The Entry Gets a Makeover!

The entry has been on my radar for awhile, but when August hit, I knew it was time to seriously start thinking about it. Jacket weather here is just around the corner and we'll be working on the mudroom throughout the winter, so we needed to get something in place here. I went back and forth on what to do with our front entry. Something functional? Maybe just art since it is the first thing you see when you walk in our home? After a constant battle with a stack of shoes, I went the functional route and I don't regret it one bit. Here's where we started when we first moved into the home about 11 months ago.

Over the last several months, we've painted and upgraded the floors but the entry remained pretty much like this afterward. Very minimal, which isn't really us. We gravitate toward casual, comfortable and modern traditional.

Which is how we landed on this design for the entry.

(I realize this would look so much more polished with baseboards, but we're working on it!) I ordered this runner first. One purchase is all it takes for me to revamp a whole space. I got it through RugUSA's 80% off sale recently and it only cost me about $40.

Funny enough, it is the same jute rug that we had in our living room, except bleached. The lighter color goes a lot better with our floors. We knew we loved the texture underfoot and the lighter tonal color does not disappoint. After I ordered the runner, project entry was in full effect. These walls here have some odd angles. Not your simple squared off rooms. So, I thought I'd make the entry wall stand out by painting 3/4 of it--which, in my mind would be the area under a few chunky hooks. I ended up painting this little wall 4 times! Saturday morning I thought I finally got it right (Chris insists they were all "right" I just wasn't satisfied--which, true) but then when the evening sun hit it, it turned purpleish on me. My fourth coat, I said a prayer and pried open a can of Benjamin Moore's Chelsea Gray and I was, finally, satisfied. In love really.

It's a very warm gray, which we needed on this wall. Two days after purchasing the runner, I engulfed myself in some online retail therapy and found the most gorgeous hooks on Pottery Barn's site. I wouldn't normally spend $100 on 4 hooks, but I knew these were going in our front entry and they needed to be special.

Ohhhh, they are worth every penny. They are large and heavy and in the brass finish--so chic. I do think they really made this entry for me. We mounted them on a piece of wood I painted white which makes for a nice barrier between the Chelsea Gray and all-over wall color (Richland by Clark+Kensington). I opted for four hooks to leave a lot of room in between each. We hope to maximize storage in the mudroom, but for the front entry the goal is function and form. Four hooks spaced farther apart will eliminate over-cluttering on its own. Hopefully.

And speaking of clutter! I knew I needed a shoe corral here, too. I found these great canvas baskets with leather handles at TJMaxx and loved the look of them and they were the perfect size to throw shoes in! I plucked three off the shelves for Chris, myself and Greta (Faye can share with her for a few years) so we can easily sit on the bench to remove our shoes and put them in the respective baskets--even carry them easily to our room when it is time.

As for the bench, Chris and I designed and made it together. It's slim to maximize walking space and minimal to allow other things to shine. I'll give you a step-by-step of that soon! The last thing I did was hang the mirror (from Ikea) that used to hang vertically on the main entry wall, horizontally on the back wall.

That wall has always been kind of dark and the mirror takes up a good portion of it, bouncing lots of light around. And, really, what's an entry without a mirror?!  This was a quick and fun project and relatively cheap. In the midst of a lot of larger ones, this was just what we (and the house) needed.