Progress In the Entry

follow our mud room makeover from the beginning: part 1, part 2

So, after I told you how we got nothing done, Matt and I had a crazy work bee on Saturday and fed our kids cereal for dinner. Sometimes you just have days like that. Tensions mounted around dinner time when we all realized we were hungry. We stopped and fed the kiddos- after we put them all to bed I went to town with a paint brush!

The good news is that we made major progress in the entry by working hard for a day. We installed all the face frame trim, built 2 cabinet doors- and I was able to get 2 coats of primer on the doors and face frames.

Monday I caulked and primed the rest of the interior cabinets, and Tuesday I did 2 coats of Simply White on the doors and face frames. The power of trim and paint is quite remarkable!

We started by sturdy-ing up the top shelf which had started to sag a bit. We then trimmed all of the fronts out in 1×2 poplar.

Poplar 1x2 for face frames| This Mamas Dance

I forgot to take pictures before I started priming, but you get the idea. We wood glued, screwed and brad nailed the frames in place. Matt pre-drilled all of the holes before screwing and then I filled everything with wood filler and gave it a quick sand before priming with Killz.

Adding Poplar Face Frames to Plywood Cabinets| This Mamas Dance

adding face frames to built ins| This Mamas Dance

You’ll notice the back is just OSB. Thats because there used to be a deck where this mudroom is… it’s between the old and the new part of the house. We might cover it someday, but for now 2 coats of primer looks 1,000 times better!

primed built in cabinets, mud room| This Mamas Dance  Building Ply wood Cabinet Box| This Mamas Dance

I’m telling you, never underestimate the power of primer and CAULKING! Works miracles that stuff. You’ll notice I hadn’t gotten to the top yet- what a difference it makes when the little gaps and shadows are filled. After caulking I did a second coat of primer.

We also built doors for the first time- I’ll share the “how” at a later date- but let’s just say I am so thrilled with how they turned out. There was a moment when I thought these were going to be a complete disaster… I had all of the pine glued into one side of the poplar 1×3 frame- and I literally couldn’t get the other side into the groove on our boarder trim… if that makes any sense. But we did it, and they are just the look I wanted. 🙂 yay for ideas working!

We totally used our kitchen table as a work bench, because it was about -20 C outside. brrr.

DIY cabinet doors| This Mamas Dance

DIY cabinet doors 2| This Mamas Dance

They kind of remind me of a modern shutter.

Entry Progress | This Mamas Dance

This is the view through the dirty little window. It gives you an idea of the storage configuration. It’s tricky taking pictures in tiny rooms! Our entry has been blocked by a baby gate to keep the cat and little people from having a run in with wet paint!

Hopefully we will get the doors hung right away- just need to get hinges. I am so looking forward to getting everything put away, and having the doors closed on the rainbow of coats and outdoor gear! Little by little we are making progress, but Saturday was definitely a big day!

Hope you are having a lovely week-

Miss Ash

4 thoughts on “Progress In the Entry

  1. what a team you and Matt are!
    that’s a amazing result in a short amount of time, it looks fantastic!!!

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