Saturday, November 01, 2008

Freshening Up

Foyer - From Bottom of Stairs
The Mid-Point After (definitely not a before, but still needing some things) - from the bottom of the stairs

Last weekend, while Mike was building us a corner tv cabinet that does not eat up precious floorspace (pictures to come late, once the living room has been cleaned up a bit), I worked on freshening up our dreary foyer. That's right, we've lived here for a year and a month and we're still not done inside or out.

Mike's plan is to have our entire house sparkly, clean, and completely decorated in time for Thanksgiving…I don't see it happening, but we'll try. Having the foyer lightened up really helps. You may remember I was itchin' for some change back in May.

Foyer-Before
The Before

Well that itch quickly passed, and now with October wrapped up we've finally got some progress. Mike actually really pushed me to get it done. I was stuck on colors, so it helped when he actually sat down with paint chips with me and gave real input.

It didn't hurt that I found a table for the entryway either. That has been a source for much heartache during this October project. It's a small space with the doorway into the living room right where a table would look great. I wanted a cabinet that could store all the blankets and pillows we pull out to snuggle up to watch tv with, but get left out because we have no storage. But that doorway made it impossible to put a cabinet (the smallest of which I found were 18 inches deep - we really couldn't go deeper than 12") or even a rectangle table.

Foyer - From Living Room
From the living room doorway

While out at my forced trip to Ace for paint chips, I decided to stop into the Jeffery Allans, where the sell everything for candles to scrapbooking supplies to furniture. And the very last place I looked in the store, I found the perfect table! Rounded so we could could have depth and still get into the living room.

With the elusive piece of furniture found, I became much more eager to finish and the next Saturday Mike and I picked a color - a nice light blue to lighten up the area, which despite it's stain glass front door does not get a lot of light - and headed to Lowes.

Foyer - From Stairs
From the stairs

I painted while Mike constructed, and we were able to knock out two projects in one weekend.

And the best results came when I painted the door. It had been the factory cream color with random rusty looking paint spots. It wasn't rust, but it was that colored. It looked dirty and gross…I can only hope the guests in our home never looked at the back of our front door.

And now it looks so clean! Blends with the walls and crisp white trim, it really helps the foyer look finished.

Foyer - From Door Corner
From the door

It's not completely done (we still need to paint the stairway, add my pez cabinets, probably get a different rug, replace the light fixture with a Movarian Star hanging pendant and set up a little something special to greet guests), but I think it could certainly pass as completed for awhile. At least until I save up the money to buy the lamp.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks terrific! That new light fixture will be excellent in there!

Anonymous said...

It really is impressive. Doesn't look like the same house that you moved in to...so much better now. You both have excellent taste!

Anonymous said...

Sarah it looks so pretty and bright. I love the front door. Table is perfect. Can't wait to see the finish product with lighting and up the stairs.