Ask This Old House Season 23 Episode 26: Mudroom Cubbies, Mulch Math, and a Burgundy Spray Finish

Season 23, Episode 26 of Ask This Old House ties together three jobs that don't seem related until you notice the theme: building something heavy so it can be moved, and putting things on the ground for reasons that actually matter. Tom Silva builds a mudroom cubby bank in sections, Jenn Nawada walks through mulch types and the arithmetic of ordering it, and Mauro Henrique paints the cubbies with a tinted primer and a handheld sprayer. The episode is a decent test of where a homeowner should jump in and where they should slow down.

Tom Silva builds a mudroom locker bank you can take apart

Tom and Kevin start with a design change. The previous cubby unit had a back and a bench, the kind you sit on to pull off boots. This one is more locker than furniture: three separate sections made from 3/4-inch plywood, each with an opening at the bottom for baskets, upper shelves for accessories, and a row of hooks. The key detail is that the sections join with cap screws and bolts, not glue and nails. Tom wants the finished cabinet to come apart because a single 80-inch-tall box will never make the turn down a basement stair or through a mudroom door.

Before any cutting, Tom had the home center rough-cut the plywood sheets to about 16 inches wide. That step saves the misery of wrestling a 4x8 sheet through a parking lot and up a flight of stairs. Tom still trues those rough cuts width-wise on the table saw. The sides get stacked and cut to 80 inches, using the first cut as a reference so every side matches. Shelves get cut to 23-3/8 inches. The middle shelves and the seat are doubled 3/4-inch plywood, so they need a 1-1/2-inch dado. The top and bottom shelves are single thickness, so those dados are 3/4 inch.

The dado setup is where the real skill shows. Tom clamps all the sides together and uses an adjustable router jig with a template or flush-trim bit. The bearing rides the jig, cutting identical dadoes in every board. That's a pro move. A homeowner with a router and a straightedge can do it, but it's fussy work. The router bit spins fast and wants to grab. Tom's jig holds everything square and tight, which is exactly what you want when you're cutting a groove that has to line up across six or more pieces.

After the dadoes, Tom drills pilot holes 3/8 inch from each edge of the groove. That puts the screws in the center of the shelf where they belong. He uses 2-inch coarse-thread screws. Kevin sands the boards flat beside each dado, not inside the tight corner, which is the kind of small instruction that saves a lot of cursing later. The hooks go on a 6-inch backer board, and the whole thing gets solid-wood stiles and rails to hide the plywood edges. Tom nails the face frame to only one section so the cabinets can still separate.

What should a homeowner attempt? The assembly, the sanding, and the painting are all reachable. The dado jig and router work are where things get serious. If you don't own a router or haven't used one on plywood, this is a project to practice on scrap first. Also note that the show compresses the cutting, fitting, and face-frame nailing into a few minutes. In a garage, that's a full weekend.

Jenn Nawada's mulch tour and the math that keeps you from over-ordering

Mulch does more than make a bed look finished. Jenn lists the functions: water retention, weed suppression, temperature control, and, with organic mulch, nutrients as it breaks down. The leaf mulch she's using has been composted and turned, so it's on its way to becoming soil. That's the bonus you don't get from gravel or rubber.

Depth matters. On a bare bed, Jenn puts down about 3 inches. If you're topdressing over existing mulch, an inch is usually enough. Keep it away from the base of trees and plants. Piling mulch against a trunk invites moisture and rot, and it can give rodents a place to hide. This is the garden-bed cousin of Lee Gilliam's overseeding and topdressing work in episode 24. Both segments are about what you put on top of the soil and why it matters.

The math is simple enough to do on your phone. Measure length times width times depth in feet. Three inches is 0.25 foot. That gives you cubic feet. Divide by 27 to get cubic yards, because that's what the nursery sells. A 10-by-10-foot area at 3 inches deep is 25 cubic feet, which is roughly one cubic yard. If you're buying bags, they're often 2 cubic feet, so 25 cubic feet means about 12.5 bags. Buy 13 and you have a little extra.

The samples Jenn brings out cover a lot of ground. Gravel works in high-traffic or erosion-prone spots, but it heats up the soil, so pair it with drought-tolerant plants. Rubber mulch doesn't break down, which sounds good until you realize it also doesn't feed the soil, and it gets hot. Dyed mulches come in red, brown, and black, and they'll leave color on your hands. Hemlock, pine bark, and leaf mulch are organic. Buckwheat hulls are light and look good in formal perennial beds, but they blow away when dry. Each has a use. None is universally right.

For a homeowner, this is one of the easier segments to act on. The math is basic, the spreading is labor but low risk, and the main decision is matching the mulch to the bed. Don't use rubber around vegetables or perennials you actually want to thrive. Don't bury a tree trunk. And don't order 20 yards before you've done the calculation.

Mauro Henrique primes and sprays the cubbies Classic Burgundy

Mauro takes over the cubbies after Tom and Kevin finish building. The first step is sanding with 220 grit. Then a water-based tinted primer. Mauro chooses a tinted primer because the topcoat is a deep base color, and a gray primer helps the burgundy cover in fewer coats. If you've read our recap of Mauro's bulkhead work in episode 4, you know his pattern: fix the surface, prime, then use a coating that can take abuse. That's exactly what happens here.

After the primer dries, they fill nail holes, sand lightly, and clean the surface. Mauro masks the back and surrounding area because they're going to spray. The finish is a semi-gloss in a color called Classic Burgundy. Semi-gloss is more durable and moisture-resistant than satin, which makes sense for a mudroom piece that will see wet coats and muddy boots. Kevin calls it a statement. Tom calls it red. Mauro calls it Classic Burgundy, like the wine.

The sprayer is a handheld electric unit, not a pro rig. It has a nozzle that flips between vertical and horizontal, and a pickup tube that has to stay in the paint. That's the main technique point: tilt the nozzle, not the whole gun. If you turn the gun sideways or upside down, the tube won't draw paint and nothing comes out of the tip. Mauro overlaps each pass by 50 percent and applies two coats. The hooks go on after the paint is dry.

What should a homeowner take from this? The prep is non-negotiable. Sand, prime, fill, sand again, clean. The sprayer itself is homeowner-friendly, but it rewards patience and masking. If you don't want to buy a sprayer, you can roll and brush a semi-gloss, but you'll see more texture. The tinted primer is a good tip for any deep color, not just burgundy.

DIY Confidence Scale

• Cubby build: 5/10. The assembly and sanding are approachable, but the dado jig, router work, and face-frame fitting are advanced. Practice on scrap first.
• Mulch: 8/10. The math is simple and the work is low-risk. The main challenge is choosing the right mulch and not overdoing the depth.
• Painting: 6/10. Prep and sprayer technique matter more than the tool. If you can sand, prime, and mask carefully, you can get a good finish.

Additional Resources

• Watch on PBS
• Official This Old House episode page

The cubbies are a reminder that the best built-ins are designed for the move, not just the room. What's the one piece of furniture in your house that you wish could come apart at the seams?