Entryway Home Projects

When it comes to sprucing up the outdoors, it can be hard to rationalize spending big bucks on designer products. After all, things will get used and abused, walked on, sat on, and beat up by the elements. That’s why I love this transformation so much. It gives a big designer look for very little cash!This entryway has been spruced up with some simple black paint. It now coats the front door and has been stenciled onto an inexpensive indoor/outdoor rug from the local hardware store.

Linda has a lovely home, outdoors and in, but her entryway was not feeling very welcoming. Besides being on the bland side, this entryway was also seriously deficient in functionality. Fortified with a whole lot of DIY ambition, Linda turned the entryway into a welcoming (and useful) space…As you can see in the ‘after’ photos, Linda went with a more dramatic palette for her entryway.

I think AgaP. would admit that this wasn’t her “best” project in terms of ease and fun. But the finished result is pretty spectacular and inspiration to those of us with entryways whose doors have seen better days. Take a look and see how it turned out: AgaP. had a “bad craft day” and encountered every DIY problem in the book. But, armed with her list of dos and don’ts, you’ll learn from her mistakes, and it’ll be all smooth sailing from there.

Sandy grew tired of her painted birch tree entryway, and needed to switch it up. A quick trip to the hardware store and $28 later, she created a completely new look. Check out what she did and see what you think… Sandy bought four packs of shims and covered the wall from floor to ceiling with cedar. Here’s Sandy with the details on how she did it: Start at the top left hand corner of your wall.

This week Camille is sharing her real life rental challenge and how she transformed her dingy carpeted entryway stairs (with her landlord’s permission!) into something more welcoming, yet still temporary. If you want to see the first post, check out the before photos here. My husband and I decided to DIY this project ourselves, and broke it down into manageable steps, each of which could be completed in a weekend.

This week Camille is sharing her real life rental challenge and how she transformed her dingy carpeted entryway stairs (with her landlord’s permission!) into something more welcoming, yet still temporary. If you want to start by hearing all the plans, check out the before photos here. Updating an old home is filled with challenges.

Mila participated in a recent round of the One Room Challenge, but didn’t want to get overwhelmed by a major hard-core makeover. So, instead, she chose to redo the single wall just inside her entryway, which is also part of her living room. As is, the space was fine, but she was bored with the current gallery wall of photos, and wanted instead to make it as impressive as possible with just a little work and money. Her goal for the end of the project?

When Emma bought her current home, she inherited one weird hallway. It was, in her words, “a giant monstrosity.” Along with four different types of scruffy, threadbare carpet on the stairs, it featured chipped white vinyl tiles downstairs, and yellow and orange “woodchip” wallpaper on all the walls on all three floors — even on the ceiling! When the 1970s called and wanted its decor back, Emma was more than happy to oblige.

We don’t often see hallway/stairway renovations—especially ones as fun as this one. These dingy, mustard stairs — and the dark landing spot at the stairs’ base — are about to get the makeover of a lifetime… WOW! That is so incredibly fun and unique! Natalie Jacob of Arsenic Lace has turned a stairway from a functional necessity to a stunning part of her home.

A mudroom is a great luxury to have—a spot to corral hats, gloves, scarves, dog leashes, muddy shoes, boots, and other inherently messy items—but a pretty, even glam, yet still totally practical, mudroom?!? Dreams really can come true. Before we ooh and aah over the space now, let’s see what Leslie Price of Price Style + Design had to say about the unremarkable room before: When I entered my home through my garage, the space always felt unwelcoming and undefined.

When Lindi of Love Create Celebrate set out to redo her entryway, she knew she wanted an accent wall. After deciding against wallpaper and painted geometric shapes, she ultimately landed on wood as her medium (one-inch MDF strips, to be exact). With a few power tools and a helpful hubby, she materialized her vision in just one afternoon and the results are impressive. Lindi sketched out several different designs before this one stuck.

This blank empty space was the first thing this family saw when they walked in their home’s entryway, and not only was it underperforming in the looks department, it also just wasn’t as useful as it could be. Over the course of just one week, this space was transformed from a dead zone into a new household favorite. Before we get to the big reveal, here’s a look at the corner again, from head to toe. Not much to see here, other than some beige walls and a dog crate.

This week Camille is sharing her real life rental challenge and how she transformed her dingy carpeted entryway stairs (with her landlord’s permission!) into something more welcoming, yet still temporary. If you want to see the first post, check out the before photos here. Removing wallpaper can be a terrible task and it’s the last thing anyone wants to deal when they move. This tutorial uses a temporary adhesive that works well for wallpaper in smaller pieces.

