An Elegant Entryway

After fixing up the living room and the dining room, our front entryway was becoming more and more of an eyesore. We wanted to make a good first impression, but it was more of a horrible first impression, followed by an inspiring second impression. Here's how it looked on the day we moved in.

 

The previous owners had installed lovely fluorescent lighting and more of the "burlap sack" (as we have so affectionately dubbed it.) Plus there were some weird bars (maybe pull-up bars) and a bunch of hooks. In short, it was ugly. To make matters worse, when we installed our new front door last year, we slapped up some boards to roughly frame in the doorway, and called it a day.

Here's how we tackled this eyesore:

We started by tearing out the luv-ly fluorescent light, the framework holding up the light, and the burlap sack.

We were left with the lovely fixture hole and a bunch of yucky glue on the plaster walls. Some spackle, and a bunch of scraping and sanding left the walls smooth enough to prime.

 

Next up was a couple of coats of primer, and a lovely little chandelier. We took a standard black five armed chandelier from a bargain outlet, and transformed it with a little bit of metallic spray paint. The result was an aged, elegant look that totally matched the style of our house.

Staining the moulding around the door was definitely the most challenging part. Turns out you can't buy stain at Walmart that matches the 100 year old finish on your house's original moulding. Who knew, right? In the end, two coats of colonial maple, two coats of red mahogany and three coats of lacquer produced a finish that is nearly indistinguishable from the original finish.

 

The last step was painting the door and the wall above the doorways. Two coats of a lovely blue gray called Woodlawn Silver Brook by Valspar were the finishing touch.

 

Now the entryway makes as good of a first impression as the rest of the rooms!

Before:

After:

 

Linked to Metamorphosis Monday. Be sure to check out the other transformations there!