Mud Rooms Are Moving In

Nov. 6, 2015 — Hailed as "a piece of suburbia in the city," mud rooms are making for Manhattan.

Uptown residents on both sides of the island are reaching out to architects -- and their boards -- to bring a feature normally seen in single-family homes to their multi-family buildings. Architect Marc Spector told DNAinfo that "he has has several clients on the Upper West and East sides who are buying rights from their co-op boards or condo associations to use part of their building's corridor space — at the end of hallways where it won't create egress issues — to build" these pause points, where family members and guests can drop hats, coats, and boots before entering the unit. According to DNAinfo, "Mud rooms are all the rage in the luxury market right now as more families are embracing a clutter-free ethos ... But even space-starved New Yorkers on a budget can find ways to contain create mud room-like spaces that contain the flotsam they shed when entering their apartments." Will your co-op or condo board start lopping off bits of the hallway for private use? It's hard to say if the trend will catch on, but if you're eyeing your own hall, maybe start talking to the board sooner, rather than later. Winter is coming, after all.