A Mini Makeover For Our Entryway

Once our kitchen cabinets were painted, my next big-ish project was painting our entryway for a few different reasons.

First, we had boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes of picture frames that we desperately wanted to unpack to clear out space in our front room (currently acting as a storage facility for "stuff we can't deal with right now." A lot of the pictures and frames that are in those boxes will be going in our entryway, stairway landing and up our staircase.

Also, our entryway had been painted different shades of white and ivory over the years so the walls were about six different colors - not to mention the discoloration from age, as well as surface scratches. It needed a big hug. This is what parts of our entryway looked like before painting:

Lastly, the existing ceiling fan was just ... not good. I felt it was way too big and bulky for the space, and since our entryway doesn't get a lot of natural light, we needed to switch it out for a lighter, more airy light fixture that fit better. Here it is in all of its un-glory:

#thanksbutnothanks

Because of the age of this house, I quickly realized that sanding down everything, including the trim, would never get me a completely smooth surface. At first, this annoyed me a little, and then I realized - why would I want to sand away everything in this house that gives it character? I know that may seem strange to a lot of people because most of us strive for perfection in our homes. But I suppose I like things to be perfectly imperfect. I decided to sand down what came off easily and leave the rest as is. Once the paint went on, I was happy I did it that way. You can still see a LOT of little bumps and knicks in the trim, but I kind of like the character. The walls are nice and smooth, and the trim shows the true age of the house in a good way (I think).

This is what our trim looked like after a very light sand-down. 

And once the walls were painted, you could see just how bad it was.

Deciding on a wall paint color for the entryway was tricky because we wanted to carry the color into both our living spaces (which are directly off the entryway), up our stairway and through our upstairs hallway. So, the color we picked had to work in all these spaces with all different kinds of light. I had a color in my head of what I wanted, which was a light, warm beige. I felt that a cooler beige or taupe would be too modern for this house, and I just feel that warmth in colors, especially beiges, looks more cozy and inviting. In the end, after swatching a few samples all over the house, the winner was Bayshore Beige by Benjamin Moore. It was the only one we got that looked exactly how I wanted it to look in every single room. And ... AND ... it was the exact color I had been picturing in my head. When I'm able to make the random ideas in my head a reality, it's a pretty great thing.

We chose the Regal formula from Ben Moore, and it applied so well on the walls. Because our walls had a lot of dings and discoloration, we needed two coats, but no primer. I'm like, so, SO happy with how it came out. 

First, an overall before picture:

And now:

It's not the most dramatic makeover of all time, but it makes me pretty happy. Eventually, we'll paint our front door the same color as the trim (Bavarian Cream by Ben Moore), but there are other issues with that door we need to address before we slap any paint on it).

The light fixture is the Camilla Chandelier by Pottery Barn*. And it may be my favorite thing ever (until we hang the next new thing, and then that will become my new favorite thing ever).

She's so preeeeeeetty.

The wood sign with the destinations painted on it is from Salt & Light Designs on Etsy. It was what I gave Josh for our five-year wedding anniversary. All of the places listed on it have meaning to us from our first five years together. I'm not sure if it will always live here in the entryway, but for now, this is its home.

Also, I have a problem buying flower-shaped bowls and plates from Homegoods. There are two pictured above, but I've collected about four others. #sorrynotsorry

Painting around our stairway was a little tricky because of the carpeting (which we plan to get rid of at some point, just not right now). I read online the best way to paint around carpet is just to tape it down - it was as simple as that. I just pulled it taught to flatten the pile, wedged a spackle tool thingy between the tape and the wall to make sure the carpet was protected, and once I was done painting and lifted off the tape, the carpet bounced back up, covering any seams between the old paint and the new paint. 

The window in our stairway landing area is ... dramatic sigh ... challenging to work with. Bottom line is that it needs to be replaced and updated, but for now, I just decided to paint the moulding around it and leave the dark brown parts as is. 

As we go into fall and winter, we plan to start putting up our pictures and frames. But for now, we're celebrating this project being as done as it's going to be for the next few weeks/months. Josh is currently working hard to put up the last few kitchen cabinet doors so we can finally take the "after" pictures for a before and after. Yessssssssss.

*I work for the Williams-Sonoma brands and purchased these things with an employee discount.