I told you in my last post, that we were leaving to go out of town for a few days because my little sister had bought a house & we were going up north for a few days to help her move in & work on a few projects to get her settled! Well we finally got home last night & let me just tell you….THIS.GIRL.IS.POOPED!! The amount of stuff we got accomplished in just four days is kinda crazy!! We had lots of additional help with my mom & dad and aunt & uncle, who also made the trip north!  All & all, it was a fun & productive weekend with family….

 Didn’t it turn out so cute?! 

To fully appreciate how great it looks, you MUST see all the before pics….

The entryway/foyer area is small & like the rest of the house…. was out dated! Even though it’s such a small area in her home, Cortney wanted it to make a big impact & beautiful first impression for their guests!

These pictures were taken at night, so the lighting isn’t the greatest…I apologize! I also wasn’t able to get pictures of this area before the wallpaper came down! That’s right…just picture ugly, cream wallpaper with maroon flowers?! Pretty, huh?! 🙂  My aunt had already taken all the wallpaper down before I arrived, so no pictures of that….lucky you!

Across from the front door, there is a small coat closet…

One thing that this little house isn’t lacking is closet space….there are seriously closets EVERYWHERE!! So, since she would be able to store coats in other areas of the home, my sister wanted to utilize the coat closet for something a little different!

So, the next morning we primed the entire entryway…..

 The only thing that didn’t get primed was the coat closet it door….

And that’s because we took it OFF!!!

We had to take down the closet rod that was inside for the coats, but left the 1 x 4 trim piece that was already there. While priming the inside of the closet, I got an idea to add some beadboard to the inside! So, we talked my dad into making a little trip to the nearest Lowes store to pick some up!

To save money, we decided to just line the back of the closet with the beadboard. We only needed one sheet which cost us $19.00. My dad measured it to the size he needed & cut it to fit.

Then, he installed it using a nail gun & trimmed out the edges with quarter round that we had left over from another project…

He also built the bench seat & added a floor to the bottom of the closet to hold the baskets…..

I didn’t take any pictures of this process because I was out running a few errands while he was working on it, but he basically just built a frame around the inside of the closet using 1 x 4’s, & then used shelf boards for the bench & the floor. The boards just sat on top of the frame & he nailed them together to make them more sturdy. He did add a piece of trim/molding to the front of the bench & floor to just make them look more decorative.

Then I primed & painted the beadboard, quarter round, bench & floor….

Because we had so many projects going on, we didn’t have time to whip up a cushion for the bench or go out & shop for throw pillows & accessories for the new entry nook, but because I wanted to stage it for blog photos, we managed to throw a few things together…..just keep in mind, that this isn’t how its going to stay!

The cushion in this photo is actually a seat cushion Cortney had from one of her chairs! We just wrapped a black sheet around it & used a couple of throw pillows off of her bed for staging purposes. The hooks were purchased at Dollar General & were on clearance! We got packages of two hooks for just $1.00. They were originally gold, but we spray painted them with oil-rubbed bronze spray paint by Rust-Oleum.

I just love the way this little nook turned out!! It adds so much to her entryway & because the door is now gone, I feel like it opens the space up even more!

It’s also kid approved!! 🙂

Let’s take one last look at the Before & After…..

The board & batten wall behind the front door was super quick & easy to put up….

We used the existing baseboard & then added the 1 x 4 to the top. Then we purchase three 1 x 3’s & cut them to the length we needed. We found the center of the wall for the middle batten & the two others were added to the outside edges. Then all of the seams were caulked, the boards were sanded down, & the wall was primed & painted. We added the same Dollar General hooks that we used for the entry nook, & Voila….

A pretty & yet FUNCTIONAL wall to hang keys, purses, etc!
LOVE it!!

And let’s take one last look at the “Before” space as a whole…..

And now the “After”….