Updates to our Entryway

I have been meaning to share what we've done to our entryway for a week or two now, and since Melissa at Houseography is doing a house tour and today is Mudrooms, I thought this would be a perfect time to share what we have done to make a better landing area in our entryway, making it function more like the mudroom we dream of in the future (for more of my dreams for the entryway you can check out my entryway board on pinterest!). Here is a sneak peak at what it now looks like:

When we moved in, our entryway was looking pretty rough. There was worn down wood paneling on the floor that may have once been intended to be on wall, it was hard to tell. The coat closet was as it is today, minus the coat of white paint, and the other closet was wall to wall wood plank shelves with stains and lots of dust bunnies. It was rather disgusting! Sorry I don't have any pictures of it in its glory :(

Before we moved in we cleaned off all the surfaces and gave everything a coat of kilz primer. We ripped up the floor boards/paneling, and even put a coat of primer down on the floor to cover the patchy stained plywood. We put a length of indoor outdoor carpet down to catch some of the dirt that builds up in an entryway, and we moved in. Eventually I painted the walls the same tan color as the living room/dining room area, and we called it good enough. A month or so ago I rewired the front porch light, installing a timer switch so the light would turn on and off automatically. That is when this picture was taken, where you can sort of see the mess to the right on the shelves.

The thing was, the deep (double planked) shelves were great at catching stuff. All sorts of stuff. Miscelanous stuff. Stuff on its way into the house. Stuff on its way out of the house. Stuff I didn't even know was in the house. Stuff I didn't want in the house. Stuff I was looking for and could never find. You know how those spots work... Or don't work...

So a couple weeks ago I got sick of it, and was dreaming of the day we could tear both closets out and put in some builtin locker-type units like I've been pinning. I suddenly realized that by taking out the outer plank of wood from each of the shelves, that I could use some recycled cardboard boxes to get the same effect, albeit not nearly as nice looking. And so that's what I did, and boy does it ever make the space work so much better for us! Sure it isn't pretty, but it is functioning, and sometimes that is much more important. Also, now we can have one (or maybe two) chairs in that spot, so that we can sit down to put on or take off our shoes, which is great for guests with limited mobility. I can also sit Little M on it to put her shoes on, so I don't have to bend all the way over! Isn't it crazy how such a small thing (like a chair or cardboard boxes) makes such a big difference?

I figure that eventually we will get real boxes or bins or some sort, or at least paint or paper over the cardboard we have now, but since right now I am still shifting things around in the house so that the important mudroom/entryway-type things are actually in boxes there, I figure I'll wait a bit longer until the system gets a bit more like perfect :) I also don't know that I want to spend money on bins or boxes until we know what sizes are needed once we rip the closets out and put in a new system in there. So perhaps cardboard boxes it will be! I know it doesn't look pretty, but right now for us that is just fine.