Progress Report: The Entry

Hey guys! Remember me?! Life and work has been crazy-busy and it’s kept me away from the blog a little too long but I’m back at it and here today with a little update post!

It’s been a few weeks since we jumped into our entry project and we've been making great progress. Aside from painting and a few remaining items (art, rug, etc.) needed to round out the space, we’re just about ready for a reveal! How exciting is that?!

But before we get to all the progress, let’s rewind back to the beginning…mmmkay?

This is what the space looked like before we got started:

And here’s the to-do list that we were working with:

To-Do:

1.      Create storage for coats, jackets, bags – hooks? Slim wall mounted shoe storage?

2.      Add board & batten? Picture frame trim/molding?

3.      Paint interior of front door & add decorative trim

4.      Add art

5.      Install a flush mount light fixture

6.      Find a vintage runner

Let’s run down the check list and see where we stand after launching into this project a few weeks ago:

#1 – Create storage for coats, jackets, bags – hooks? Slim wall mounted shoe storage?

ü  Check! I decided to go with hooks because as you may have seen in my post about the entry plans, they just make life easier. The hooks haven’t been hung but they’re in possession of my grubby little hands!

#2 – Add board & batten? Picture frame trim/molding?

ü  Check! We ended up going with neither but decided to plank both walls on either side of the entry…with a twist! We still need to finish prepping and give the walls a couple coats of paint but we’re thiiiiis close to being finished. I have high hopes for this little entry of mine!

#3 – Paint interior of front door & add decorative trim

ü  Check! Door has been painted but trim still needs to be added and then given a secondary coat for a seamless look. Did we go black or a deep navy blue? Can you tell in these pictures? 

#4 – Add art

              Zip. Zilch. Nada.

#5 – Install a flush mount fixture

ü  Check! The first fixture we installed just wasn’t cutting it – the diffuser wasn’t cut correctly and had all sorts of funky gaps between the shade and diffuser and I don’t think it fit the space like I thought it would (remember…it’s ok to change your mind). After striking out the first time, my second at bat was a home run! But all you’re getting is a sneak peak in the photo above :)

#6 – Find a vintage runner

Again with zip.zilch.nada. Finding a runner in the exact size I need has proved to be difficult. I have a temporary one in place for now but the color and size aren't quite right. 

Well...that's it guys! We've been working really hard on the entry, but also taking time to be purposeful in our decisions and choices for this space. I'm happy to say that we're nearing the finish line and that working towards the first completed space in our home has been so much fun too!

Come back tomorrow and I'll be sharing my go-to sources for vintage rugs - probably the hardest item to find to finally, FINALLY, call this space done! Or...however "done" a space could possibly be around here. 

Entry: The Plan

We’re in that awkward stage of renovation where if feels like we’ve got a whole lot going on but not a whole lot is actually getting done. Can any of my reno buddies relate?! To date, we’re still knee waist deep in flooring that needs to be laid, and only 1 of 6 room is 100% completed, floor-wise (!@#$). #pleasesendhelp #andcookies

So! Even though the majority of our spaces are only partially completed, we’ve got enough of the foundation laid that we can start living like humans again and begin to work on stuff like what I came here to talk about today: plans for our entry way!

The Before

The entry of any home is one of the, if not the most, hardest working area in any home and I don’t think anyone would argue with me about that. The entry way in our apartment could hardly be called a proper “entry way” but I did the best I could with the space we had in conjunction with the adjacent coat closet to make it functional for us while we lived there. It came as no surprise to me that in our new-to-us home, this was the first space I wanted to tackle.

I don’t know about you, but when I walk through the front door after a long day of work (or rush out on a hectic morning), the last thing I want to be greeted by is chaos and clutter. Just the sight of shoes, bags, keys, or mail, cluttering up such a high traffic area can make or break my mood for the day. After living here for 2 months without an ounce of organization in place, enough was enough!

The entry in our new home isn’t without its fair share of challenges. Albeit longer - not sure if that counts as “bigger” - it’s narrower and doesn’t even have a closet!! #holyheckbatman – how did I not notice that when we viewed the place?! That’s #nobueno. I have my work cut out for me. #again.

As I do with any makeover, I start by pinning some inspiration images. Here are a few that I was drawn to:

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With inspiration in hand, I pulled together a mood board for the space. Doing this really helps me see how everything will come together in the end and more often than not I love the result a whole lot more when I take this approach rather than putting the design together as I go. For being such a visual person, it’s important for me to see the ideas that are percolating in my brain laid out on paper. That way I can play with color, texture, or finish combinations before I make any purchases and it results in less “buyer’s remorse”.

After swapping items and ideas in and out over the course of a few days, here's the final version of the mood board I ended up with: 

Aside from being one of the hardest working areas in our home, the entry will set the tone for our entire house. Colors, textures, and finishes seen here will be repeated throughout the main living areas to create a cohesive look and feel throughout. Some of what I've shown you in the above mood board are items we already own but will be re-purposed to work for our needs.

In an area that needs to check a lot of boxes, each item chosen serves a very specific purpose and will work really hard to make our entry way a whole lot more functional and organized. Let's dive right in and break it down a little further:

Light fixture:
          We only have a single can light in this area and aside from the fact that it doesn’t provide much             actual light, it just isn’t rocking my world. It feels very “apartment-esque” to have this type of                 lighting in our entry and adding a semi-flush fixture is the easiest way to class the joint up a bit.             Yuh feel me?

Shiplap walls:
          This house lacks so much character and adding shiplap to the walls here in the entry will right                that wrong. It's easy, inexpensive, and will bring interest where there is none.

Hooks:
          Because grown men and tiny humans know not what a hanger does or is. Hooks make life easier           for everyone involved. #mainlyme

Dresser:

           We may not have a closet but I scored a campaign dresser a while back and the dresser will                    accomplish the exact same thing as any closet would. There will be enough room for a mail                    station, our re-useable shopping bags, umbrellas and such.

Ottoman:
            A lucky Goodwill find will give us a place to put on or take off our shoes. The concealed storage             is the perfect place to hold our shoe polishing kit too. 

Vintage runner:
            Because every space is more beautiful with a one of a kind vintage rug. And because the cat                   needs a comfy place to lay while waiting for our arrival home. #truth

Well, guys...that's the plan for the entry. Thoughts?! I'll be working on it over the next few weeks and will be sharing bits and pieces here on the blog and on Instagram but man...I can't wait to have a fully functioning (and pretty) space to call done! What's the one thing you need for your perfect entry? Join the convo and share below!

Demo Day 2

Welcome back!

If you're tuning in today we're picking up where we left off yesterday and I'm back with another progress report on Day 2 of demo which I promise will be a lot less dramatic. Or not.

To refresh your memory - and mine - here's what the place looked like when we moved in:

And here's where we left off at the end of Day 1:

After waking up with a much better attitude, a renewed sense of determination, and a body that was surprisingly not as sore as I expected, we still had 1/2 of the hardy backer to demo and we also needed to remove all the hardy backer screws (all those little dots in the foreground of the above photo). Can you say #overkill?

Demoing the remaining hardy backer only took an hour or so and when we were finally finished, we started sweeping up the bits and pieces of thin set (leftover from the tiles) in preparation for our most tedious task yet...removing all.those.screws!

All 8 million of them:

We had a few options to remove them: use an angle grinder and shear off the screw head (I didn't like the sparks), use a crowbar and rip them out (I didn't like the splintering the wood doing this), or dig out the thin set in the screw head and drill them out.

We went with the latter. Mainly because I'm an OCD crazy person. So we spent the next few hours using our Dremel to clean out the screw head and used our Ryobi Drill to pull them out. 

One would Dremel and the other would drill and after a few hours, all the screws had been removed. It was by far the most absurd and time consuming method to remove the screws, but after the physically demanding work of demo Day 1, it was a welcomed change of pace. We turned on Pandora, worked in small sections, and got-er-done!

So much better! 

See that blue bucket above? We decided to use that bucket for all the screws we removed just to see how high we could fill up. Whoever laid the hardy backer went #buckwild with screws so we knew going in, there'd be a lot, but we were still shocked to see that nearly 3/4 of the bucket was filled by the end of the whole ordeal. #insaneinthemembrane

After removing all the screws, we used the shop vac to do a once over on the floors and took the vacuum hose to the perimeter. After vacuuming and putting our tools away, we could officially close the books on our 2nd day of demo. We finished Day 2 on a high note (and with a much better attitude) and guess what?! 

Dad was right. #dadforthewin

We did it. And we were proud of ourselves for doing it.

Not to mention the $1700 savings was a nice little incentive too.

Next week I'll be back to share the progress we've made on the house since the floor demo was completed and there will be a few more tutorials coming your way too! We're closing off a doorway, widening another, we finally chose a paint color, and we're one step closer to laying our floors. Things are happening so fast around here...follow along on Instagram so you don't miss a thing!