Planning for the future is important when designing a project.

A previous client had moved and contacted me to create a mudroom area in their new home. They wanted to use a space that was an extension of the kitchen for the mudroom; however, their refrigerator is currently housed there. As part of a future renovation, the fridge will move elsewhere, freeing up space for a larger mudroom.

In this current phase of the project, I removed the original cabinetry, swapped the radiator out for a shorter, lowboy unit, and then built these lockers with a black walnut benchtop, stopping just short of the fridge.

When creating the benchtop for this project, I fabricated one large enough for the entire future space and cut it to length to accommodate the fridge. The remaining section of the benchtop slab will live in my shop until it’s time for Phase II, when I’ll join the two sections back together again. By taking that approach, I’ll be able to line all the wood grain up nicely, resulting in a more seamless finished product.

These multi-tiered hooks swivel open and provide a lot of options for hanging storage.

The original cabinetry and radiator cover that I removed.