The combination of working from home and finishing the half bathroom has really inspired me to move forward with the rest of the house. We are now tackling the entry and I’m so excited. It’s a central thoroughfare that connects many rooms in a small space. I’ve included the floor plan below, so you can orient yourself. The pink arrow shows where you enter through the front door. As you can see, the entry has an opening to the living room, kitchen, office, half bath, and a door to the basement. It has a lot going on –not to mention the stairs and coat closet, too! It’s the main place where guests enter and I’ll walk through it probably 800 times a day.

The entry, much like the bathroom, is just fine. It’s not offensive and there are features that I like (hello, wood floors!!). While I am usually on team “Paint the Trim White”, the wood is really growing on me. The entry is also two stories with high ceilings and a view of the upstairs hallway when you first walk in. There is a small wall next to the stairs. Right now, I just plopped down an old bench and called it a day. It’s a great place to catch jackets, bags and random gear. The entry gets great light, so I have a new fiddle leaf fig sitting on the bench and, yup, I just stuck it in a too-small pot. It was leaking water onto the cushion, so I needed a temporary fix and this worked.

The entry not only connects lots of spaces but is an important place for storage. We are generally a no-shoe house, so all of our shoes are stored in the baskets under the bench or in the closet. We also have a boot mat by the front door where we quickly slip shoes on/off. The closet is to the right of the front door and you can see it perfectly from the living room. The closet also stores all our jackets (for every season), umbrellas, school gear, winter gear, and most of our board games. I’m too embarrassed to show the inside of the closet right now, but I’m sure I’ll tackle it in the future. Just imagine a standard closet stuffed to the brim with gear.

We’ve already changed out the closet knob to a matte black t-bar pull to update the space. In the picture below, you can see our boot mat. It’s looking rather sparse at the moment but you can imagine a mountain of shoes when not regularly cleaned. You also get a glimpse into the family room and a great shot of our front door. It’s just a standard, white, 6 panel steel entry door with sidelights but it has a little surprise when you open it.

The previous homeowners painted the outside of the door and sidelights black and added a brass kick plate. When you open the door it definitely adds some visual interest and contrast. Above the front door is a built-in shelf (the bottom part of the shelf is painted green). It has an outlet and a window. We’ve honestly never used it but I have hopes of putting a Christmas tree up there during the holidays.

The picture below shows a better picture of the shelf and window. You can also see the doorway into the office– it’s the room with the green carpet and the basement door is on the right. The recently completed powder room is directly across from the basement door–you can see a sliver of the doorknob on the left side of the picture.

I think I’ve shared most of the different angles, but I’m going to include one from the office. The bottom picture is basically my view from the desk, so I get to stare at this frequently.

My plan for the entry is just cosmetic at this point, so I guess you can call it a phase 1. I’ll furnish the room and do some light decorating. The long term plan, Phase 2, is more extensive. We plan to install new hardware floors throughout the first floor, so we’ll replace what’s in the entry to match the rest of the house. We also plan on installing thicker and beefier baseboards and replacing the carpet upstairs. I’m also thinking about replacing the stair railing with a more streamlined version. And at some point I’ll replace the dated chandelier (sorry no photos, yet).

The mood board below is showing the current design plan for the room. This will be a rather “easy” project considering that I’m not going to paint the room or do any major renovations. It’s more just putting the room together. Although, I did take on one small project which is growing in size (doesn’t it always do that!).

The wood console table above was basically made for this entry. It’s the perfect size and I love the color of the natural wood. However, it’s sold out and has been sold out for a couple of months now. I looked for alternatives, but did something brash one day–I ordered the same table but in the antique gray color because I had this brilliant idea that I would just sand it down and get the natural wood finish look. Fingers crossed that it works.

I’ve ordered most of the other goods — including the ottomans, tray, art and umbrella holder. I actually purchased the jute rug a couple of years ago and love it. However, I have yet to pull the trigger on the mirror or purchase a lamp. I’m not convinced that this is the perfect mirror although I love the natural braided look and how it appears to go so well with the jute rug. I plan on looking around some of my local stores to see if I can find something similar.

As you can tell, I’m getting into the chinoiserie pattern and there are a large number of lamps available at all price ranges. I’ve pulled together a small roundup of some of my favorites, which I’ll share later this week. To fit the scale of the room, I think I need a small lamp. Not to mention that this lamp is more for ambiance rather than task lighting. I really like the lamp in the mood board and I think the brass components will go well with the tray and other natural elements in the room. It’s a pretty good contender.

My fingers are crossed that this room will be put together by July. I can’t wait to see all the components come together and share the final results here!