – I love your mudroom too – I would love to have something like that – keeps the entryway clear and organized – looks great !
WOW! So pretty, and functional. Don’t you love having a handy husband? Thanks so much for sharing. I love the book your recommended- got to get that one. Have a wonderful day!
Looks fantastic! Absolutely love it. What a great surprise. I’ve always been a fan of your hubby but he continues to impress! As for the main feature — the poser — precious
LOVE!!! Well done, Mr. Spring!
That looks fabulous,.Mr Spring is a sweetie!
Utility and aesthetics, yeah for Mr. Spring.
That is so awesome! How super sweet of him. And he took pictures and everything! LOL I have to show this post to my husband before my next out of town trip!
Wow what a keeper!! What a blessing to do something that sweet for you and even took pictures also! It looks amazing what a great job he did.
This is gorgeous. I keep dreaming of a mudroom and I want one just like yours. Now I just need to think of where I can put one!
Amazing? Can I borrow your husband?
Great job!! What a nice surprise. It looks really nice, and I know you love it!!
Love your makeover- what a great surprise~sharing at the party tomorrow. Thanks for linking up at Feathered Nest Friday!
Courtney,
We are so excited you will be sharing this at your party!
Cheers!
That mini mudroom looks wonderful and your husband is such a sweetheart to surprise you with it. Gracie is very photogenic as well 😉