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Winterizing the Entry

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Now that the weather is cold and wet, Scott and I were determined to give our entryway a solution to stash drippy shoes and hide extra dog supplies within reach of the front door (such as towels and scarves). We wanted things to stay simple and tidy, and most importantly, we wanted to spend as little as possible. Enter Skar, take 2!

You might remember our Ikea-hacked Skar from its past life in my studio of yore, and while it worked well in that space, we wanted to beef it up a bit for the entry. (And to be quite honest, Scott wasn’t feeling my lion head pulls, and I was up for a change!) Our entry has remained mostly bare, so we quite literally shopped from a few still-unpacked belongings and set up the same small rug from our condo‘s foyer, re-hung our favorite mantra and gave Skar another mini makeover:

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This unit is no longer sold at Ikea, but the BISSA is pretty comparable! In our case, we wanted the Skar to hold up over time, so we made a few more enhancements to the guts of the furniture, too. Because it’s made almost entirely from particleboard, we bought $5 of doormat-esque material from Home Depot (which equated to about 1 yard), cut it down to size for the lower two bins, and used small Velcro tabs to keep it in place.

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For the top bin, Scott used leftover strips of plywood to create a ledge for stashing our keys, lip balm and less-than-attractive items. You know we had to give it a teeny burst of color – all in good fun!

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Here, you can see that creating this ledge helps to raise the bottom by an extra six inches or so, which has made it much easier to reach in and grab what we need:

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We both agreed that the same brassy Schoolhouse pulls from my pink Varde would look great in our entry, but sadly, they were no longer available! I found a pretty good replacement in these Siro pulls, and although these aren’t actually brass, well, you could’ve fooled us:

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We toyed with the idea of adding a few more small art pieces alongside the above print (remember that old entry wall that kept growing and growing?), but it’s so much harder for us to put up art – or make decisions in general, really – in this home! We’re absolutely over thinking everything, yes, but this entryway feels too good being open and bright, and so while I tried to keep tradition by displaying a renovation photo in every room – entry included – it wasn’t working. Instead, Scott suggested we hang our archway snapshot above our living room light switch. He was right!

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Amidst the kitchen brainstorming (another update coming soon!), it feels nice to make two small and easy updates, and we are loving these renovation photos to remind us of how far we’ve come. Back then, a shoe bin would’ve made us laugh, and now? Well, hooray for shoe bins!

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  • Karen @ year of serendipity12.16.14 - 7:10 AM

    Great organization! But I’m really dieing over the reno photo- so adorable!!ReplyCancel

  • Colleen12.16.14 - 8:51 AM

    Aw that reno picture is so adorable!!!ReplyCancel

  • Amanda12.16.14 - 10:13 AM

    I agree with everyone else that the reno photo stole the show today – too cute! I’ve been over thinking everything in my house also. I held off on making a lot of purchases for our home for nearly 2 years while we took time to pay off debt and decide whether we wanted to stay where we were long term or move to another part of town, but I gained a new appreciation for empty walls and open space. I still love art, but I find myself being more strategic about where I put it/how much… Same thing with furniture also. Not necessarily a bad thing though, right?ReplyCancel

    • Kim12.16.14 - 10:44 AM

      Definitely not a bad thing! We keep telling ourselves that we’re on a mission to make more mindful decisions this time around. It can feel frustrating at times, but it’s also sort of freeing to NOT buy if it’s not necessary.ReplyCancel

  • Jill12.16.14 - 3:54 PM

    Soooo welcoming!ReplyCancel

  • Trude12.16.14 - 5:15 PM

    Love it! I’ve been eyeing something like this for the entry too, because we don’t have much space but its so helpful to have a dedicated spot.ReplyCancel

  • Monika12.18.14 - 1:11 PM

    Ah yes, plaster walls…design hell (or purgatory depending on your perspective) for art lovers. I know exactly what you mean. Hanging stuff ain’t easy with plaster but you seem to always pull it off well. Nice job (again…as usual) ;)ReplyCancel

  • Annie1.22.15 - 11:05 AM

    Love the reno! Can you please tell me what color your walls (the grey), trim (the white), and door (the blue) are? Thanks!ReplyCancel

    • Kim1.22.15 - 11:17 AM

      Thanks, Annie! The walls are Behr’s Sterling (at 75%), trim is Behr Ultra Pure White and the doors are Farrow & Ball’s Hague Blue, color matched to Sherwin Williams.ReplyCancel

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