Mudroom Lockers

Hello and welcome back,

I can’t believe it’s been 3 months since I posted any projects but let me tell you I’ve definitely been busy! When we were shopping for a home I saw many builders who were building those laundry room lockers. I thought to myself, “what a great idea, it removes clutter, a place for kiddos to put their coats and shoes and backpacks, a drop stop, as we call it in our home.” I wanted one but the home we chose didn’t allow us that option. 

See!! Neat and organized!! If there’s one thing I can’t stand it’s clutter, it literally makes me feel like I can’t breath. Even my kitchen counter, I don’t want a coffee pot or toaster resting on it. And since my wonderful dear children stepped into the scene they’ve been using the 2”x4” spot in front of ANY entry door as the “drop spot.” I’ve instructed them, showed them, explained to them, quizzed them, tried the reward system, threatened, begged, pleaded, and even used sarcasm asking them once, “so how’d you all get away from the man with the gun?” (With inquisitive looks on their little faces) they asked, “what man mommy?” I said “the man who obviously was standing near the front door and ordered you to DROP IT!” Even if they come in at different times, the first one will drop whatever gear they haul home and this could be a wide array of things, from backpacks, boots, hats, toys, art supplies, neighbors flowers from their flower bed (we’ve had that talk) even a real life mud pie, Yay goody, 👎🏼 and one by one they all file in and push the door making them a nice little path. Sometimes Gianna, my youngest and smallest of the crew will actually grunt using all her strength to push a path through the drop stop yet she too, drops her loot right there! After baths and reading is done and kids are in bed I usually find this;

That’s a beach towel!!! It’s 28 degrees out and that’s one of my beach towels!! SMH

And I’m pretty sure that’s a pumpkin pie can and my can opener?? I don’t even have a follow up comment to that. Most of the time I find it best if I just don’t ask.

So I started to envision a beautiful locker system in my garage. I have a small platform that is lifted 4-5” off the floor in front of my entry door into the house from the garage. It’s about 5’ x 10’ and I thought that’ll be a perfect place. 

But like most of my ideas, my husband says I always have this Norman Rockwall painting scene in my head but it usually ends up more like a Nightmare on Elm Street scene, there’s sweating, screaming, running, and crying. For the most part he’s right, yet somehow I convince myself that this time will be different. 

So I got to work, scrolled through plans on the internet and came across Pete’s DIY. Here’s the link to his hitch plans that I used https://www.diypete.com/how-to-build-a-hutch/ 

I altered it a little here and there, like I added some small cheap 1/4” trim to the sides and used some extra wood to add a crown-like top. 

Trim pieces (above) that I used for the sides

The first part of the plan was to build the bench. I had my friends at Home Dept cut down 2 pieces of high quality plywood. Smooth and soft. 

I laid the bench on some 2x4s I had in the garage so I could put the top, bottom and sides on the bench without scraping the top on the garage floor.

The piece it huge!! But I wanted 5-6 locker slots for my large family. 

Once that was together I carefully measured out how far away each slot needed to be. 

                                   🚨 NEWBIE ALERT 🚨 

Remember to take into account the thickness of the slots in making sure they are equal distance. I didn’t factor that in and couldn’t understand why in the world when I got to the end my 5th locker was almost twice as wide. 

Once I got them evenly spaced (or close enough) I covered the bench in plastic leaving only the top of it exposed. I went back and force about whether to keep the whole bench white or stain the seat of the bench and in the end I’m so happy I used stain. I’m completely in love with the color. I used Min-wax Dark Walnut. I did two coats, once dry I then used polyurethane and lightly sanded with a high grade 320 sand paper and my sander. It was smooth, but I wanted super smooth, so I did another coat of the polyurethane and resanded!! That baby was so smooth if I propped one side up just a small amount you’d slide right the heck off!! 

Next up I went through and used wood putty/filler on all the nail holes and sanded smooth once it was dry.

Once it was sanded and smooth I went ahead and painted the bench and moved it in place, something told me it was gonna be heavy once I had the locker section built and on top.

I found the baskets at Target, they fit perfectly and were very durable, I believe I paid about $20 per basket. My local Target was short one basket so I waited a few weeks and kept checking anytime I ran to Target. I could have just as easily  ordered that last one online or check another Target but I knew I wasn't going to be done building the locker portion for a few weeks so I wasn't in any hurry.

So off we go, onto the locker section. This wasn't as hard as I assumed it would be,

I enlisted some help from my son Nic, who wants to be an architect, which was actually a great idea because at 10 years old he has way better math skills than his mother!!  

I used my trusty Kreg-Jig (one of the best purchases I've made in my woodworking venture) I was able to join them together pretty well building all the spaces I needed.

I trusted Nic completely on his math skills, but one thing I know about my son, he is so convincing at times he's actually very very wrong. I don't believe it's due to trickery, more like, he too is completely convinced himself, and he convinces you he is correct, (maybe he should get into politics) so I wanted to double check OUR his measurements by placing the lockers up on the bench.

Once I knew my son was gonna make one heck of an architect because his measurements were spot on, I went ahead and took it off the bench and started the detail work. 

