House Tour- the Entry

I decided that to start my blog, I should tour the whole house. “It’ll be fun!” I thought. “Everyone will see where I am right now in my house!” And all of those things are true, but it’s a little embarrassing. We’ve lived in this house for almost 6 years and I did the majority of my decorating when we first bought it. And it has all been done on a super tight budget. About 3 years ago I decided we needed to get out of debt so all “extra” spending got frozen and we have since paid off almost $40,000 of debt off. So I shouldn’t be embarrassed about where we are right this second decorating wise, but I am! I am an interior designer and I want a beautiful home! Plus, I want to help you get a beautiful home so mine should be pretty great, and much more Instagrammable (is that even a word?!). But this is my starting point and if it was prefect, neither of us would be here, right? So, the entry- it’s a bit of a snooze. When you walk in the front door, this is the space you first see.

Turning to the left is the door to the garage and turning left again are the stairs to the second story

(I also included a video that walks through the space- my first vlog! Haha! Fingers crossed it’s not too awkward).

The rest of the condo is all on the second floor with lots of gorgeous sunlight and some beautiful views, the entry and garage are the only part of the first floor. There are a few obstacles in the entry- it has zero natural light, it’s tiny, it’s the parking spot for our huge stroller (and that is not changing anytime soon- there’s no room in the tiny garage and there is no way I am lugging it up and down the stairs everyday), there’s no personality, there’s a weird column in the ceiling splitting the small room in two, and the water access and door stop aren’t pretty.

Let’s also talk about the stairs. Sigh… they are my biggest DIY failure ever. And I am usually great at DIY! Here’s what happened- we had carpeted stairs and the carpet was trashed. We didn’t just want to re-carpet the stairs. So we ripped it out and I followed my bestie Pinterest for inspiration, and wallpapered the stairs risers and painted the treads white. It looked gorgeous! And then I listened to a girl at Lowes who said I needed to add a coat of Polyurethane. And that’s when disaster struck- the wallpaper started rolling, the white paint slowly turned yellow and bubbled. Those bubbles have sense collected dirt that is impossible to get out (believe me, I’ve tried). And now that I have a baby, I believe in my soul that they are the most dangerous thing in my house (thank goodness for baby gates. I have this one from Amazon that works with my stairs)*. Luckily, right now he is not mobile, but soon, these have got to be softened (I’ll talk about plans and dreams tomorrow- the fun part!). Lastly, the entry finishes off with a gallery wall on the stairs. It’s a collection of frames that I painted black and filled with quotes and black and white art. Its fine and isn’t a priority for me to change yet.

Let’s talk about what is down here already-

Paint- Olympic Dover Grey D58-4 (-50% off formula) (walls)

Olympic Black Magic D58-6 (baseboards)

Valspar Du Jour 7002-6 (door)

Flooring- some type of beige stone that I don’t have a source for (it was here when we moved in)

Entry Table- Drexel Heritage, Postebello Collection (no longer available)

Entry Mirror- Lowe’s

Wallpaper on Stairs- Amazon*

Decorations- Framed postcards (from our honeymoon to Jackson Hole)

“W” Anthropologie (similar option)

Candle Target

White Owl Down East Home

There you have it! The little dark entry. Join me tomorrow for what I would like to change (this is the fun part!)

*denotes affiliate link