One of the first impressions guest gather when entering your home is the entry way. There is the outdoor area as the come up to the door but I consider that first step in inside so important. For my house and many built there is no formal entry way, you come in the front door and enter the living room thus I had to carve out a place to welcome guests.
In my three years in the house I have be working on this space and I know I do not feel 100% about it, though I know it is closer than where we started.
Let’s establish what the front entryway looked like when I moved in. Below are the best photos I have from that time. They are both from the listing for the house so the angles are limited though it gives a good impression of there is no real place to welcome your guests as the come in the door.
I will cover more of the basic changes I made to this room when I talk about my living room space, but for now you will notice that I changed the paint color on these walls.
The first thing I did when making the entryway area was to setup an area that could be a seen as a “stop” for when you coming the door. I created this section on the wall with the furniture placement and adding a indoor doormat. This allows the guest to stop and look around while they close the door. I did this by adding my first of many wall collages in the home. This one focus on two things, doors and my initials. Both I believe give the impression of what you are going to see when you enter my home.
This was the only thing I did for the entryway for many months but I knew I wanted to highlight this area more and tried to layer on some more welcoming touches. Those included adding a wreath to the door, a basket and an umbrella stand since there seems to be so many raining days in Ohio.
As you can see in the previous photo there is an end table that guests walk into that I have never really loved with the placement, but that was needed for the living room. This can be a common a struggle when trying to established a designated space in a open concept area.
The next layer I added to the space was a stool for a guest to sit down at while the take their shoes on and off. I thought this would be a great idea, but what I found was that this stool limited the opening of the door and forced the guest into the end table even more then they were already. I realized early on that I would have to rework this space. I also found that people were not using that stool since the living room is in the same space.
These two issues are what causes the next transition and current setup of my entry way. I change out the end table and the stool because I learned I really like about the stool was that it gave me a place to add some more home decor elements, which in the end is really the driving force behind most of choices. I am the type person who loves to decorate and subscribes to the idea that there is always a place to add something. I realize that is not trend right now, but it is what makes me happy. I went with a narrow and tall end table and then traded the stool for a little half table.
Those two changes have really allowed me to make this makeshift entryway feel more welcoming and make it a better part of the rest of room. At this time I am happy with the direction the space is going to, even if the number of visitors my space gets is limited. Welcome to my home…even if it only a virtual visit.
Cover Those Walls 