Mudroom bench and lockers

What a mudroom bench and lockers include

A mudroom bench, a row of hooks and one bay per person is the whole arrangement. Mudroom lockers are that bay with finished end panels and a shelf over the top. A cubby is an open box one pair of boots wide. Boots, coats and bags come in wet, so your bench, the floor under it and the finish all have to take it.

Say how many people use that door every day. That number decides how many bays you need, more than the size of your room does.

• A bench you can sit on to lace up
• Hooks at the height the kids reach
• Somewhere wet boots can drip

Choosing hooks or hangers sets your mudroom depth

Hooks or hangers comes first, and it sets the depth of your whole run. A coat on a hook hangs flat and needs 15 to 18 inches. On a hanger it turns sideways and needs 22 to 24, that's a wardrobe, and wardrobe doors foul a back hall. Mudroom cabinets are shallow on purpose.

Cabinet doors come second. Arriving with full hands, nobody opens one, so it stands open for good. Doors do hide the mess though, so the usual answer is a mix, open where things land daily and doors on the tall bay for the seasonal gear. Third is the entry. It's the door your household actually comes in by, in most houses the garage door rather than the front one, and the run belongs there.

How a mudroom gets measured, made and fitted

It starts with your room measured properly, wall, floor and the walkway that stays clear once the run is in. Then a drawing, each bay labelled with its owner and the hook heights marked, signed off before anything is made.

Then the mudroom cabinets get made, delivered and fitted. A built-in run gets screwed through its back into studs and blocking, a bench takes an adult dropping onto it, and it gets scribed where the wall isn't plumb. A freestanding hall tree just gets set against your wall.

What to settle before you order

Twelve inches sounds generous until your winter coats go in, then nothing hangs straight, so size each bay for a parka. Hooks at adult height are hooks your children can't reach, so the coats end up on the floor anyway. Two heights is a decision, not a default.

Leave a gap between your hooks and seat, or a wet coat drips onto the only dry place to sit. Put a spirit level on the wall where the tall bay goes, any lean shows as daylight beside the end panel.

Mudroom run depth and walkway clearance

Your mudroom is the route from the garage door into the house, often one wall of a back hall, so every inch of depth comes off the walkway. Eighteen inches of mudroom lockers off a 60-inch passage leaves 42, room for two to pass. Off a 48-inch passage it leaves 30, a squeeze.

Keep 36 inches clear, 42 to 48 where you pass somebody pulling off boots. Then swing the door on your drawing, a mudroom bench the door crosses is a bench nobody sits on.

Mudroom, closet or laundry room

If your coats are going on hangers behind doors, it's a wardrobe you want, and that's closets. If the cabinets are going round your washer and dryer, that's the laundry room. If it's the door your household actually uses, boots coming off and bags landing, this is your page. Older houses in Hillsborough often leave a narrow back hall between garage and kitchen, and a shallow hook wall with a bench fits where lockers won't.