Mud room’s décor depends on family’s habits

Not so long ago, most professional designers were quick to dismiss the notion of regional design. The thinking was that if a design looked good in one locale, it would look good anywhere.

That attitude stands exposed today as a fallacy. Many publications now feature all sorts of regional designs -- from farmhouse to urban to coastal. And these distinctions do make sense because certain looks have indeed long been identified with particular parts of the country.

Trouble arises, however, when a design rooted in one region gets transposed onto another. The result can be as awkward as situating a Cape Cod saltbox in the desert or a ski chalet in Miami Beach.

Appropriate design starts with an understanding of an interior's geographic associations as well as its intended function. If you still insist on giving a mountain retreat an art deco motif, it's your taste that's being expressed and I'll respect your choice.

Just don't ask me for decorating ideas.

Q: We're enlarging an attached garage to create a mud room for our kids' sports equipment and foul-weather gear. It snows a lot where we live.

I want this new space, which will connect to the kitchen, to be more a part of the house than the garage. But my husband says the inevitable mess in the mud room will spill into the kitchen, wrecking its floor and wallpaper, unless the two spaces are strictly separated.

What do you think?

A: Your kids' personal habits and their actual use of the mud room will probably matter more than the physical location of your home. But since you get a lot snow, the new space is sure to be literally caked with mud, and that will make a difference in its design.

I'd go with an indoor/outdoor type of carpeting. Besides having practical advantages, it will give the room a welcoming quality -- which is consistent with your aim of integrating the addition with the rest of your home.

Your husband might still be right, however. It all depends on whether you have a neat and well-trained family.

Either way, consider installing drywall and covering it with a vinyl-coated wallpaper.

Storage space is vital in a mud room, and versatility is a virtue for any storage system. Something like the built-in unit shown in the accompanying photo would be a smart choice. As you can see, it combines cubbies, open shelves and hanging hooks.

This example does look like it fits more with a garage than with a living space. Your husband would probably prefer it for that reason. But the space could be domesticated a bit by painting the cinder-block walls in a warm color and by installing a bright indoor/outdoor carpet. The storage unit could also be equipped with doors and drawers to conceal all the gear seen here.

The photo comes from "The Farmhouse," a Taunton Press book with plenty of sensible suggestions for designing a home in a rural setting. Author Jean Rehkamp Larson pays attention to aesthetic as well as functional factors, although the no-nonsense approach taken here may seem too utilitarian for your taste.

Rita St. Clair is a syndicated columnist with Tribune Media Services Inc. E-mail general interior design questions to her at rsca@ritastclair.com.