An Inviting Entryway { Updated }

Last week I mentioned I was doing finishing some projects, but didn't say exactly what. I was able to finish up a ton of projects from our living room and will be sharing the updates over the week. First up our entryway, we made some changes. For those who have been reading our blog for quite sometime, you know that we originally updated our entry way late last year in December. We painted the inside of our front door white and hung shelves. Anyways last week, Mr. CLH mentioned we should add another shelf in the entryway and wouldn't it be nice if they were longer. I've always liked the Holman Ledge from Pottery Barn. I'm not loving the price $55.00 bucks for a 4ft ledge, no thanks.

I was inspired to diy our own ledges after seeing Fawn from Frugal Home Design diy version of the Ikea lack shelves. She built the shelves to hold her kids books, and they turned out great! I looked at the way the ledges were made and decided to make them, after-all the diy floating shelves my husband made for sons tween room turned out nice. I decided to tackle the Holman Ledge the diy way. I made a quick trip to Lowes and picked up Mdf board and finishing nails.

I purchased one of each: 1.5in x 8ft Mdf, 2.5 in x 8ft Mdf and 3.5in x 8ft Mdf boards, the one of each easily made two ledges. For the third ledge I bought 1.5in x 6ft Mdf, 2.5 x 5ft Mdf and 3.5 x 5ft Mdf for the I opted to have them do the cuts for me, I didn't want to try and figure out how I was going to put three 8 feet pieces of lumbar in my Mazda3. I had them make 42inch cuts, so each shelf will be 3.5 feet long, which will fit nicely on our wall. My local Lowes charges .25 cents per cut, which is nada and they only charged me for two cuts.

When I got home I began my project, the 3.5in width board is the base of the ledge, the 2.5in width is the back of the ledge an the 1.5in with is the front of the ledge. I applied a thin amount of wood glue on the my base and then attached the back of the ledge.

Then I used blue painters tape to keep everything in tact. I waited an hour and then glued the front small board on the base, and again used painters tape. While that board was drying I worked on the next ledge.

After each board was dry and used 8 finishing nails in groups of two along the length of the front of board and the back of the board. I counter sunk each nail and filled the hole with caulk - to make the nail disappear.

Then I applied a thin line of caulk in the inside seam of the ledge, which gave the inside of the ledge a nice seamless look, and another thin line of caulk to the bottom seams. Since the Mdf was already primed (which was nice) I applied two coats of Glossy White paint.

I loved how the ledges were turning out even before I painted them. We used blue painters tape on the wall to determine the placement of the ledges and mark each stud on the wall. I used the blue painters tape again to determine of high each frame would lean against the wall, I wanted to make sure frames would look nice between the ledges. Next I patched up the old holes left behind and from the old shevles and painted. We then pre-drilled three holes into the ledge according to where the stud was and then attached them to the wall using wood screws.

Before I show our diy version of the Holman ledges, lets take a trip down memory lane. Here's how of our entryway once looked. All dark and dated just blah.

Our entryway looked like this only a few short days ago.

Our entryway now feels so much larger and fresh, I love the the new length and depth of our ledges. I addded a few more picutres from our wedding and keep the detail pictures in color and picturses of 'us' in black & white. I only had to purchase one new frame for the ledges{ I had a few Ikea & other frames laying around} Our new ledges hold more pictures and are wide enough to objects which will be fun when the holiday season rolls around.

A reminder our old ledges were 3 feet long and 3 inches deep, our new ones are 3 1/2 feet long and 4 1/2 inches deep. Our front door opens into our ledges, but does not hit them, which is great! Here's a room shot of our ledges, the new style ties in so nice with our living room. I love that all three ledges cost us around $ 20.00! This picture gives a better idea how of entryway looks in our living room, since its not actual 'entryway' and how the ledges ties in with our living room. I spent around $ 20.00 bucks on this project!