Building a Locker System

Our laundry room also serves as the mudroom.  It is in between the garage and the kitchen.  So it serves as a multipurpose dumping grounds. We have been intending on getting some more efficient storage in there for a long time. Here's what the area looked like before:

We had some hooks and such, but it was not working.  The bench was just a clutter pile, and you couldn't ever sit on it.  There were never enough hooks, and they were so close together, you couldn't use all the ones we had.  A locker system seemed to be the right fit for the space.


I was coming home (a day late) from a business trip, when Mollie got it in her head she wanted to build our locker system - we'd been talking about it for a while, but hadn't figured out the details.  After deciding on a plan, making measurements and some slight adjustments, she went online to Lowes.com and selected all the boards and accessories we would need. She ordered these for in store pickup, so when I got home from my trip, we headed over to Lowe's where all the boards were waiting for us.  Mollie had laid out the cut plans for the 4x8 sheets to get all the components.  Lowe's was super nice and made all the cuts for us.  And accurate cuts at that!  We came home, set up the boxes and got them nailed and glued together. We decided that instead of drawers underneath, we would just leave them as open compartments for putting shoes and boots in.  While Mollie loved the look of the drawers, we both decided they wouldn't be very practical.

We decided to try out using MDF for this project.  It turned out to be a real time saver.  It was really easy to work with, and we didn't miss the fussiness of real pine at all.  Each board was perfectly straight.  And PRIMED!  A big plus.  I just spend way too long sanding wood and preparing it for painting.   We also used bead-board for backing them, to add a little niceness.  These were pre-finished, so another great bonus.

Using my nail gun made it ultra fast.  Once the pieces are lined up, they can be fastened together in only a few seconds.  It is a pretty simple design.  The only hard part was putting the support on the back bead board so that we could install a coat hook.  The plans are a knock off of the Pottery Barn Brady Entry System.  A system, similar to what we built (+drawers) runs about $1400.  We spent about $200. So we feel like we saved a bundle doing it all ourselves.  We had it set up for a few days before we put the paint on.

We always dread the finishing part.  It never comes out quite as good as we would like.  I'm hoping, with some practice, we'll get better at the finishing part. But now that they are done, we are loving how they are keeping the mudroom organized.