Our Entryway

Welcome to our apartment! As promised, after showing you some gorgeous entryways, I'm back with some photos of our very own in its current state. I've never photographed this little section of our apartment before, so it was an interesting game figuring out how to shoot a long-ish, narrow area with little natural light. (Tripod to the rescue!)

Just to get you oriented a little bit to where we are in the apartment from the shot at the top, the door on the left goes to our front hall closet, the wide opening on the right leads to our kitchen, behind the camera to the right is the living area, and behind to the left is the dining area (where the wood shim pendant light hangs).

Got it? Yes? Not confusing at all - right? One of these days I'll show you a floor plan and alllll of this will make so much more sense :).

So let's take a little tour...

This piece of furniture below belonged to my mom when she was little. I inherited her "bedroom set" when my grandparents passed away and have three pieces total. The only one that is still being used for its original purpose is the dresser. It lives in our bedroom. I am all about breaking up furniture sets and re-purposing them to avoid the matchy-matchy look (no offense though if that's your thing!). Who says a bookshelf like this has to hold books? In fact, the bottom half of this piece holds our overflow pantry items and baking supplies. Surprise! (See this post for details...)

And as you can see, the shelves on this piece currently house a collection of favorite photos and one very special stack of letters. Those old envelopes hold a set of letters my grandfather wrote my grandmother during World War II. I'm slowly reading through them, and am loving seeing my grandfather's personality shine through. I can almost hear his voice in each handwritten line.

The milk glass pedestal bowl also belonged to my grandparents. It's the perfect size for corralling keys and other small things we drop off at the door. I realized yesterday that I need to go through it periodically...it's amazing how much stuff we accumulate in a tiny bowl!

So that's pretty much it! Small, but functional. According to my list of wants/needs for an entry from yesterday's post, we pretty check the box on everything...functionally. There's a surface for keys and other "drop at the door" items, a light source (that I didn't even bother to photograph because it's so dinky) with a switch by the door, a place to hang coats in the hall closet and some photos. I'd love to inject a little more personality, but I'll get to that when I get to it, ha ;). I'm open to ideas if you've got some!

Last night I did finish up a little project for that small wall opposite the hall closet. Can't wait to show you!

That wraps up the tour of about 50 square feet of our little home. Hope you enjoyed it!

I'd love to hear about your entryways too - what do you like about it? What do you not like so much about it or wish was different?

Defining My Style: Entryways

{Better Homes and Gardens Magazine}

A little over a week ago, I started a little mini-series on "defining my style" for my home. This is just as much to help me think through my style as it is for y'all to get to know my design taste a little more. It's a sort-of behind-the-scenes look at my ideas/desires/goals for when we have a place that's larger than 684 square feet :).

In the first post of this series, we looked at exteriors, and today, we're moving just through the front door into the entryway. Since this is the first area people will see when they walk in, it's essentially your home's first impression (besides the outside, of course) and gives you a chance to make people feel welcome.

One of my main goals for our home is for guests immediately feel comfortable when they walk through the door. Hospitality is really important to me and I thoroughly enjoy having people over. I want our guests to come in and feel like they can kick their shoes off and put their feet up without worrying about "messing something up" - ya know what I mean?

So what do I want in my entryway? Regardless of whether I've only got a small "piece of wall" or a formal foyer (we've definitely got the former in our current apartment), there are a few features I'd love to include in this area of the house.

Oh, and P.S. I'm treating the entryway differently than a traditional mud room, but you'll probably notice some overlap in purpose/function. I'm imagining most of us probably don't have a designated mud room(?), so I figure most of us will need the entry to function somewhat like a mudroom without actually being one so it doesn't turn into a dumping ground for a ton of stuff!

Alright, let's get started.

1. A Dresser or Console Table.

Having one of these in the entry serves several roles: storage, a place to put things down when you come in the door (think keys, purse, etc.), and a place to throw in a little style. I love the idea of putting an antique piece or something with character here, because my style leans a little towards traditional, and I like a "lived in" look. The photo at the top of this post is a favorite inspiration, and I'm also loving the green dresser below from The Hunted Interior.

{The Hunted Interior}

2. A Light Source.

What the first thing you usually want to do right when you come in the door? Turn on a light. You gotta see where you're going! :) Having a lamp or the switch for an overhead light within a couple of steps of the front door is important. I'm a big fan of a cool pendant light or a table lamp with a bright bulb (check out the horse lamp in the photo below...super awesome). Right now in our apartment, we've got a dinky little boob light stuck to the ceiling. It desperately needs a brighter bulb or something. I'll have to work on that!

{Capella Kincheloe Interior Design}

3. Hooks.

A clean, clutter-free entry is ideal, but it has to be functional too. Hooks can be a great solution for hanging a purse, coat or hat and gives guests an obvious place to put their things (no need to make room in a coat closet if you don't have the space). 

Of course, if you don't have space for a rack of hooks in the entry, but do have a coat closet, use it! We keep a couple of extra hangers in our front hall closet for just that. In the future though, I love the idea of having a few hooks to make it easy to corral the "just walked in the door" clutter.

{Style at Home}

{Albertsson Hanson Architecture}

4. Art or Photos.
Lastly, I like to personalize that wall space right by the door. Family photos, a piece of art or two...those things are what make your home yours. It gives people an insight into your world and what's important to you. The gallery space below is a great example.

{House Tweaking}

Isn't it fun to dream about spaces like this? I love pulling inspiration from others who've "done" different parts of their homes so well. Though I don't have a ton of space right now, I want to incorporate the ideas I've talked about today. It's all about living where you are now, not about coveting the spaces others have created! So while I can't wait to have more space to do some of the things like in the photos above, I want to make sure I enjoy where we are now, in our tiny space. In the very best of "keeping it real" fashion, in the next couple of days, I'm going to show you the current state of our entryway (small as it is). Stay tuned!

Have a great Monday!