Dog Leash Mudroom (quick weekend project)
Everyone who knows me, knows how much I adore dogs in general and our dogs in specific. Over ten years ago I adopted my first dog, Macchiato, and the family has grown since. I met my partner in life, Dan, and we adopted Biscotti and are now fostering our golden boy, Tucci.
With a third dog in the mix, our dog leash area got a little crowded and it was time for a redo. We keep the leashes on a pegboard in the garage, since that’s mostly how we get in and out of the house. It’s a nice way to keep clutter out of our own mudroom. Over the time we have started hanging up water bowls for hikes and we never have enough space to keep other things like poop bags and bug spray. So it was time to turn this area into a dog leash mudroom that offers more storage for the additional leashes and all the other supplies we like to keep handy.
For storage, I first added a cubby with compartments. This holds additional harnesses that we don’t use every day, car seat buckles, collapsable water bowls, treats (always keep them handy for recall!) and extra poop bags. And then I added a extra shelf to hold bug spray and also be an extra area to put a key or similar. The peg board is still there, I just moved it a little bit. And it wouldn’t be a full dog leash mudroom without some shiplap wall treatment!
As for materials, I had a lot of materials leftover from other projects, 5” scraps of plywood, a little bit of shiplap that I wasn’t quite sure what to do with - too little for an accent wall. And some extra paint that I honestly can’t even remember the original project from. Dan had been bugging me to throw out some cans of paint as leftovers keep accumulating in the garage, and this is a - HA! moment in which I can triumph “see, there WAS a use for it!”. This particular paint is from Ecos paint. I personally love using them as they are no VOC and even when used inside they don’t give me a headache as most other paints do.
For the shelf, I have four different pieces of wood. One is the shelf surface which is 3/4” plywood. I measured the width of the wall space I have and then subtracted the size of the side pieces. That gave me the length of the shelf board. The wall is 28 1/2” wide and the side pieces of wood are 3/4”. So that gave me a length of 27”. The depth of 5” seemed like a usable depth without taking too much space, so I cut the shelf piece to 27” x 4 1/4” (accounting for another 3/4” at the front to get to 5”).
That gave me these measurements for the side and front trim (all at 3/4” thick): 28 1/2” length for the front and 4 1/4” length for the sides (two pieces needed). For strength I decided to glue the pieces and also secure them with pocket holes. So I prepared the shelf board for pocket holes, then glued the side pieces on (using clamps for the drying process) and sealed it in with pocket screws.
To drill the holes for the pocket holes, I love using this Kreg jig. It’s so easy to use! Since I am using 3/4” thick wood, I set the drill bit to the 3/4 mark, place the wood into the jig - and that’s really all you need to drill the right hole. 1 1/4” pocket hole screws are the right ones to use for this project!
Once the shelf is done, I set this aside and get working on the cubby. It’s built in a very similar way to the shelf, only difference is that it has more height and instead of 3/4” thick side pieces, I am using larger pieces of 3/4” plywood. The cubby and peg rail are attached to one another, the peg rail is supporting the cubbies from below.
The cubby has the same depth as the shelf, so I cut another 27”x4 1/4” piece of plywood as the cubby shelf. For the sides, I cut two side pieces at 4 1/4”x5” (total height will be 5” and inside cubby height will be 4 1/4” since the bottom shelf is 3/4” thick), and one front piece at 28 1/2”x5”. Same as for the shelf, I’m going to glue and pocket-hole the sides to the bottom piece, so I prepare the bottom piece with pocket holes. I also glue on the separators that will create three distinct compartments in this cubby. These are two pieces that are 4 1/4”x4 1/4”.
And since I am working with plywood for the dog leash mudroom cubby, instead of solid wood, I apply some edge banding to hide the more unsightly edges of the plywood. I love using the edge banding that’s already pre-glued, so all I have to do is iron it on and cut off the excess.
As for the peg rail for this dog leash mudroom, I created a little L shape that I screwed at the bottom of the cubbies. It creates a ledge that I can secure / screw the cubbies on. I used glue and also secured it additionally with screws. Most of this ledge will be invisible under the cubbies.
For assembly, I started by drawing a horizontal line on the wall using a level. I used this as a visual guide where to align the bottom of the pegboard / cubby combo. I secured it to the wall by drilling the pegboard to the wall. It’s ideal if you have studs to screw into, if that’s not possible sinkers are second best.
I repeated the same step for the shelf, only it is attached to the wall in a different way. Since there is no ledge underneath the shelf, I drilled additional pocket holes facing the wall and used pocket screws to secure the shelf to the wall. I won’t be putting a huge amount of weight on this shelf, so this method serves me well.
To give this area the fully finished look of a dog leash mudroom, I applied some shiplap wall treatment, caulked all the corners and edges and painted it all in one cohesive color. Since this is a high traffic area right by the door to the house, this also holds the button to open the garage door and a motion sensor, so this meant doing a few extra cuts to accommodate for these switches. A lot of measuring twice to make sure I get it in the right spot!
I’m so glad I gave this area a little overhaul it much needed and deserved. I don’t know, can I use this as a sign that we should adopt and keep our foster dog? I mean, he really inspired this little weekend project… And who knew a garage could look this good!