Doing An Entryway Freshen-Up. Finding budget-friendly ways to add a new spark to your house when you can’t afford to remodel fully.
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It was time.
Time for a freshen-up.
The entryway was too far gone.
We bought this house two years ago now and the entryway has been one of the “problem areas”. It’s dirty, but it’s actually stained into the wall so you can’t actually make it look clean. Areas that don’t look clean no matter how much you scrub are one of the most frustrating things.
It’s also not the representation I want our home to have as the first room guests come into as they enter. The entryway is the first impression. It’s very important.
As a lot of you know, we fully remodeled our last home before we sold it and bought our current acreage.
We fully plan on remodeling this house too, but we have been trying to save up the money to actually start. I also feel like we have been in survival mode for the last several years and I couldn’t think about anything other than the basics of keeping my family alive.
You know, the years of being in the trenches. Which I still feel like I’m in, but maybe not as deep as before.
I’ve started to have a little extra energy and brainpower to think about not only keeping kids fed and changing diapers.
With that extra energy my attention quickly turned towards that abominable entryway room.
I attacked it with a vengance.
But also in some simple ways that didn’t take too much time, or cost too much money.
It’s more temporary, but it makes the room livable while we are waiting to do the full home renovation.
Here is a little before and after:
All very simple changes, but they make a huge difference.
Doing An Entryway Freshen-Up
First we trimmed out the window. Man what a difference that made!! Luke gave me a little carpentry lesson and I got to learn how to use the chop saw. He also added some trim pieces along the corners where there was a great-big scary gap into the wall.
Then we decided we needed to do an oil-based primer as the first coat because of all the yucky oil stains on the wall, and the fact that there was some exposed wood.
I did about 1/4 of one wall, and then dramatically almost died because Luke made me wear the respirator.
So he finished doing the primer.
Thank you Luke!
Then we did a nice thick coat of left over white paint that I found in the corner of the garage.
See, things like this don’t need to be expensive. Use what you have, maybe it won’t be the EXACT color you like, but it’ll still be amazing and so much better than it was!
I used the sweet mustard yellow color on the window trim that we used on our front door in the last house. It’s a fabulous little pop of sunshine when you walk into the room!
Then we put back the shoe shelves. Added a basket for hats and gloves. Put flowers on the shelves and hung a flowerpot in the corner.
Then I rifled through my stash of pictures, frames and plates and picked out a few to hang up. I also used some good elbow grease to really scrub off the one door frame we didn’t paint. I opted to leave that one wood because I like the contrast with the white paint.
Now when I enter our house I am greeted by a clean and cheery room. It cost almost nothing to fix up and all that painting was only over two days with lots of breaks in between to let the paint dry.
Well worth it in my book.
I plan to also paint the steps and possibly even the concrete when I have time to dive into another little project! Maybe a green color!
So if there is an area of your home that is really just driving you nuts, I encourage you to explore and see what can be done on a very small budget or with the things you already have!
One of our jobs as homemakers is to make our homes enjoyable to be in. If there is an area that is gross or unattractive, not only is that not fun for our families to look at, but if it’s affecting our moods then that will translate to the rest of the family as well. We need to set the tones in our home and do what we can with the resources we have to make it a beautiful haven to find rest and love.
And blessings!
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