Shut the Front Door

Our house has what I will refer to as a “nominal foyer.” It’s a separate space, but it’s not very big and does not lend itself to a grand entrance. (I’m Southern. We like entrances.)

Here’s what it looked like when we moved in:

As with most of the house, the fire took care of the heavy lifting in the remodeling department. We replaced the front door, the floor, and the light fixture. Later, we added the world’s largest trivet:

From this view, I like it.

The other view…. leaves something to be desired.

Here’s a before, from the day we moved in:

In February I finally got tired of looking at the blank space, and tried a few things in the room – a mirror made by my great-uncle, a pair of sassy brass sconces we bought in Thomasville before the fire, and a sofa table that my friend Jaime gave me (Thanks, Jaime!).

So we’ll call this Phase 2:

Then I made a few upgrades. After a light sanding, the table was painted navy blue. The sconces got hit up by some high-gloss white spray paint. I moved the coat rack to the back door, where we keep leashes and umbrellas for taking Homer out.

Better!

I love how the sconces turned out:

I spent $22 on paint (1 quart of blue, 1 can high gloss white). The sconces were purchased in June 2011 for $15. The elephant bookends were $10 at an estate sale a few  months ago. And everything else was free.

I am very happier with the foyer now. I’m not quite done – I want to hang some of my blue willow plates, and maybe switch up the accessories – but the space feels SO much more coherent.

Bring on the grand entrances. Ha.