If you saw our kitchen update then you know that we painted our island Sherwin Williams Debonair blue. This idea really came about because of another room in our home that needed attention. Coming in off of the garage we have a small little room we call our mud room. We didn’t add the cabinets offered by the builder when we bought the house knowing we would want to do our own thing in this space. When we moved in we bought this mud bench set from Pottery Barn until we had a more permanent plan.

I have always known I wanted a mud bench in this space but I wasn’t sure on the final design until we had lived in the home for a while. During the day Bear (our German Shepherd) stays in this mud room. He has access to the laundry room where his food and water is kept but he can also cozy up on the wood floors and nap. Since this is the “catch all” station coming in off of the garage it became very clear that we would also need good cabinet space. Bear has (on occasion) gotten bored during the day and grabbed some shoes to chew on, so closed cabinets are necessary.

Since I work for the builder of our home, I was able to pull some strings with our cabinet vendors and designed this custom mud bench. They installed the cabinetry in unfinished paint grade wood. After walking by it everyday for a week in it’s natural state I knew I wanted it to be a color, not white. That’s when the idea to paint it blue came to mind.

You catch a glimpse of our island through the mud room when you walk in from the garage so I liked the idea of them being the same color. We pulled so many gray-blues samples at Lowes that would have worked but when Brian showed me the Sherwin Williams Debonair swatch I knew that was it! This color just makes me happy. Every time I walk into our mud room or our kitchen I smile.

Our house is mostly gray tones so we’re making a few updates here and there to tie in the blue. As I mentioned, Bear’s food and water have a home in our laundry room and Bear is a very messy eater. So naturally that room gets pretty beat up. I was browsing Wayfair one afternoon and spotted this mat and knew it would be perfect to put under Bear’s bowls to help protect the tile and grout. When it arrived I loved it so much that I ordered another one so that I could lay them side-by-side to create the illusion of a mosaic tile floor.

This little trick was an easy and inexpensive way to update my laundry room. I would have loved to retile this room but for now, this is the perfect solution. The blue and white ties in perfectly with the mud bench and makes the laundry room feel more updated.

I truly believe that when a space makes you happy you are more likely to be productive. Doing laundry doesn’t feel like as much of a chore now because I enjoy our mud room and laundry room so much more with these updates. And don’t worry, Bear loves it too! xo Bryn