This week I focused on the entryway again.
Remember what I was saying about storage? Yeah, we have lots of stuff that should be in a mudroom of sorts, but it was in the basement, making things a bit more difficult for me when we need to find winter items during spring/fall, or spring jackets after the weather has cooled. I loved the way our entry looked with the nice metal framed shelf, the flip lidded 'grass' box, the picture frames on the wall... but it wasn't functioning the way it needed to any more (and this is actually moved around a bit, too. The bench was on the wall under the frames before, with the shelf/box against the wall the bench is now at).
This is how our entry way was. The kick in the pants for me was when the kids hooks came out of the wall. Ripped the drywall right out, in fact. We had some nice solid metal anchors in there that were supposed to be able to support 20lbs each... and there were two of them. I guess the drywall just couldn't handle it anyway. So, there you see a pile of jackets on the infant car seat that is actually expired now (sniff... need to buy a new one for baby #4. But we got some good use out of this one!). The wire shelf has been housing my diaper bag, which is really quite heavy and makes the shelf sag when I set it down on there. Otherwise, it was mostly only holding trinkets and pretty things. The black hooks/shelf is something I built a number of years ago, when we finished the renovation that gave us an entryway of sorts.
Well, that was the before. Here is the after.
Ta-da! Welcome, storage! And lots of it! I'd have preferred it on the back wall, but that wall was just 3 inches shy of allowing these bookshelves to sit there, side by side (and I'd have to remove my hooks as they go too close to that wall to slide a bookshelf behind). I haven't yet rehung the picture frames, and the tops of the bookshelves need some decorated diaper boxes to house out of season jackets and whatnot (there's a whole two feet of emptiness up there). But I pulled up two boxes of outdoor gear from the basement, plus the stuff we already had, and put them all into their boxes. Each child has a box for their jackets/ski-pants. There are at least 5 or 6 empty boxes in those shelves, and I need to make the labels for each one yet. I still want to see if I can have proper shelves that fit at the back instead as it would look and fit nicer than having the bench way over there, but for now, this is a nice change. I may just make my own 'built ins' as I cannot seem to find anything to fit properly. Although, the Ikea Billy Bookcases might fit... I'll have to check their measurements again. They are also much deeper (15.5 inches deep vs. these ones at less than 12 inches deep).
And now there is a nice place to put my bag where my daughter cannot reach it (and play with keys, and remove items that need to stay there so when we need them I'm left searching for something that is back at home... on the floor... in the living room). The basket under the cowboy hat I plan to use to put extra diapers, wipes, bibs, things of that nature for when we need to replenish the diaper bag. I even have a bin for all our grocery bags. When we head out, we just put them back in the van!
All I spent was about $25 on baskets and bins (how I love Dollarama). We already had the bookcases in our bedroom which we emptied as we need to move stuff downstairs with the bedroom renos anyway. It is kinda fun to rearrange what you already have to see what you can do with it. This is not our final, permanent, solution, but it is much easier than it was to find what we need. I really want to find something that will look prettier (like it did before with that beautiful wire shelf we've now relocated into our bedroom as there aren't any other walls I can think to put it on), and I should put the picture frames back up on the other wall, too. I'll work out a 'built ins' solution eventually. But for now, this will work nicely.
I love having all the stuff we need for outside right here in our entryway!! :)
Remember what I was saying about storage? Yeah, we have lots of stuff that should be in a mudroom of sorts, but it was in the basement, making things a bit more difficult for me when we need to find winter items during spring/fall, or spring jackets after the weather has cooled. I loved the way our entry looked with the nice metal framed shelf, the flip lidded 'grass' box, the picture frames on the wall... but it wasn't functioning the way it needed to any more (and this is actually moved around a bit, too. The bench was on the wall under the frames before, with the shelf/box against the wall the bench is now at).
This is how our entry way was. The kick in the pants for me was when the kids hooks came out of the wall. Ripped the drywall right out, in fact. We had some nice solid metal anchors in there that were supposed to be able to support 20lbs each... and there were two of them. I guess the drywall just couldn't handle it anyway. So, there you see a pile of jackets on the infant car seat that is actually expired now (sniff... need to buy a new one for baby #4. But we got some good use out of this one!). The wire shelf has been housing my diaper bag, which is really quite heavy and makes the shelf sag when I set it down on there. Otherwise, it was mostly only holding trinkets and pretty things. The black hooks/shelf is something I built a number of years ago, when we finished the renovation that gave us an entryway of sorts.
Well, that was the before. Here is the after.
Ta-da! Welcome, storage! And lots of it! I'd have preferred it on the back wall, but that wall was just 3 inches shy of allowing these bookshelves to sit there, side by side (and I'd have to remove my hooks as they go too close to that wall to slide a bookshelf behind). I haven't yet rehung the picture frames, and the tops of the bookshelves need some decorated diaper boxes to house out of season jackets and whatnot (there's a whole two feet of emptiness up there). But I pulled up two boxes of outdoor gear from the basement, plus the stuff we already had, and put them all into their boxes. Each child has a box for their jackets/ski-pants. There are at least 5 or 6 empty boxes in those shelves, and I need to make the labels for each one yet. I still want to see if I can have proper shelves that fit at the back instead as it would look and fit nicer than having the bench way over there, but for now, this is a nice change. I may just make my own 'built ins' as I cannot seem to find anything to fit properly. Although, the Ikea Billy Bookcases might fit... I'll have to check their measurements again. They are also much deeper (15.5 inches deep vs. these ones at less than 12 inches deep).
And now there is a nice place to put my bag where my daughter cannot reach it (and play with keys, and remove items that need to stay there so when we need them I'm left searching for something that is back at home... on the floor... in the living room). The basket under the cowboy hat I plan to use to put extra diapers, wipes, bibs, things of that nature for when we need to replenish the diaper bag. I even have a bin for all our grocery bags. When we head out, we just put them back in the van!
All I spent was about $25 on baskets and bins (how I love Dollarama). We already had the bookcases in our bedroom which we emptied as we need to move stuff downstairs with the bedroom renos anyway. It is kinda fun to rearrange what you already have to see what you can do with it. This is not our final, permanent, solution, but it is much easier than it was to find what we need. I really want to find something that will look prettier (like it did before with that beautiful wire shelf we've now relocated into our bedroom as there aren't any other walls I can think to put it on), and I should put the picture frames back up on the other wall, too. I'll work out a 'built ins' solution eventually. But for now, this will work nicely.
I love having all the stuff we need for outside right here in our entryway!! :)
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