A mudroom locker is a beautiful storage piece that helps transform your home with simple organization. With this woodwork in your home, you have a place to keep your shoes, jacket, socks, backpacks, etc., and you can easily pick them up if you are heading out.
As complex as the mudroom locker may seem, it’s good to know you don’t need an expert the build it. In this guide, we’ll show you the basic DIY process to build your customized mudroom locker with all the necessary materials for the procedure.
Step by Step Guide to Build Your Mudroom Locker
Table of Contents
Building your home mudroom locker requires simple steps with a few handy tools and materials. Below are your needed tools and materials (depending on your design choice).
Tools
- Table saw
- Hammer
- Milter saw
- Sandpaper
- Measuring tape
- Cordless drill
- Pry bar
- Level
Materials
- 3/4′ Plywood
- Wood gum
- Paint
- Paint primer
- Finish nail
With these materials and tools, you can now proceed to build your mudroom locker with the simple steps below:
1. Research your desired Design
There are different forms of mudroom lockers depending on individual aesthetics, locker size, and space.
Some mudroom lockers have drawers, some basket space, some coat hangers, some dividers, and other different forms of designs. Therefore finding the right design for your space and personal aesthetic is important.
Thankfully, there are different photo and design websites, including Pinterest, FreePik, and Houzz. You can check various designs and save your chosen image (s).
After deciding on your chosen design, I advise you to sketch the design to make your work much easier and know other materials you may need aside from the ones listed above.
Note: The size of your mudroom locker depends on the space you want to install the locker in your home. There’s no standard size for a mudroom locker.
2. Prepare your Space and Make Wood Cuts and holes
Preparing the locker space involves removing the baseboard trim, carpets, or other materials. Also, you may need to repair the floor if damaged or fill it to level the floor. A leveled floor ensures the locker is balanced and fitted.
After preparing the area, the next thing is to measure the area or determine how wide and high you want to install the locker. With the size, you will cut wood, make drills at exact points, and sand the wood to smoothen the edges. This way, you can quickly assemble the woods to build the locker.
Note: Ensure you measure the wood at least twice to confirm the size before you cut it. Also, ensure the space measurement is accurate to fit the locker.
3. Build the Locker Base
The base is one of the crucial parts of the mudroom locker as it supports the weight of the whole body and the people’s weight. Therefore the base locker must be strong enough and withstand heavy weight.
To assemble the wood to build the locker base, follow the steps below:
- Attach the sides of the base 3/4′ plywood and install it in the space you’ve provided. You may also nail the sides to the wall to ensure it is fitted to the wall
- Next is to construct the shoe compartment in the base by dividing the space with planks into your desired size. Attach the divider to the base plank with sufficient wood gum or nail them together
- Connect the wooden dividers at the top end with a 1×2 piece of wood
- Nail a 1×2 piece of wood to the front of each divider
- Once the divider pieces of wood are well fitted, place a 3/4″ plywood on the divider space to make the seat. You can double the 3/4″ plywood by gumming the surface or nailing them together to improve strength when people sit on it.
4. Install the Vertical Shiplap
On the wall you want to place your mudroom locker on, install a vertical shiplap to form the backside of the vertical space. The shiplap provides a place to screw/nail/gum the side pieces of plywood and divider plywood.
Also, you can attach coat hangers on the shiplap wall or any other form of hooks to hang your jackets.
5. Build the Vertical Locker Space
A typical mudroom locker has an open space above the base compartment. You may decide to divide the space into different compartments. Also, to each compartment, you may add a door which often may be unnecessary. Follow the steps below to build the vertical space:
- Determine how deep you want your locker to be before cutting the wood for the locker space
- Attach the wood to two sides of the locker base you build earlier. Attach the wood to the locker base with nails or sufficient wood gum or both to hold it firm. Also, you should nail the side planks to the wall.
- If you want to divide the vertical locker space into compartments, use pieces of plywood similar in depth to those on the sides. Attach the plywood to the base as previously stated
- Place some pieces of wood between the compartments. The wood piece help to hold the wood dividers firmly
6. Build the upper locker
Above the locker divider, place a 3/4″ plywood to cover the compartments. Attach the upper locker to the shiplap, plywood dividers, and locker side plywood with nail and wood gum to ensure it is firm.
The upper locker protects and holds the divider pieces of plywood. In addition, it creates a connection between the plywood dividers.
On top of the locker, you can create extra shelves to keep things. If you want to build upper shelves, follow the steps below:
- Attach pieces of plywood to the sides of the vertical locker space on the upper lock with nail/screw/gum. The pieces of plywood form another compartment on the upper locker
- Divide the upper space into different compartments. The dividers should be of your desired depth and length
- Cover the top of the top shelves with 3/4″ plywood. Attach cover plywood to the divider plywood with nail/screw/wood gum
7. Finishing and paint
To finish the construction, add pieces of 1×2 flat wood in front of the locker plywood to give extra thickness. Also, fill the holes on the locker and further sand the pieces of plywood with sandpaper to smoothen the surface.
Now you can further paint the mudroom locker with paint primers. Allow the primer to dry, and proceed to paint the locker with your desired paint color.
Conclusion
Your mudroom locker doesn’t only offer more storage place in your home. It aids your home organization. This is because you can keep backpacks, jackets, shoes, and baskets that mostly litter home in different locker cabinets.
Therefore, owning a mudroom in your home is essential. And you don’t need to spend several bucks to purchase one. Follow the basic DIY process in this guide to build your homemade mudroom locker.
Contact us for more information about mudroom lockers and other basic DIY processes.
