Good morning! Time to get a peek inside the house!
Like I said in my last post, our front door is set back in a little alcove. The door is right against the ground, which makes finding a rug nearly impossible. We finally found one at Target that would work, but the design wore off where the storm door scrapes it.
We would like to remove the storm door at some point and get a steel door with a small window in it. I like the looks of this craftsman style. That would give us some natural light and still allow me to hide from the solicitors. =)
This little grapevine wreath is something I threw together with scraps and some greenery from Hobby Lobby a couple of years ago for Christmas. It’s not too Christmassy, and I kinda like it, so it pretty much stays up all year. I put up a different one in the fall, and this one comes back in December with a little ornament attached. The space between the doors is so small that it’s hard to find wreaths that will fit, but I should probably try a little harder to change out my seasonal stuff. Oh well!
When you step inside, you’ll see a minuscule foyer (it’s only 4 ft. wide), a boot tray, and the end of our loveseat. Not very welcoming at the moment, right? Just don’t look down…
Yuck! Who puts carpet up against the main entrance?? We’ve tried shampooing the it, but most of the stains just won’t come up. Our next big project is learning how to install floor tile. We bought the Leonia porcelain tile in Sand from Lowes and we’re going to install it here and at the back door. You can actually see a stack of them by the love seat up there!
See the rip in the carpet? That’s where I just started tearing it up. We now have a lovely foyer full of concrete subfloor.
I would like to have some storage along the right side of this wall, but it has to be really narrow. I’m talking between 13″ and 16″. It’s hard to find any dressers or sideboards that depth, so I’m considering something along the lines of this setup by Made By Girl. We’re nowhere close to an Ikea, and I’m not fond of their shipping charges, so Garan said he’d try his hand at building cabinetry. Woohoo!
We’ll probably have a gallery wall in this space at some point, but we have some practical needs first.
This is the only before shot I have of the foyer (it’s of the missing door stop):
Ugh! The green walls! They were so incredibly dark!
Anyway, this is what we’ve accomplished in this area so far:
- Replaced the brassy doorknob with an ORB one.
- Painted the walls Light Pewter by Benjamin Moore (we LOVE this color!)
- Replaced the little doorstop thingy
- Repaired a bowed door jamb (actually, Daddy did this one)
This is what we would like to do (in no particular order):
- Replace carpet with tile (okay, this is definitely our first priority)
- Build cabinets ala Made By Girl
- Hang gallery wall of family pictures
- Remove storm door
- Replace door with windowed version
- Paint the interior of the door a happy color (muted blue-gray?)
- Replace outdoor light
- Buy or make a prettier boot tray
Whew, that’s a long list for a tiny space…this one might take us a while! Wish us luck!
xo, Amanda Marie
xo amandamarie 