Foyer Makeover, Part 2

Yesterday I started detailing our DIY foyer makeover. We wanted to turn our boring, white (and scuffed!), and mostly storage-less entryway into something functional and beautiful. Our inspiration was this Better Homes & Gardens mudroom.

Once we got the foyer painted it was hard to believe we let it go 3 1/2 years! The paint gives the house such a warm and inviting feel, and since the tan is the same as our downstairs it blends the foyer in to the rest of the house perfectly.

After the paint was finished, we moved furniture around to make room for our new shelves. First we switched the entryway table to the opposite wall. 

The wooden box under the table is an old Proctor & Gamble box from my husband's family. On the wall by the garage door is a plate rack that I got at Goodwill. Our project notebook makes its home there right now, along with the week's grocery and drug store circulars.

And finally, we got rid of the curtain with the frustrating magnetic curtain rods and replaced it with Gila sidelight window film.

We found this brand at Lowe's, but I'm sure there are other options that do the same thing too. This was fairly easy to use; I measured the size of our sidelight window, cut to fit, then used a homemade solution (in the Gila instructions) to apply the film to the window.

I used an exacto knife to trim the sides, which proved to be the most difficult part. As you can see, the sides are a little ragged. I probably should have gone a little slower as I cut along the edges.

From the outside the Gila film does a great job making the window opaque. 

And from the inside, the film creates a nice ripple effect on the sidelight that lets in plenty of light and allows us to see outside as well.

The combination of the new sidelight film and the paint really brightens up the foyer! And since we are building ourselves a storage space, we no longer need to pile shoes under the entryway table and dump the mail on top of it. Success!

Next time we'll move on to the main part of our project...