Entryway Awesomeness

So there are a couple projects I've worked on lately that have made my heart sing with happiness. There are also a couple projects I've worked on lately that do not. Boo. But I'm still trying to salvage those. In the meantime, I'm loving seeing the first set of results from the happy projects. 

Our entry way has been begging for a revamp for sometime. When we first moved in I had NO IDEA how to deal with it. When I was posting pics on here of the new home my friend Marisa told me that if I ever figured out what to do with entryway she wanted to know as she had a similar entry way and no idea what to do with it either. It's a problem area. Here is the entry way in all her before glory. 

Yikes. Also I just noticed how in some lights the carpet looks pink and then looks tan in other lights. Weird. 

The second people started coming over we realized we really needed a shoe rack of some form. We bought some little racks from Zellers. Which we discovered no one ever used. People just threw their shoes all over the floor as they weren't right next to a shoe rack. Beyond frustrating! It's so hard to make an entry way feel welcoming and inviting when you have to step over a graveyard of shoes. It took us a while to work out a better solution. In the meantime I added bookshelves to the top of the stairs and put up a picture collage. That really helped make the space seem intentionally.

I left this area alone for a while. I was disheartened by it. I had no idea what I could put in it's place to help stem the tide of messy shoes AND make the area actually look great (something our wooden rack did NOT do). Then I read Cassie's post on garage organization where she mentioned these galvanized shelves and I fell in love. Then I imagined them painted turquoise and I fell even more in love. I remembered back to my figuring painting post and how much I'd LOVED that turquoise, it was Blue Lagoon's Rustoleum. In that moment I knew it would look awesome on Ikea's galvanized shelves. I immediately set out for Ikea only to discover that they were sold out! Not to be discouraged, I came back the next week and low and behold! They were there. I bought two sets. 

Our living room is full of browns, white and grey's. Case in point:

[Christmas 2012]

[summer 2013]

I like it, and it's cozy but it could use some livening up. Turquoise would be a great accent color. I also have some other painting plans involving turquoise for my drinks stand and my tall hutch and this seems like a perfect way to tie the colors across the house and to the entryway. I decided that having a turquoise shelf at the base of the stairs for shoes and mail and one at the top of the stairs for keys and phones and purses when groups come over would be awesome. Paul didn't believe me that this would be awesome (he has since recanted that belief and LOVED the outcome) but I pressed forward anyways. 

I started by laying out the shelves in our garage to paint and dry. One coat on each side of the shelf and a coat for each side of the legs - it took about 2 and a half cans of paint and a couple days. Once the color was on I was immediately in love. 

Paul helped me put them together and it took about 45 minutes to get the two of them pieced together. Then I got to stage them - they needed to be functional and cute. Our front entryway needed some sort of pow when you walked in. Thankfully some great friends had given me a Michael's gift card for my 30th and so I swung by there one Saturday to see what I could find. And boy did I hit the mother lode. On top of some stuff for other projects there was a big sale on; I got a large basket for shoes for $12 (normally $25), three cool letter balls (P for Paul, T for Tara, M for Morgan - ground breaking, I know), a funky white vase for $8 and two bird houses (normally $15 and $25 each, on for $5 and $8). I was so very happy. 

I found in my house a tall vase to add the balls to and shopped my container collections for two tins from target's dollar section, and an orchid from the throwaway part of my work's move. Lastly I went to Home Sense and grabbed two locker baskets for the top of the stairs for purses. I also turned a white plastic basket into a wire basket with some spray painted and added that to catch mail. 

Speaking of things we were getting rid of at work, we were getting rid of an umbrella stand. So I snagged it. I sprayed it black, taped off some sections and sprayed them gold and voila - new life for an old stand! It's the perfect compliment. 

It's come together beautifully! Now I LOVE my front entryway!

For one final before and after shot - it's my favorite view of the space.