A New Entry - Part 1

Since we bought our house a year and a half ago, I've had dreams for the back entry. There are many things about our house that need help, and this was a big one. For starters, the entry is not very big. It's also dark, has steep steps into the kitchen, and, if you're not careful, you'll fall right down the basement stairs. We, as a family, have a lot of coats, shoes, and other junk that tends to get piled up in this teeny, tiny, cluttered space. As a solution, I dreamed up a built-in shelf/cubby/bench area.

This is what we started with on Saturday. Fortunately, since my mom will probably read this, I don't have a true before picture with the normal pileup of junk on the floor and the former wall hooks.


To give you an idea of what we were working with in the beginning, where the blue paint is, we had a huge board with five hooks for our coats. About halfway down the wall on the left, I hung a set of hooks for Ellen's coats. On her hooks was a plastic sand bucket to hold all of her sunglasses and the occasional hat and/or mittens. The pine boards lead down to our basement. On this side of the entry (where you see that black triangle) are another couple of hooks that we use to hang our keys and my purse.

The original color of the entry is a sand color. It's a nice, neutral color, but I was hoping for something a little lighter to brighten the space.

We played in the entry all weekend, and I'm very happy with the changes. Tomorrow I'll show more pictures of the progress. I can't believe how different the whole house feels, now that our main entry is more inviting!