Our Small Entry: Before And After – Our DIY House

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We have a slightly awkward shaped, narrow entry hall in Our DIY House. When you walk into our home, you’ll see a hallway leading straight to the kitchen directly in front of you, and to the right of that are our stairs. It took me almost a year to sort out the best way to configure our entry. We had to use it for a while to see what was best to put in – or not to put in -it. Over the past few months, I’ve come up with some great solutions!

First off, I decided that painting the interior of our front door white was not a good decision. I waffled between the idea of painting it black or deep teal (like it is on the outside) and eventually chose black paint for it’s elegance and to mimic our black office doors. It immediately made a huge difference and it really grounded the space and highlighted the door so nicely. The black paint is a semigloss – Noir by Valspar – and it’s a very similar colour to our kitchen base cabinets.

After quite a search, I found the perfect piece of furniture for beside our front door – this marvelous Hemnes shoe cabinet from Ikea. At only 8 inches deep, it doesn’t take up too much space like our bench did, and it’s totally functional. I found myself always tripping over shoes before, and this shoe cabinet is a brilliant way to store them. My girls each have their own shoe door, and they actually use it!

This cabinet is also a fun place to display odds and ends like personal artwork, our watering can, and some plants.

Eventually, I’d love to place my dream mirror over this cabinet, but for now I dug up some picture frames I had lying around and sprayed them all with white paint for a fun and colourful gallery wall.

I’ve put some plants in big pots on either side of the door, too. Real, live plants. I’m bound and determined to change my plant-killing ways and keep more actual plants around and living in my home.

I’m totally loving our freshened up entryway! It’s functional and fun – just the way I like my home decor.

Do you have any small entry decor tips?

14 Comments

  1. I think you did a very good job of fitting a lot into that small space without making it feel cluttered or crowded. I love your black door paint, and that IKEA shoe cabinet! I think I need a few of those in my mudroom. . . but I’m concerned about a build-up of shoe odour with the shoes being put away in cabinets like that, instead of airing out on open shelves. Have you had any problems with that?

    1. Thank you! And, like I showed you, I think the shoe cupboard design is brilliant with the vented compartment and the open bottom + back. You should totally get them for your mudroom!

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