Updating Our Launch Pad

August 2020 welcomed us into a new home. Let me be clear: a new-to-us home. The area we moved to has many mid-century builds. Fortunately our 1960’s ranch style home had been purchased by a contractor, remodeled, and placed on the market. We purchased our home from said contractor. While I appreciate the new kitchen and updated bathrooms and lighting, the many tiny closets are not completely appreciated.

I chose to turn one of those tiny closets into a Launch Pad. What is a launch pad you say? A launch pad is a place where you house everything you need to readily launch yourself out of your house. Shoe holders, purses, backpacks, keys, may be just a few examples of what my family houses in its launch pad. Like the picture above, our entryway held a small closet in its space. Just a couple of simple changes transformed this space into our family’s launch pad.

First, my husband removed the door and its hardware to this area’s closet. My husband removed the wardrobe bar inside the closet and affixed a decorative board with hooks to hold our backpacks and purses. I applied spackling to the holes left by the door’s hardware. After allowing time for the spackling to dry, I sanded off the rough edges and painted the door frame (and an interior return vent) the color of our trim: Sherwin Williams’ Pure White.

To make the space feel functional and aesthetically pleasing, I placed three baskets from Walmart’s Better Homes and Garden line on the top shelf (Mine are an older version. Here is the current version available at Walmart.) These baskets are not only a pretty addition but they serve to hold my extra bed linens. Our shoe baskets came from Target and hold the shoes we tend to kick off as soon as we come in the door.

While most people would call this space a mud room, due to its small size, I felt launch pad was a more appropriate title. This is the area that has what we need to launch our day. Toni Hammersly from A Bowl Full of Lemons first gave me the idea of naming this space launch pad. All our supplies needed to head out the door are housed in one space meeting the needs of my busy crew!

Do you have a space such as this designated in your home? If not, would you convert a closet into a Launch Pad? Let me know in the comments. I look forward to hearing from you.

~Ashley