Entry Makeover

Our sad old entry area had this beauty (ha!) centered on the wall that we picked up for $5 from a consignment shop in the village.

When we bought it we planned to paint and distress it to give it some interest, but for only $5 we ultimately saw a practical place to keep our keys, sunglasses, and sometimes mail or shopping lists. Unfortunately, we hung it to see what we thought of it, immediately disliked it, but left it in place for about 5 months because that wall needed something (anything).... and it really was practical.

Eventually I'd had enough of the goofy shelving unit that had no business in our home, much less providing the first impression to the house, and took it down, spackled, and repainted the scratched up surface it was hiding, and looked for some inspiration for my blank canvas. And here's what I came up with.

These silhouette photos of our pups (sorry for the quality, they're phone pics) combined with a project I saw on one of my favorite DIY blogs gave me hope I could create some free art for the wall and combine it with a few other items I already had around the house.

To create this look I searched google images for silhouette's of bulldogs and great danes. I found small (like 3''x2'') images I could print as reference guides, and then spent about an hour to create the same look freehand with a marker on a sheet of printer paper. Once I had the look I liked, I scanned it to even out the variation of black lines and reprinted. These were literally created with a Sharpie and a printer. Repurposing some cute wrought iron hooks that Tom's parents bought us back in January, and a discount shopping trip later, I'd brought the functionality back to the space.

The entry space is a corner though, so the opposite wall needed a pop of art too. We had a framed cut out of our wedding date that was supposed to hold photos, but every time I tried to put pictures into it I found it came out college collage-like and just didn't scream mature. So that poor frame has sat in a closet for the past 3 years until now, at which point I decided to go simple and find patterned paper to place in the negative space instead. The green print still isn't quite right (it's too blue of a green for our room), but I love the idea and it's perfect for the space.

And here's the finished product. I love that this space now has function and design, and it cost a grand total of $20 ($3 clearance shelf from Target, $2 ceramic bird from Home Goods, and frames on sale for 2 for $15).