My Favorite House Tour - Entryway (and a cry for help)

While I only plan to be in this house a few months longer, I still want to make it as much of a home as possible.  I realized that the longer you stay in a place, the more it become "the norm" and I have a tendency to let the decorating desire go down simply because my house becomes a place to crash, and not a place to enjoy.  So, I took a tour.....of my own house!  I wanted to get a fresh look at everything as though I was walking through a friend's house who needed some decoration help/guidance.

Looking this week at the entryway, here's what I told myself:

Pros: I like the yellow greeting....

And the giant ruler for measuring the kids....

But the rest needs some zing - this is an entry way!

Ideas:

•  A bright braided rug (picture from A Beautiful Mess)

• Hanging plants in the windows that peep into the living room (Augh, can't re-find the website where I found this originally)

• Some big piece of art in the blank space behind the door (picture from Pinterest, but no credit attached)

So, fresh eyes out there - what would YOU do to add a little spice to this space?  Take something away?  Add something?  How do I make it feel cozy with all that beige?  Should I find a little bench for under the coats, or would that make it too crowded??  I'd really love suggestions and pictures or something in the comments here.  Help a sister out!

Snapshot: Mirror Stairwell

Welcome, new $10 thrifted mirror!  I hope you like your new family!

Circles on the Walls!

Inspired by this pin from A Home Full of Color on Pinterest, I sent out turning my light stairwell into one that was still light and breezy, but had a bit of charm to it.

Before (angle from the top of the stairs):

After:

Pretty simple project.  White curtains I already owned, and I just used black acrylic paint and randomly drew circles.  I chose not to have the circles overlap (except for one where I did) and I'm not sure if I like it like I did it or if I want to go add more circles and have them overlap.  For right now, though, I really love what they add to the hallway, and how the circles reflect in the mirrors!!

Front Entry Fixin'

Naturally, the first thing to happen when you walk in the door in my house is to drop everything (bags, babies, whatever) on the floor of the foyer.  I was SO tired of tripping over things that I put together an easy fix.

Crap dumped everywhere

I had the idea to put a piece of wood between the doors of the closet and the half-bath, and then install hooks to hang coats, bags, etc, that we use everyday.  I know we have a closet, but we just never open it up to hang things up.  First world problems.

Future Home of Hooks

So, I had Jon grab a piece of wood at Lowe's and cut it down to size.

Avery thinks the saw is too loud

The he installed it and I put a few coats of primer/paint on there.

Primed and hung

Painting away!

 My good friend, Ryan, took pity on my drill-less self and came over and installed 5 hooks that I ordered from Lowes.com in the board.  And finally, my foyer was debris-free and looking fine!

Fall Decor - Part #2

Remember when I bought three little lanterns and painted them yellow?

Well, I went back to Target the next week and went a little overboard buying black lanterns on clearance for the sole purpose of using them for fall/Halloween decor.

Using my yellow ones and painting the others orange or silver or leaving them black, I created a fun lineup of color on a shelf in our stairwell!

Then I went out and found those little flameless tealights to give them some extra oomph.

Every day when he gets home from day care, Avery helps me turn all the little lights on.  It's colorful and fun to see them flickering on our stairs as we go up and down a million times a day!  I also threw in some letters I picked up at Michael's, some leftover leaves from this fall decor project, and a couple of photos from family fall fun of the past.  I think it will be fun to add holiday photos from past years every year.  Hope your house is looking nice and fally!

Mirror Mirror Off the Wall

Hey, we're American and we have this IKEA mirror.  Just like every other home I've seen.

And I like it a lot - versatile, classic, it's a good purchase.  BUT, it did not go well where we hung it in our entryway.  See?  Too big, off-centered.  Just looks like we threw it up there.  Which we did.  Tee-hee.  You can see in its reflection a new mirror eagerly waiting in the wings.  Enter a mirror originally from Homegoods that I acquired during an office move and no one has seemed to miss.  Shhh...  Taking off the big mirror left me with a couple of big holes and wall patches that came with our house (yay - rentals!).

Um...gross.

So, I couldn't center the new mirror EXACTLY on the wall, because I needed to use it to cover up some flaws so I wouldn't have to do all that annoying patchwork.

Voila!  A fun mirrored mirror that fits into the space nicely, creates a nice looks, and is different than the standard old IKEA mirror.  If only we could paint the walls.  Sigh.

Note that Jon has never liked this mirror sitting around and didn't want to hang it up.  BUT, if you hang it up when he's not at home, he comes home and says "Cool, a new mirror!" as though he's never seen it before.  Brilliant.