Not So Muddy Mud Room

Sorry for the influx of room reveal posts as of late.  I guess when it rains, it pours, and a lot of our projects that we had been working on simultaneously seemed to conclude at about the same time (I think the pressure of a new baby had something to do with that)...plus, it took me awhile to write about some of them.  Like this one, which we actually finished right before Thanksgiving!  Oh well, I'm getting to it now, right?  Let me explain...
When we converted our guest room to Colton's big boy room, we also lost our coat closet.  So in between setting up a toddler room, a nursery, hosting Thanksgiving, and then getting ready for the winter holidays, we also took on the task of creating a mud room of sorts...oh, the joys of being an avid DIYer with a baby on the way to kick your arse into gear!
To give you some perspective, I probably should explain a bit about our house's layout first.  There is really no space at the front entrance for much coat storage.  We do have a hook for each of us there where we store purses/diaper bags/leash and maybe a coat or two that is used daily, but that is pretty much all the clutter that space can accommodate.  Luckily, though, we do have a back door area where a garage had formerly been converted to a room (which we use as our playroom) and laundry closet.  In between there is a hallway which we are now using as our mud room. I'll go ahead and show you the fun after shots and then let you in on the details:

I started off converting the space by adding some fun stripes to it (you can read more about that process here if you're interested).  Next, we scored a little bit of luck when Josh spotted this bench just hanging out in our shed.

Enter a sample size can of Martha Stewart's Aegean Blue ($2), and a couple of coats later, our bench was pretty and functional!
To deal with the coat storage, we just used a 1x8x6 board and painted it the same Aegean Blue (I ended up needing to pick up a second $2 sample can, but still!).  Once the board was the lovely blue, we headed out to pick up some hooks (about $3.50 each) and Josh drilled/screwed them into place.  He, then, was able to attach it to the wall...and voila, we have coat storage!
Pretty simple and affordable fixes to transform a little hallway into a "mud room."   I'd still like to add a cushion and/or pillows to the bench and eventually some cabinetry above the hooks, and even further down the road, some baskets of some sort near the back door for the boys to store their outdoor toys... but those projects will probably have to wait for awhile!
For now, though,  I am happy with it...if we can manage to keep it clutter-free!