Room by Room~ How to Create a Welcoming Entry

Creating a welcoming entryway to your home helps not only feel organized, but your guests feel welcome!

Hi, friends!  It's been a bit since you've heard from me.  We are back from vacation and I cannot wait to share all of our adventures with you!  It's going to take me a while to compile it all and process everything we saw while in Africa.

I will definitely share it with you, but in the meantime, I am excited to kick off a new summer series called, Room by Room.  In this series, you are going to have the opportunity to take a peek into different rooms in our home each week this summer.  While visiting those spaces, we hope to share some of our favorite projects already completed, what's on our to-do list for that space and give you tips to make the most of that room in your own home.  This is a team effort, so no matter what your style, there's a blogger for you to visit and gather inspiration from.  All their spaces are linked at the bottom, so be sure to scroll all the way down and visit their rooms.

How to Create a Welcoming Entryway

 

There are always pluses and minuses to every home and our entryway has always been a minus to us.  Though to have any entryway at all is a blessing that I cannot overlook!  It just happens to be small and not very useful.

We'll start by walking in the door.  Straight ahead is a half wall with the staircase to your left and my office to the immediate left. Beside the half wall to the right is a hallway with a closet and to my immediate right a hallway to my powder room and mudroom.

Because of all the openings, and the staircase straight ahead, it has always been a challenge to find just the right amount of storage and seating to make it work for our family.

My tips for creating a welcoming entry include: add lighting, a mirror for last-minute checking as you enter and exit the home, a place to put on your shoes, a basket for storage, and a rug to wipe off your shoes.  Also do not overlook the design element, the entry is the first stop when greeting guests and it needs to match the flow and design of your home.  Decorate it just as you would any other room in your home. 

Using these tips, I have turned a small entryway into a cozy and functional spot.

What I came up with has changed in the last six month, a French country bench that I am sooooo in love with!

This bench is narrow, so it fits perfectly into the nook.  I found it at a vintage furniture store and was made with an old headboard from a bed.  I love the lines of it.  Above it, a mirror, a fun number piece of art, and two sconces complete the wall.  Below it, I filled an olive bucket with old piano scrolls I picked up at a thrift store.  A white furry throw and a burlap pillow make it a comfy place to sit and put on shoes.  I love having fresh flowers like this toolbox arrangement greeting me when I come in, or even faux flowers are a nice addition.

On the floor is a neutral rug which hides dirty feet marks when you come in the door.

The staircase was a makeover in itself.  We upgraded the railing to include new wrought iron spindles.  You can read about that DIY project HERE.  As of a couple of months ago, the staircase received a new runner.  Now with the added runner, we aren't slipping down the hardwood stairs.  That's a plus!

On the walls, we have added a black and white photo gallery of our travel visits.  I'll be honest, I did not plan this arrangement out ahead, instead, I eyeballed the placement and honestly, I love the eclectic look.  Keeping the frames the same color makes this massive collection cohesive instead of cluttered.  You can see a full post on this travel gallery, HERE.

One of the first things we did when we moved into our home was replace all the overhead lighting.  I opted for wrought iron and ditched the outdated brass.  It made a huge difference.  This was a chandelier that I picked up at the Potterybarn Outlet. For a little money, it really changed the overall look.

Finally, you may have spied my set of barn doors to the right when you enter. This was a sliding door coat closet, but the longer we lived in the home, the more unhappy I became with a lack of a mudroom, so a few years ago, we moved our laundry room (far right of the entry, past the powder room), to the basement and instead converted that space to a mudroom!  I love it.  With that change, it gave us another opportunity to correct what we saw as an issue in our home, the lack of a pantry.  So this coat closet got a new look with sliding barn doors and became a pantry.  It is working out great!  It is right off the kitchen and the barn doors look so stylish in our entry.

I encourage you to look outside the box when decorating your home.  By tweaking a few things around, we were able to find a way to make our home a better functioning space for our family.

I'm so excited to check out the other entryways and gather even more inspiration and ideas!

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To life feeling like home!

XO,