I am having a house custom-built and it will have a mud room between the garage and kitchen (the laundry room is located off the master suite). So I can't show you any mudroom pictures, but I will show you some photos that inspired our design for the mudroom. Also, be sure to search the kitchens and the laundry forums for "mudroom" and "utility".

try_hard
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Well, my first attempt at posting pictures didn't work. So just check this link to see 2 photos of mudroom ideas. One photo is from a book, the other was from this site.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Thanks, try hard. A mudroom is really not in the cards for us. We don't have the room, and we don't have direct access to the garage (the house is built on side of a hill and the garage is underneath the house). I'm interested in a message center that is incorporated into the kitchen itself.

Here is mine. Just a bit of counter with cork board built into backsplash. The laptop usually doesn't live there. Great place to keep phone lists, party invites, memos, etc. The basket in the corner holds mail, catalogs, and such, before I have had a chance to sort through it. I keep pens, note pads, grocery list in the drawer to the right. The small hole in the counter to the far right is a grommet for the phone cord (phone is not there yet). In the next pictures I show a close up of that. The cabinet underneath has the phone jack and outlet inside, which are usually hidden from view by cookbooks. The drawer was made an inch or 2 shorter to allow room for the cords to hang down behind the drawer. It works great. I keep phone books in the upper cabinet over the phone. We throw keys on the counter, since it is right near where we enter the house. I suppose the keys could go in a decorative bowl or basket, or we could put up some hooks (maybe inside cabinet door?) but for now we just drop them on the counter as we come in. If doing it over, I would add some outlets in the drawers as I've seen other posters on this forum suggest, for charging cell phones, etc.

Thanks, needanap. I'm definitely going to borrow your phone cord/outlet set up. What a great location to hide messy cookbooks and chargers, et al. I also really like the cork board idea.

One idea I saw was a custom panel on a refrigerator made out of magnetic chalkboard. Since we're keeping our relatively new refrigerator (it's a SS standard depth fridge), that's not in the cards, but I'm still trying to find a place to do something along the lines of cork board/magnetic board now that I can't use my fridge for that anymore. Maybe I can stick a cork board or white board inside an upper cabinet.

Here is ours. We have a magnetic chalkboard. Our phone sits on the cabinet but the outlet/connection is inside the cabinet. In the cabinet I store pens, pencils, tablets, phone books, batteries, etc.

{{!gwi}}

julie, could you repost your photos? I can't seem to view them. Thanks! Sarah

I don't have pictures yet but I bought a couple of (overpriced) pieces from Pottery Barn - two whiteboard calendars, a corkboard and best of all, the "recharge station" with a whiteboard. The latter has an outlet strip behind a small door so all the wires are hidden.

Aunttomichael

Here is a link that might be useful: Pottery Barn

One day, this will be my message/bill paying/recipe surfing center--LOL!

So far, we've purchased the cork tiles for the backsplash and a magnetic chalkboard from Ikea. We need to remove the water line from the old fridge, prime & paint cabs, and maybe install a light over the desk area.

Believe me, even in its current state, it's an improvement over what used to be there:

Julie, I love your chalkboard! Would you mind giving me some details? I've been looking for a way to incorporate a magnetic chalkboard into the design, and that is just so nice! Did you have it made, was it an option with your cabinet maker, from Ikea or somewhere else? How big is it?

LOVE the message, Julie! ;>

Thank you for the compliments! The chalkboard area was in our architectural plans,per our request, and our contractor put it all together. They started the project by framing it in with crown molding to match what is over our doors and windows. Then they glued a very pristine (no ripples, marks) piece of sheet metal inside the frame and then paintd it with chalkboard paint. The chalkboard area is 56" x 28". My kids are now 22 & 25. I wish we would've had this when they were home and in school. It is so convenient! I keep a perpetual shopping list on is as well as our calendar, invites, etc. I am always changing the saying. Right now it says "it all began because two people fell in love".

Here's mine:

Cabinet is 36W x 18D. I really like the 18" deep so everything is in easy reach. The drawers are jsut deep enough also.

This idea isn't mine but something I found long ago while "googling". This would work if you have limited space.

{{!gwi}}

Julie, I know it's been years now :) but I found this post and was hoping u could repost the photo of ur magnetic chalkboard...(photo not working)
We have been trying to explain this to our contractor :) many thanks!!