Hello there readers! Long time no see! If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you know that Emery Jo Beauchamp came into the world in early May!
Ever since then, I’ve been slacking on my social media and blog posts. Being a mom and working full time is tough! But today I have a fun reveal for you! On my Instagram page I’ve been talking about our mudroom update for what seems like forever. As you can see below, the “before” of this room was not good. Not good at all.
Our mudroom was a covered in dark, wood walls and ended up just being a dumping ground for “stuff.” My plan for Phase One of the modern farmhouse mudroom update was to paint. I knew it would be a lot of work, but I was nowhere near prepared for how hard it would be to paint with a newborn!
Step 1: Sand.
It was clear to us that the previous owner had a dog that spent time in this mudroom. We had to sand down plenty of scratches in the wood, especially near the doors and windows. I used a handheld orbital sander to reduce the scratches. I was looking for “better,” not perfection. I also sanded down all of the wall plugs to be flush.
Step 2: Stain.
This part took what felt like LITERALLY FOREVER! I had to use a paintbrush to cut each and every seam between the boards. I decided to also paint each plug and the large knots to get one extra layer of primer on them. I kid you not, the cutting with the primer took me HOURS.
Step 3: Paint.
Here’s the fun part – the final product. I will say that we paid extra for a good primer and I think it made the biggest difference. It took two full coats of paint to cover this old wood, but I truly believe it would have taken a few more if we hadn’t used a good primer. So, here we go!
I mean – SO MUCH BETTER, right?? This project took me over a month to complete, but I am so happy that I stuck with it. Now every time we walk in here I feel happy instead of stressed. I have big plans to someday do built ins along this wall to store all of Baxter’s dog stuff and our shoes. However, take a look at the wall below and let me know what you think. I think it’s much too bare, but I’m stumped as to what I want do to. If you have ideas, let me know in a comment below.
The next things I need to do are paint the main door to our house and potentially paint one of the storm doors. The other storm door to our backyard needs to be replaced, so hopefully we can do that sometime this fall. Eventually I’d like to do built ins, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon 🙂
If you’ve been following along with this journey on Instagram, thank you for sticking with me! I’m so so happy with how this modern farmhouse mudroom update turned out and it felt good to get a project done post-baby. Next up: updating our entryway with some fun wallpaper!
Sources:
- Paint: Sherwin Williams Alabaster
- Wreath from Amazon
- Doormat: Cutting Webb Designs
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