Entryway makeover

Did you notice something slightly different from the "after" photo in the last post? I painted our entry! It was a grayish color that was pretty close to the color in the kitchen (Martha Stewart's Driftwood Gray in semi-gloss) but even though they were sort of similar that didn't seem to flow into each other. Martha has this great thing with her paint... it's like color coding for dummies. All the paints with a star will go nicely with each other, all the paints with an apple coordinate well, you get the picture. Well, I was looking at her paint guide for another project and found this color Sandpiper that looked amazing next to Driftwood Gray. Saturday morning Drew and I did an early Home Depot run while AJ worked on putting up drywall in our bedroom (I owe you photos of that too...).

First for the "before" photos:

Here is a photo of testing out the colors next to each other and wondering "what in the world did I do? this is just a boring beige? and it makes the entryway darker!"

We don't have those nice stainless light switch plates so I just used my paint roller to go right over the light plate... the end product blends in so much more than the stark white plastic... Nothing screams 25 cent Home Depot find like a plastic light switch plate (with three of our screws missing...). Photo is pre-rollering the plate.

Time for the "after" photos! Keep in mind the doorknobs will be replaced with silver and the trim will all be repainted a sparkling white (Behr's Ultra Pure White).

The photo you saw in the previous post of the new cabinet. Just looking at this photo reminds me that I need to tackle that strip of tan paint around our door jam... ick.

View out to the front door. Notice that fabulous vintage American Tourister bag. It was my Nana's and when she died at the end of February my grandfather let me have it... I'm using it as Drew's winter diaper bag (the spring / summer madras diaper bag isn't working so well with my sweaters and scarfs. :) )

Oh brother, I completely forgot, until I put up this picture, to fix the fact that the old paint color is to the right of the mail holder and I forgot to finish cutting in at the bottom of that wall... I couldn't get the mail holder off the wall and needed AJ to help me out and then I forgot to ask him to do it so I could go over that area with the roller. I digress... the mail holder needed a mini makeover so I moved a wreath from the back door onto the long awkward top part, free-handed "mail" on the bottom.

Our friend Jade found this great vintage postcard with a sailboat on it for Drew (sailboat nautical themed nursery) but I loved the look of the back of it and framed that with a frame I painted the same color as the kitchen (it was bright pink before). Instead of purchasing a mat I loved the textured look of the back of the frame and just used that!

There you have it... our mostly done entryway!