Rachel & Jared
Rachel & Jaz – The Design Brief Meeting
After my first meeting with Rachel, I returned to chat with her and her husband Jaz about the potential of doing a full kitchen renovation. They were both excited about the prospect of a brand new kitchen, but Rachel was concerned about having enough storage and suggested that the wall behind the kitchen be knocked down so that the expansive hallway could be incorporated as a butler’s pantry. Even though this was a great idea in theory, seeing the enormous hallway for the first time, and knowing that I would be able to achieve maximum storage with my kitchen design, I knew that this hallway was destined for something that was needed more than a butler’s pantry. A mudroom!
As the home was configured into separate wings for the children and the parents, and separated by a 10 metre long hallway between the front door/garage and the kid’s rooms, I immediately envisioned a better way to utilise the unused space that really didn’t serve any purpose at all and had become a dumping ground for storage.
This was a perfect opportunity to create a beautiful and functional space in the home, to serve as an inviting front entry, provide a connection to the rest of the home, and make a practical storage solution to cater to the needs of kids nearing school age.
Rachel and Jaz were really excited to include the mudroom into their renovation project and eager to transform the huge hallway into a space to help the kids keep their school things organised.
Location
Warner, Brisbane Northside, Qld
Focal Spaces
Mudroom Renovation
Design Package
Design & Concept Brief / Full-Service Design and Project Facilitation
Mudroom Brief
The Brief was to create not only a beautiful entry into the home, but also to incorporate practical storage and a functional area for the children to get ready for school or come home and unpack their school bags. A mudroom with cabinetry, baskets, hanging hooks and a bench seat to provide a much-needed area for the children to keep their school things organised and packed neatly away out of sight.
I suggested including a barn door as an ideal way to zone off the main entry from the mudroom, providing a practical yet stylish means to separate the two spaces and still in keeping with the overall look and feel of the home.
Mudroom Style & Colour Palette
I really wanted to introduce the theme of the modern farmhouse as soon as you enter the front door, so the terracotta floor tiles had to go! Yay…finally! I replaced them with beautiful 600 x600 travertine look porcelain tiles – easy to maintain, and definitely giving a farmhouse vibe.
The mudroom cabinetry doors with a profile and the addition of a VJ panel painted a subtle green at the back of the bench seat to give a bit of a country feel and brass handles to tie in with the green and brass finishes in the kitchen.
Mudroom Design
I wanted to create two distinctive spaces with two distinctive purposes out of the old hallway. The entry to the home – again with a bit of a modern farmhouse vibe, warm and inviting. The mudroom, separated from the entry and the main living areas by a VJ style barn door to reduce noise into the kid’s rooms and to hide away any clutter from being seen from the front door – providing much-needed storage for the kids and their belongings and a great place to keep notes from school or iPads for charging.
Their Feedback
Read what Rachel & Jaz had to say about their experience working with me …
“My wife or myself didn’t have the time to arrange a kitchen renovation with work and a young family.
So, we looked for a designer and Verona stood out.
We hired her for our job and….. WOW, she was great to deal with. Verona listened to us, gave us lots of information, which was great, and gave us ideas on things we hadn’t even thought about. She ran the whole show – from drawings, selections, quotes and dealing with trades. The design concepts and drawings she provided were very important. We love our new kitchen and mudroom – there’s plenty of storage and everything now has an easy flow.
We were very happy with Verona and would recommend to anyone we know to use Avid Interior Design for their renovation project.”
