Steve Kuhl has been designing, building, and renovating houses since he started his business, Kuhl Design & Build, in 1999. He has incorporated some pretty interesting elements into many of these homes, perhaps most notably a pirate ship–themed bedroom he designed and built for his nephew. When the time came for Kuhl to design and build the home he now shares with his family, he had a long list of fanciful yet functional touches to infuse it with whimsy and wonder.
Since just about every trip in or out of the house, especially when it includes young children and pets, involves some kind of baggage (and probably some dirt), Kuhl designed his mudroom to be a durable and well-organized repository for shoes, boots, coats, and backpacks. But he didn’t stop there. He also designed a mail-sorting station (which includes hidden mail cubbies and a file drawer for storing larger pieces of mail), a dog-watering station with two control valves, and a hidden dog-food drawer to keep the dish out of sight when not in use.
Such features make the mudroom functional, but where is the fanciful? You can’t see it when standing in the mudroom, but hidden behind a secret door is access to a twisting and turning 21-ft. tunnel slide to the basement. Not only do the children enjoy the quick trip from the mudroom to the lower-level playroom, but Kuhl says that they have also discovered it’s the quickest way to clear the mudroom of shoes.
Check out the slide show below…
Designer Steve Kuhl, Kuhl
Design & Build, Hopkins, Minn., kuhldesignbuild.com
Builder Kuhl Design & Build
Photographs and drawings courtesy of Kuhl Design & Build
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Mail call: Letters and bills can be tucked into cubbies until ready for processing. Larger pieces of mail can be contained in a file drawer below the desk.
(swipe left to see next slide)
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Mail call: With the drawer closed and the cubbies hidden behind the pull-down door, the mudroom stays neat and tidy. The top of the mail center is protected by a 1/4-in. piece of tempered glass with eased edges.
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The right materials: The mudroom’s lockers and closets are accessed easily from the garage and the kitchen, yet they are out of sight from public view.
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The right materials: The subtle pattern of the ceramic tile—installed over radiant-floor heat—helps hide tracked-in dirt. The window above the dog-watering station can be opened to provide ventilation.
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So doggone easy: The dog’s food dish is in the drawer adjacent to the watering station. Dog food is stored in a large bin directly above the drawer.
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So doggone easy: The dog’s water dish rests on a copper pan. One of two control valves for the water is recessed in the watering niche; the other is on the wall.
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Fun alert: What looks to be another storage cabinet is actually the hidden entrance to the slide from the mudroom to the basement playroom.
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Fun alert: “See ya later!”
View Comments
That's a very good combination between functionality and a space which is easily maintained in terms of cleanliness.
good
Does anyone know where I could find the copper pan/sink shown in the photo for the dog water station? Trying to incorporate this into my house. Thanks!