The myth of the perfect mudroom

Those photo-worthy rooms are not reality.

While reviewing the transcripts for a magazine feature I am writing, I came across something that I’d skimmed right over during the interview. The architect, perhaps being a little more candid than usual because this was a house he’d designed for a family member, said:

“She's like everybody else, she sees the magazines with all the cool mudrooms—and those spaces look really sexy, but ultimately your kids just end up dropping their sh*t all over the place.”

In the recording you can hear me make a little guffaw when he says it, but he continues on and our conversation never looped back to this particular point because it went elsewhere. Rereading it in the transcript though, I laughed out loud in recognition of the truth of his statement. 

Then I immediately felt a pang of guilt because, um, those magazines he spoke of? I’m a part of the media that has propped up the fantasy of the perfect mudroom. And from what he and other architects have told me, this has become something homeowners are willing to spend considerable money to add to their homes. I suspect homeowners believe a mudroom is the solution to their organizing woes—an answer the heap of kid clutter that accumulates near the front door.

Consider this my official apology. I’d like to offer caution (and advice!) to all would-be mudroom renovators out there: