Long time Entryway Remodel

When we bought this house five years ago it had been owned by ex military persons and every inch of the house was either red,white and blue or pasty army green. I tore down all the flag print borders and breathed a sigh of relief because as much as I love the USA, it just wasn't a style that fit our family. Three years later, the entryway was still bearing our flag's colors and sort of a mismatched patching of artwork and *stuff*. I was longing for something more calming on my eyes and a brighter, since our entryway is teeny tiny.

As in just about every room, layers upon layers of wallpaper had been painted over. The floor was checkerboard linoleum.

So, being newly pregnant and nesting with our sweet Addie, I decided to first rid myself of the floor and crossed my fingers that underneath this 120 yr old portion of the house would lie something exciting - wood or tile was my hope.

Six layers of junk flooring. Six!

I was so pleased to see hard plank floor boards under it all! The kids and I cleared out the remaining tacks and nails and mopped it and it happily lay so until a year later when I had time to refinish it. Having six children and a sick husband has made the last two yrs interesting, to say the least.

Wall color is Benjamin Moore's Wedgewood Gray on top. I saved some pennies by having Lowes color match the Benjamin Moore color. Stair treads and rail were painted black.

I needed to get rid of the chair rail hanging at different heights around the room but when I pried it off I found that someone had wallpapered above the chair rail and below it, but not underneath it so there was a large uneven gapping of no wallpaper. Simply painting over it all would not work.

I bought this thick wallpaper from Lowes and papered about 3/4 of the way up the walls. The thickness of the paper smoothed those nasty walls right out. (complete lathe and plaster demo was not an option at this time).

I used the old chair rail at the top of the paper, added another piece of moulding for a shelf and a piece of quarter round to make the picture lip for the photos of our foster babies. Ah... the shelf has gotten a bit too cluttered but until I have time to re-home some of the photos, here it is. It makes me smile and makes me heart ache every time I walk by. Love those kiddos.

The lone red white and blue survivor in the room is the heat cover. :)

The entryway also sported a 1980's fake gold chandelier so we upgraded to this cute stained glass one when Lowes was clearing out. I believe it was $20. I like the little bright pops of red in this small space against the cool bright walls.

I used my orbital sander to sand the floors with very fine paper and then stained them a dark maple. The stain was a few dollars on Lowes oops shelf.

Instead of all my mismatched oil paintings I had thrifted, I decided to create a black and white photo gallery wall. I'm repainting and distressing the frames as time allows and repositioning them as I go along. I found this great wall decal that says "Family: One of God's masterpieces". You can win the same decal here!

Hope you enjoyed our little entryway tour!