Instant Mudroom and Mini Bar

Create two essential areas in your home instantly; a mud room and mini bar. Both can be yours with a quick trip to IKEA using my favorite Expedit bookcases (see previous toy storage post).

Mudroom: I created this mud room with two IKEA Expedit bookcases ($69) and an IKEA Hemnes TV Stand ($169) in the center. I ordered the white peg hooks from Peg and Rail (white 58″x4.5″-10 peg) to hang coats.  The boys keep their socks in the drawers of the”bench” so they don’t have to go back upstairs to get the socks they forgot to put on before their shoes. Baskets from IKEA and bins from Container Store hold their hats and gloves.

Mini Bar: A fun website called IKEA Hackers can give you many ideas on how to take affordable IKEA furniture and recreate it to suit your needs. People post their projects, like this Mini Bar on wheels. Someone even figured out how to turn my fave Expedit bookcases into a Bed Frame for maximum storage!

Still not convinced you want IKEA furniture in your main living areas? O’verlays is a website that sells frette work designed to be applied easily to IKEA furniture. Turn plain furniture into designer pieces. I love O’verlay’s newest pattern Fiona on the IKEA Malm dresser.