Foyer Makeover, Part 1

We've had a large (at least for us!) home project in the works for quite some time now. It was early March when we started, and then we took turns getting sick, made multiple trips to the hardware store, and learned first hand that the right tools make all the difference.

Several months ago I saw a great photo inspiration on Pinterest for what looked like a doable foyer project for our house. It was a Better Homes & Gardens mudroom project that supposedly was $324 for all the materials. While there were not step by step instructions, Martin and I felt like we had enough details that we could pull it off. Neither of us is a carpenter or home improvement expert, but we ready to give it a shot.

Our foyer area had not had much done to it since we moved into our house 3 1/2 years ago. The walls were still white (at least mostly white...there were quite a few scuffs), the furniture was minimal and not really functional, and even though the mirror and picture matched, they didn't do much for the space. Plus, the small coat closet was not a practical place for keeping shoes; we have to keep the floor of it open so that we can pass through the back of the closet into our storage area. So shoes usually ended up a jumbled mess all over the floor.

Here are a few pictures of the space. Mirror above the entryway table. The table usually became the catch-all for things brought into the house. Keys, etc go in the basket. Underneath we stashed our shoes, but they didn't lay well on the rails and often ended up in a pile.

These pictures were taken right before we moved the furniture, so everything is fairly contained :-)

The other issue with this entryway table is that to center it on the wall, we couldn't fully open the door of the coat closet, which was very inconvenient, especially with all the in and out of Christmas decorations to that storage area.

Our first step after removing the furniture was to paint those scuffed, white walls! See the side light next to our front door? It is covered with a lightweight privacy curtain that really needed to go. The curtain rods were magnetic, which sounded like a great idea until you throw small children in the mix!

Getting things taped and ready for paint.

While I started the taping, Martin removed the baseboard.

It was really simple to do...we used a multi-use crowbar and a small piece of wood to protect the wall.

Everything came off nicely, and then it was time to paint!

Here is my favorite way to paint...roller in one hand, large mug of coffee in the other! We went with the same tan that is on the walls in the rest of our downstairs.

Stay tuned for the next installment...