Dan's Papers - August 24, 2007 - Just Leave it in The Mudroom!

Mudrooms are as much about mud as sleeping porches are about sleeping. The dynamic little room situated usually at the rear entrance of your house can make life beyond its doors that much nicer. In a clinical sense, it is a decontamination center - removing the negative traces of the great outdoors from your body before you ever enter the home. For you horse people, the mudroom is essentially a tack room for humans - a place for coats, boots, etc.

In the summer the mudroom is generally under utilized. With everyone wearing flip-flops and summer apparel, a place to hang your Barbour coat seems a bit unneeded. At the same time, there are a few uses for the summer mudroom. Let's face it, sand can get everywhere if it isn't kept under control. Children are the number one culprits, but adults also can be blamed. Place a tray of water, ankle high, just outside the mudroom door and then a absorbent, shag mat in the interior. With washed and dried feet, sand shouldn't be a problem in the rest of the house. Hang beach towels from the hooks your fall and winter jackets will eventually use - allowing guests access to towels without having to rummage through linen closets and pestering you. Store umbrellas, Wellingtons and rain coats for those summer showers.

While the summer only utilizes the mudroom to a small degree, the autumn and winter see the mudroom at its fullest. The mudroom has always been, for me, associated with horses. As a child, it was where we strapped on our riding boots, but more importantly took them back off. That room was my mother's only hope for a house that didn't smell like horse droppings - a house that didn't resonate with the clicking of cowboy boot heals. For my brothers and me, it was the first blast of warmth after an entire October day of trail rides and grooming. A place where we could store denim jackets and chaps. The winter months saw snowpants, moon boots, hats, gloves, mittens, scarves, down coats.

To get the mudroom ready for the coming season, make sure your mudroom has at a minimum a baseboard heater for quicker drying of wet boots. If you want to take the next step, the DryGuy DG1 universal boot and glove heater is a great purchase. With four prompts you can warm a pair of boots and gloves for the trip out into the autumn wind, or dry them after a trek in the snow.

You'll need seats as well. If space is a factor, I'd suggest fold down seats that rest flat against the wall when not in use. But if it isn't, a sturdy wooden chair is best. You don't want anything too comfortable because after a hard day in the saddle, you may not want to leave the chair and your family will get worried that you've gone crazy as you spend your entire afternoon sitting in a room smelling of horse chestnuts and worn leather. A bench is great because you can store footwear under it, but the space is also swell for storing firewood - a must for any time of the year.

Hooks are key. Again equestrian themes come to mind. I've seen people use bent horseshoes for coat hooks. They are sturdy, authentic looking and evoke a rural lifestyle. If that's not your cup of tea and you really only use your mudroom in the summer, Frontgate has cast aluminum whale tail shaped hooks which are more fitting.

Getting boots off with cold hands or full arms is a huge pain but a good boot remover can even make yanking those knee-high Wellies a piece of cake. On the opposite end, putting boots on can also be a hassle, so try pick up boot hooks. Keep a few light weight jackets around as well. If you're just heading out for a second or two, they're great to have handy.

A little trick I like is installing a Dutch door. In cooler months, when air conditioning isn't needed and there are not mosquitoes, leaving the topside open allows for ventilation and an old-world aesthetic.

Now is the time to get your mudroom sorted out. With the cooler, wetter weather looming in the near future, you'll need a first defense from bringing the outside in. You'll see, with a little work, your mudroom will be more than a place to just store your boots.