Maybe the front door is drafty or the floor isn’t insulated. Maybe there’s a big window that’s always cold to the touch. Maybe you enter through a dark and damp basement. For whatever reason, your entryway is always freezing cold this time of year. As a renter, there are a few things you can do to warm up this high-traffic space in your home.

This entryway is pretty darn aspirational, but its owner knew it could be even better and was determined to improve upon the “standard, builder-grade finishes like the dreaded ‘boob lights'” and the 20-year-old brown carpet on the stairs. Six weeks later, the stairway and entryway have a fresh new look. While white and cream walls have a definite beauty, the new grasscloth wallpaper adds an upscale richness and texture in the subtlest of ways.

This entryway had a spot for coats, a large landing strip, a mirror for last looks, personality, and beauty, but it was lacking in storage for shoes and other odds-and-ends. A DIYer who enjoys “trying to figure out how to make things with no experience” solved the issue with a few ordinary IKEA drawers and some very special wood.

While this entryway looks pretty organized and well-wrangled in this photo, the entryway’s owner assures us that it was actually “cluttered and disastrous” on a daily basis. IKEA to the rescue! Reader Kate Sheehan explains the issues this hallway was causing: I had tried to make the entryway nice with two industrial shoe racks, but my husband and I have so many shoes that the hallway always looked cluttered and disastrous which is not a particularly great first impression.

This entryway is so incredibly relatable: purse, recycling, tote bag, Roomba, grocery cart—all necessary and conveniently accessible, but perhaps a bit too visible. One impressive DIYer took $200 and totally revamped this space, making it a lot more attractive and practical. Here’s a description of the pre-makeover entryway, plus how it affected the rest of the home: My entryway was a complete disaster.

Why are we showing you a photo of a kitchen in a post allegedly about an entryway? Well, because the wall you see is about to disappear, opening up the entryway in a major way. Kimberly Smith of Turning It Home helpfully describes the situation: In our home was a non-load bearing wall that separated the entry way/dining room from the kitchen.

Reader Anne’s home featured these somewhat overwhelming teal-shuttered cabinets, and while they provided a ton of storage, they made this petite hallway feel dark and crowded. They also trapped a dark secret in place… The cabinets were thoroughly installed, making it impossible to remove what lies beneath. The nailed-in wooden wardrobe covered a shabby 33-year-old carpet. There was even a newspaper from 1985 hidden under it! A time capsule!

Your entryway is one hard worker, and the gatekeeper to the rest of your home. Mail, grocery bags, shoes, and gear regularly come and go, and your home’s well-being depends in part on its ability to filter out the clutter and prevent mess from trickling into your main living space. A good hardworking entryway bench is the ultimate secret weapon, combining style, seating and storage to keep everything clear of chaos and mess (and to look good doing it).

This shoe storage had its issues — scuffs, unpainted areas, general ricketiness — but it’s still better than my Heap O’Shoes. Can the less-than-ideal but serviceable shoe storage racks be improved upon? Is attractive, accessible, adaptable, practical shoe storage actually possible? We shall see. This is amazing! It looks incredibly cool, and the shoes are within easy reach of both the door and the shoe-putting-on bench.

An apartment designed for "refined eclectic comfort."

Deirdre’s entryway makeover packs in all of our favorite things: DIY, IKEA, wallpaper, space maximization and creativity. But you know what, since it’s not all about us, the best thing about Deirdre’s new entryway is how much she loves it. From Deirdre Sullivan: My apartment didn’t have a real entryway.

You know we love good entryway style, so when Leslie sent us her mudroom makeover we had to share. With storage, color, pattern and style she transformed a blah but functional space into a warm, welcoming spot. From Leslie: When I entered my home through my garage, the space always felt unwelcoming and undefined. I wanted the mudroom entry to make me feel joyful when I walked in from a long day at work. I added color and texture to the space using removable wallpaper from Hygge & West.

No matter if you have a non-existent entryway or a spacious foyer, this is one of those spots where clutter seems to pile up before anyone notices. Lucky for us, we can always count on IKEA as an endless source of inspiration for team clutter control. Add one of these hacks or upgrades to your entryway and you’ll gain some extra storage space that also makes a great first impression. When in doubt, wall mount.

