Functionality: No Mud Room? Create an Organization Station
By Roger Hazard

An organization station can provide a home for your daily clutter.
The kitchen is the point of entry for most homes. For those of us without mudrooms, this means the kitchen becomes the default dumping ground for jackets, shoes, hats, book bags, and purses. If you don't have space to create a mudroom or closet, a custom organization station can be a highly functional, unobtrusive alternative.
Taking just a few linear feet of space, an organization station can be custom-designed to your kitchen's footprint and tailored to your family's unique needs. In some instances, the station can be fully or partially recessed into a wall to keep walkways clear.
For the best results, give each family member a dedicated coat hook, bag cubby, and drawer. Use shelves above the coat hooks to stow items to which your kids don't need access - this can be a good place for purses, briefcases, and laptop bags. If you have space, create cubbyholes for shoes.
Add style to function by choosing a color or finish that complement your main cabinetry. I'm personally a fan of light-colored neutrals. While white paint may seem like a good fit, look into light grays and taupes as an alternative to help hide dirt and mud brought in on shoes. The back panel can add visual interest - I'm a big fan of the bead board used in this example. Have fun with drawer pulls and coat hooks; you can carry over hardware similar to what's used elsewhere in your kitchen, or you can treat this unit as a piece of standalone furniture and mix up the look. A standard base cabinet toe kick is perfectly sufficient, but swapping in furniture legs may give the unit more presence.

Roger Hazard is TV's original home stager, as well as designer / producer on the international, Emmy-nominated "SELL THIS HOUSE," "SELL THIS HOUSE: EXTREME," and "MOVE THIS HOUSE." MORE ABOUT Roger Hazard
Hot right now on Roger + Chris
A cute, 160-year old Italianate Victorian had the potential to be a stunning garden house - but only after taming the garden, adding style to the porches, and applying some unexpected new colors.
We completely redesigned the interior and exterior of our modern home in Austin, Texas. Come take a look inside.
Find out why Roger Hazard has left "Sell This House: Extreme" on A&E and what he is doing now.
Many of us use our kitchen as the home for our cleaning supplies. Keeping everything in one location can make it easier to quickly locate that bottle of glass cleaner when you need it, but it can also mean a lot of running back to the kitchen for one bottle at a time.
Step three of the design process focuses on identifying a kitchen style. Whether you're working with an interior designer or taking on the project yourself, you will need to spend some time researching your options in order to choose the look that works best for your home.
An updated take on the cottage look integrates classic styles with contemporary details to create a bright, happy space.