Then...
...Now!
As you know, my husband and I have been working on making our house a home. The first project we decided to tackle was our entryway. In my opinion the entry says a lot about your home. It is the fist thing your guests see. It is also the first thing you see when you come home…which is reason enough to make sure that it is an inviting space. Our home is on the second floor of a three-story building, so our front door opens up to a set of stairs. This made it confusing for guests who weren’t sure if they were entering our home, or the lobby to an apartment building. This is where we started…
Before
After
1) Door Hardware
The front door is the first thing your guests see. Think of the hardware as the jewelry. We changed out our doorknob to a chunky brass knob and deadbolt. Not only is it more secure, but it’s a lot easier on the eyes. We went with brass since the existing door and all the other hardware in the home have brass detailing. Rather than swap everything out, we decided to work with it. We added weather stripping and a brass doorplate to finish it off. A fresh coat of paint would be great...but we will have to wait until the whole building gets painted to see that change.
Before: In areas where the paint was already pealing, we had to chip and sand the paint so that we weren't just caking paint on.
After: We now have a cleaner and smoother finish!
2) Paint
It had been a while since the home had been painted and we feel like everything could use a fresh coat. Walls, trim, doors, and even the ceiling! For our entryway we chose Manchester Tan from Benjamin Moore. We wanted something light and inviting for the entry. It’s a long and narrow staircase, so we wanted to make it feel as open as possible. Painting all the trim in a bright white semi-gloss finish was also important. This will make everything feel nice and crisp. It will also show the wall color better if there is the contrast.
3) Stair Runner & Stair Rods
Due to the fact that we are on the 2nd floor, we really needed to be cognizant of the noise factor involved. Our downstairs neighbors probably wouldn’t appreciate us trekking up and down the stairs with our shoes on. Carpet would help soften the noise as well as make the space more inviting. We chose this herringbone pattern because it was both modern and clean, but still worked with the traditional style of the home. The pattern also makes stains harder to notice.
The stair runner was installed pretty securely. Our carpet rods are simply ornamental. Nonetheless, we felt that living in a Victorian obligated us to the extra detail. These rods range from $13-$50 a piece. Home depot has a great range, but you can hunt around and find some pretty elaborate ones.
5) Mirror
Since the only light the stair well was getting was through the small window above the front door, we chose to put a mirror at the top of the landing. It isn’t directly opposite the front door (which is considered to be bad feng shui). The mirror helps reflect light and brighten up the space. It also gave us an opportunity to add a few more touches to welcome our guests. We added this small table to place a Ganesh stature and a simple white orchid plant to finish it off.
6) The Landing
We added a bench to the top of our landing for more than just decorative reasons. Being Indian, we have a 'No shoes in the house' policy. This gives us a comfortable place to sit, take our shoes off and set down whatever we make have in our hands. The bench is also conveniently located right next to our coat and shoe closet. We also changed the ceiling light. What we had before was a simple ceiling mount that you could find in any rental property. The new glass bell fixture adds a lot more light and ties in with the decor in the rest of the house.
More before and afters of our home coming soon....