M. Pettipoole, an Omaha-based interior decorator, writes: “My clients… own a picturesque Cape Cod Colonial in an established Omaha neighborhood. [They] had already beautifully decorated the rest of their home in a traditional-with-a-twist style befitting the 1939 year of their house. She just wanted my help to make a statement in their entryway— where first impressions are made.” From M.

We don’t all have a mudroom in our home. We don’t even all have an entryway. But nearly all of us have at least one hallway. If you’re looking for stylish and functional design ideas for whatever kind of narrow space you’re working with, find inspiration from this dreamy mudroom makeover.

Hallways are awkward spots in our homes, both overlooked and undervalued —they’re weird in-between places that we pass through multiple times daily, but we don’t actually spend a lot of time there. What they don’t have to be is a waste of space. With a little time and effort they can be storage powerhouses. Who says you can’t have built-ins in the hallway?

Dee’s new house was dark, having been painted chocolate brown with dark trim throughout. She decided to start at the beginning— and transform the entryway first. From Dee: About a year ago, my fiancé and I bought our first house together! While I was excited at finally having my very own home, I completely underestimated the amount of work involved in getting it to look like my “dream” home. Luckily for us, the changes have all been cosmetic so far.

My apartment’s entryway is an angled, narrow pseudo-hall that opens to my main living space. After searching for a way to create some definition, I decided to do a little painting project, inspired by my coworking space. Here’s the inspiration: I love that I work from a place that makes bold design decisions, so when my WeWork location recently opened up this new common area, I filed away this simple geometric painting technique for future use.

Ewa and husband Andrew approached their new home’s balustrade in an interesting way. With only a tiny hall closet, they could benefit from some additional storage. See what they did with a trip to IKEA: From Ewa: My husband and I moved into this VA townhouse late summer. We knew we would be removing wall to wall carpeting before our furniture was to arrive in only 4 weeks. We had little time and not a huge budget. We decided to DIY the floors.

Having a whole closet right by your front door is amazing for storage if you’re a family with kids, but not if that closet comes with big outdated mirrored doors that don’t work well and don’t allow you to see what’s actually in the closet. Jen got to work, transforming this old closet into a very stylish — but most importantly functional — welcoming storage spot for her family. From Jen: This all started because this closet was not working for us.

Renovation by: Mike (you may remember his bathroom renovation) Location: Chicago We live in a typical Chicago apartment with a really long skinny layout. When you enter our apartment the foyer and hallway are the first things you see so they really needed some TLC. When we first moved in to the apartment the foyer and hallway were painted in a yellow glaze and the only light fixtures were flush mounted glass domes from the 80’s.

When Amanda moved into her second house, she knew the dark and dated split entry needed to be brightened up — a dark door, peach-hued walls and a tall wall with nothing on it just didn’t fit her style. From Amanda: To brighten up the space, we installed a tongue and groove accent wall (to cover the heavy knock down texture) and painted it white. A new larger glass French door let light pour.

You know how we’re always saying that entryways are a perfect spot for walls that wow? This before and after certainly highlights what a difference design in one’s entryway can make! It was a lot of work (and a lot of math) but you might find inspiration for your own entryway with this neat 3D wall pattern idea.

Katja’s entryway was pretty, but plain, and needed a good dose of something. Turns out that something was turquoise paint and a lot of graphic pattern. To create the accent wall, Katja first painted it a light turquoise. Then, strips of painter’s tape were placed vertically every 14 inches. Smaller bits were taped at an angle off those stripes, to create the arrow effect. She then painted over the whole thing with a darker turquoise and removed the tape.

Sometimes “before” pictures aren’t disgusting nightmares that leave you horrified. Sometimes they are perfectly nice, but the owner was just sick and tired of looking at the same layout or piece of furniture. We’ve all been there and so was Bethany, who’d grown weary of seeing this dark brown trellis pattern first thing after walking in the door. She made a few crucial tweaks without spending a dime — including a mini IKEA hack — and wound up refreshed.

A staircase in the entry was a selling point for Cassity, but the builder basic quality left much to be desired. She decided to make the steps worthy of their prime location. Check out the results:From Cassity: Having a staircase in our entry was one of the features I liked about our new house, but the builder grade finishes, worn carpet and cramped entry really bothered me.

Ever since my husband and I moved into our 1997 split level, we’ve been slowly working at removing the builder grade finishes to really make it reflect our taste. A couple of weeks ago I finally finished making over the entryway.I smashed the old green ceramic tiles, pulled the stained carpet off the stairs, and painted what felt like miles and miles of honey oak trim. The front door got a coat of yellow paint and the walls got a pale gray.