This process I basically “winged it” by adding trim to parts that I thought looked good and then painting the entire piece. 

For the sides (pictured above) 
I used the thin pieces of pre cut strips you can find at Home Depot, I also pictured them above with the SKU sticker. It says Poplar .25" x 2.5" x 48" now they do come in smaller than 48" strips as well.


For the top of the locker portion (pictured below) I layered a 

1x2 “flat” 

1x6 vertically

A piece of random door jam trim (Home Depot calls it lattice)

1x3 vertically 

And I finished it off with another 1x2 laying flat

Here's some close up pictures of the top portion on trim and a back side picture to see how I attached them I used my kreg jig and liquid nails.










For the back I got a sheet of white paneling and attached it with heavy duty staples. The hooks I simply found a set of 6 that I liked, centered them up to each locker and called it a day!








You may notice originally I had the baskets on the bottom thinking it would give my children (and husband) easy access to put their shoes in them so they'd be nicely hidden, then I remembered whose children and husband I was thinking about and realized that was expecting far too much. LOL
So after a short trial I realized moving the baskets on top would work better. The kids put misc. school papers, books, water bottles and lunch bags in them so after everyone is in bed I am able to find everything needed for the next day in one safe spot.








See!!! Perfection!!! Look how pretty and organized that looks,












So I've been asked now that my locker system is almost a year old how it's working out.




You, tell me,,,,,,,






Thanks for stopping by the LOUDEST HOUSE ON THE LEFT!!!!

Barn Door from Scratch

个个↑↑↑↑↑Sadly I didn't take a lot of pictures during this process. To be honest I wasn't thinking I'd pull it off. I couldn't of followed an easier blue print, thanks to this amazing blog, by Jenna Sue Design Co.
Here's her link to her instructions, Jenna Sue Design Co. Barn Door DIY they are amazing and super easy. In fact I plan on coming back to this page because she explains how she made two smaller doors as well and I want to follow those for my master bathroom doors. Yet I still doub. Did I mention I barely passed any math class my entire school career. I am sure in later posts as this goes on I will be more confident and less doubtful of my skills, but I really was unsure whether I would build from scratch, find an antique door at a salvage yard or buy a new interior door and throw some barn door hardware up and call it good. As I debated I decided no matter what route I went I needed to pull off my trim and replace it with the new craftsman style I was "crafting" from scratch (pun totally intended) So with my trusty spackle knife, hammer and razor blade and went to work with shear panic and shaky hands.

I wasn't sure this was how it looked under framework, I had never seen any of this before, but it was safe to say I was in too deep to stop here. When I took my door off I used wood putty to fill where the hinges sat and the door jam.

You can buy it at Home Depot here,
Home Depot Wood Filler

 I planned to let it sit until I had put my new trim up and sand it all at once. I have found in my venture that sanding not only sucks, but is also extremely messy. This part of the job would have to be done within my house which meant I would have more filth and dirt and dust than my usual amount with kids and dogs and I didn't want to clean every time I sanded a section, so I went into the plan thinking, "I'll just do it all at together when the whole job is done and ready to paint." I found that may have screwed things up for me later on I will go into that with more detail.

So once the trim was off I was looking at the actual door opening and noticed a small chunk of wood running vertically, i.e. door shoe, door stop, lattice I've heard it called all those things. It's basically what stops the door in place. Now this may seem extremely naïve but I truly didn't know it was a separate piece within the door frame. For all I knew door frames came with them. But I was feeling like gambling. And what'd-ya-know? It came off with great ease. I filled all the holes and sanded some more to smooth things out. Once I had the opening I got to work on my barn door.

Inspirational Photo 👊

My barn door actually went amazingly well,,,,,in the beginning. Like I said earlier, I ran into a few mishaps and spent days  weeks, ok, ok almost a month on the door, but to my defense I actually built the doorm rebuilt it again, sanded it, painted it, cut it down, resanded it, repainted it, and attached the hardware twice. I wish I would have taken more pictures throughout the process to show you my mistakes to avoid you making the same ones. 

I followed the plans, which I still swear are so easy anyone can build this thing. My hurdles were completely my fault. My first wrong turn was my 1 x 4's we not straight. I didn't even think of making sure that they were when I picked them out at Home Depot. That's a rookie mistake. That could of been an easier fix had I spent the money on a simple, yet beauitful tool called The Kreg Jig! It's a joining tool, simple in design and more effiecient for "newbies" like me. You can get it at any hardware store, my Home Depot didn't have them in stock but you can order it online from them here, Home Depot Kreg Jig or from their awesome website Kreg Jigs.

After I had all the boards together, one board bowed out more than the others. I was going for a smooth, clean cut line look on my door. I didn't want the weathered worn look like my plank wall, so the fact that one board came forward more than the others drove me insane, well, not at first. My "newbie" brain kept telling myself "after alittle sanding it will blend right in and you wont be able to even see it." WRONG

 NEWBIE LESSON- you can't sand uneven to even if it's noticable with the naked eye

It stuck out like a sore thumb with a wart! This is where I wish I had taken pictures because in my head I believed I had sanded enough and adding paint will help blend it. As you can see, it didn't. I got the same color, brand and sheen as my trim so it would match.

