Down Mulberry Lane

Our improved entry room...

This was our recent project that we completed.  I don't have before pictures.  Dh got moving on the project before I really knew we were beginning. 

This is the entry room.  This was our kitchen when we first moved into the house.  It had an old metal sink and a small 3 foot by 2 foot counter to mix things on.... When we remodeled nearly 11 years ago, we moved the kitchen to a slightly bigger room.  Since then this room has been everything under the sun.  For this project Dh built the lower countertop with the cupboards beneath them.  The countertop was a 7.5 foot remnant that he got for less than $14, I think.  The wood was wood we recently picked up as a factory was closing down and they offered my fil the wood if he wanted... to them it was scrap wood, but it worked just fine for us.  We painted the cupboards the navy blue to match the wallpaper we already had up.  And we painted the doors a cream color and the knobs are just stained like the rest of the woodwork. 

This is our entry room and you will notice the boots on the plastic on the floor.  In a farm house, a room like this is definately needed.  Doing farm chores and having a place to drop the boots to dry... and not to track them into the house, well... I used to get upset, I think it looks messy, but my next door neighbor always comes over and says... I love your mudroom, it is such a blessing to have one of these in the house... every farm needs one... She was training me, I now know to love my home and it's way of dealing with the messy farm stuff. 

Anyways, the counter was short enough to fit two cans to hold pop cans and bottles in them.  You can't see the main entrance door, it is to the right of this doorway I took the picture through.  In front of the recycle cans there is a tiled area that comes straight out from the front door.  The small fridge is holding our eggs from our chickens.  You can see some spare cartons on top of the fridge and the cardboard boxes are just empty... I am still digging out and hope to use these to move things out of the house.  I guess the bottom cardboard box is holding the main supply of egg cartons...  the three silver stacking boxes are going to be used somehow, just not sure how yet.  Dh brought home the chickens from the butcher in those. 

This is looking straight onto the new lower cupboards.  It works very well with the upper cupboards.  Everything else that has been under them has stuck out so far that I, being short, struggled with using the upper cupboards cuz I'm not elastic woman!  I was so thrilled when putting things away realizing I could now reach into these cupboards without a step stool! 

You can see pretty much the arrangement... I have from the left... a breadmachine with my grinder behind it.  Another bread machine (and yes I use both at the same time OFTEN!), my bosch mixer with potato water and boiled potates in front of it.  In front of the window is a breakfast tray filled with teas, cocoas, and assorted extras.  I found this handy to have out as it makes others more at ease with having a beverage when they can see it is out and they have "choices"  LOL.   The teenagers that visit like it and help themselves.  Lastly is the huge roll of industrial plastic wrap. LOL.  Thanks to Sam's Club for offering something so large!  It doesn't fit anywhere else and isn't handy to grab it in and out so on the counter it will sit. 

My little one helped decorate for Christmas.  She especially likes the jeweled candy decorations on the lower right cupboard doors. 

This is the last picture.  This is taken from the other side of the room.  (This isn't a very large room).  The three-doored storage area is my pantry area.  The last cupboard holds my brooms and cleaning supplies as well as canned goods near the top (They go nearly to the ceiling, hence the need for a step-stool!).  The wall to the left got painted to match the kitchen which is next to this room.  A door is just to the left of the picture entering the kitchen... the doorway that I took the first picture out of.   I had to paint this wall since my little one had decided to strip the wallpaper off the wall one day last year.  I just painted it a few days ago.  I still had leftover paint from the kitchen, so it was fine... a little thick, but enough to cover the wall. 

The door on the right of this picture is to my appliance pantry.  This is actually underneath our upstairs stairway, so it isn't a great space.  But there is shelving inside to store my crockpots, ice cream maker, waffle irons, etc.  My tupperware sits in two boxes on the floor in this little pantry area.  When we moved in this was my ONLY space for storing food.  I feel blessed!  To the right of this door is another door, which leads to our basemen and another outside door, depending on which way you turn after going down three steps. 

Our last bit of the project still undone is the inside of the pantry cupboards.  We decided to put some coat racks in the other two using the same space as the broom storage in the third cupboard.  But, right now they are full of food.  If I go reorganize tonight, I may clear up one side enough to at least fit one hanging pole into it.  We figured each door would hold 3-4 coats.  With 6 in the family and 5 also having barn coats... I'll still need some more storage, but this will be better than having nothing to hang coats from.  I'm still looking for other possibilities.  We tried hooks on the wall, but the coats never stayed up.... although the rack held hooks too close together and the hooks were not very large.  I was out today and saw some nice big hooks and I'm thinking hooks may work if we space them far enough apart... they would have to go on the wall where the silver boxes were stacked... I'll keep thinking about it and pray about it until we make the final decision.  Either way we have to buy the hanging poles or the hooks... so it's just to decide which will work best. 

Well, that's our entry room. 

Warmly, ~Melissa

PS... These other pictures will be deleted for picture space later, but they might help round out the rest of the room...

Front door to the very right, with a hose and a bell hanging on it.  (I love bells on our outside doors!   No surprise visitors!... people always walk right in in the country!) Bottles are overflowing!  Kids just had some friends over this past weekend. 

The basement door is where the cat is.  (The cats name is Snickers).

The front door and the kitchen door.  (that bucket to the right holds flour). 

The front door to the right of the new lower cupboard.