NEWBIE LESSON- Glossy paint will amplify any and all imperfections. 

So I completely resanded all the paint off and stripped the door down so clean it was back to the bare wood. I then repainted it. I came to term with the eye sore uneven plank. A Kreg Jig could of helped pull it into allignment better by putting a joint or two on that plank pulling it even, but I didn't have my Kreg Jig yet, so I measured and drilled the holes for the hardware on the door. I purchased the hardware at my local Home Depot, Barn Door Track Set. I bought a handle separtately, I think it was $9.99. Plank pretruding or not I felt justified. I felt amazingly accomplished at the fact that I built this door from scratch and it looked pretty darn good after all. I ran in and measured the 72" for the track and followed the instructions to a tee. I used my level to make sure as I bolted it into my 1 x 4" I had already attached to the studs in my wall. 

It seemed to go up smooth and instructions were easy enough to follow. Which at this point I felt I deserved because of the hassle I forged through to get to this point.

Because the door is made from scratch, from real hardwood it was heavy, extremely heavy and solid. I hollered for my husband to come help me lift it in from the garage. Side stepping through the entry door. On the count of 3 we hoisted up the door and set the wheels on the bar. I felt like a kid at Christmas, my husband stepped back away from the now hanging door and I stood there confused for a moment. The door was on the bar, the bar was attached firmly to the wall, but something didnt feel right. It didn't feel like it was hanging. I stepped back letting my grip on the door go and looked down. It was on the bar, only it was at a 45 degree angle and NOT hanging. The door was about an inch and a half too long. My husband says, "womp, womp, womp womp,' in the Price Is Right failed melody. After I got my breath back from the punch in the gut feeling I had, I had a quick thought of making it look rustic by bringing into the backyard, beating the hell out of it and kicking it. 

Instead I yanked it back into the garage insisting on doing it alone. I threw it up on my work table (poker table covered in Monster High hot pink sheets,) agressively grabbed my circular saw and carlessly cut across the bottom without any measurements or straight lines. Wood chunks were flying, sparks were everywhere and the sound was ear piercing before I realized I broke another blade by sawing through screws and nails I used to put the door together.

My saw stopped before I could get a line across and left a chunk, I took a hammer and beat the hell out of it.

NEWBIE LESSON- Dont lose your shit while using power tools.

My hot headedness and frustration technique actually worked. It wasn't pretty but it served it's purpose. Somehow I still had the strength of many and carried that door back in by myself and hung!!!! It actually hung on it's own, and it slid, just like it was suppose to. I swear I heard angels singing in my head! It was a beautiful moment,

UNTIL.......

I rolled it all the way to the left and looked, well, it's crooked, it's top half is leaning forward. I stood there for a moment seriously considering whether I could live with it because that this point I was mentally done with Project Barn Door. Slowly the door started to roll closed on it's own, well that's convenient! LOL Aside from an automata tic closing barn door was the added eye sore of it being noticeably worse when it was in the closed position, it was definitely crooked, and very badly I might add. So I go into the laundry room and slide it open, (maybe if it's opened from the other side it will magically be level.) I swear I made sure that track was even, straight and level at least twice, but apparently my head was cocked to one side, (probably doing math measurements in my head) Either way the fairy dust was not on my side because standing inside my laundry room the door still closed on it's own.

And then I noticed, well, I don't have a handle to open it from the inside. A small detail I apparently overlooked. It wasn't all that big of a deal considering it's not a "latched" door so it's not that anyone would ever get stuck, but definitely one I needed to rectify at some point and considering I obviously was going to need to take the door down to level out the track bar I figured what better time.

STRUGGLE!😭

So after a few deep breathing exercises I leveled out the track, realigned the wheel brackets, filled the previous bracket holes and repainted that area of the door. And?

VOILA

Perfection

I cant believe I pulled this off, overall I am thrilled with the results and can say with great certainty: this will not be the last barn door in my house that I make. Loved it.

I even chiseled out a small measured area that I traced with a pencil for the backside of the door handle. then used a small soft rubber mallet to pound it in place. As they say in Rome, "Perfetto!"

There are a  few slight rough patches, a slip of the chisel here, a twist of the wrist there, etc.

caused my grip to slip on occasion but after all the rest of the goof-ups I made I decided to pick and choose my battles and live with that.

Okay, so now back to the beginning. Remember these pictures? Remember when I said this ended up being the biggest uphill climb of the whole project. These came off so easy and I was so happy. I assumed "how hard can it be? I can replace this trim with nice square cornered trip, a little wood putty and some trim paint and I have Craftsman Style trim up,, in less than a day!" I was so so so wrong. 

So a few things went wrong in this process, first I put way to much faith into wood putty. I lobbed it on like a 1st grader with Elmer's paste in art class. I waited days to sand it and I assumed it would blend well. Bad! all bad choices. I will have to redo this process with some thin wood planks.