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!

A view from the hallway

Closeups, love how the pictures look leaning against the wall 

What do do you think of the little makeover we did in our entryway? Have you've been thinking about diy ledges for your home? If so go for it!

Please, Come In

I thought about a few different ideas to update our BLAH entryway, I knew I wanted the space to be bright and airy. Since we have an open concept entryway and a short wall on the entryway. A console table or bench wouldn't work, but I still wanted to display photos in a pretty way.
While on a girls shopping trip a few weeks back, I came across these great ledges at Home Goods for $7.00 each. One problem wrong color, but some quick coats for white paint made them perfect. Last weekend I found THE PERFECT rug for the entryway - I like the design and the colors work oh so great.

Mr. CHL making my vision happen, he's even using our new Level

Let's take a look back; this is our entryway last weekend in all it's Glory. Note: The sarcasism.

Here's our updated entryway now

A better view of the entryway rug, the teal blue color matches our livingroom pillows perfectly. See our short little wall?

I like the idea of the vase on our entryway floor, but it's not practical in our house. Maybe when guests are over.

Our entryway now feels so bright and open. I'm so glad I painted the front door a glossy white. The doors old natural wood color sucked all the light out of the room. Our new white door also helps show the contrast in our wall color. We decided to frame a few pictures from our wedding to display on the shelves. I we decided to change our wedding photos black & white for a more cohesive look, but decided to leave the photos of my bouquet in color for a little contrast. I really like how all the frames go together and love the layered look of them.


I'm so happy our entryway changed from blah to chic.....I hope you like our updated entryway as much as we do.

Lean Back - Entry Way Update

A couple of weeks ago I talked about wanting to update our entryway. I wanted our entryway to have personalty and flow better with our living room. It was BLAH and unwelcoming. Well I'm happy to say it's updated and so pretty! I love sitting on our sofa and glancing over at the huge difference it makes in our house. Here's a sneek peek at our updated entryway.

Pictures leaning back

New Rug

Upon Entry

A few days ago I revealed our living room ReDo. We still have a ways to go be I feel the room is more finished: more artwork, accessories, rug etc. One area of our living room that's really boring me is our entryway. Our home has an 'Open Concept' entryway my fancy way of saying you walk straight into our living room. There's no cute hallway or amazing staircase to look at when you first enter....just our living room and a short wall that leads to our dining room / kitchen. Our entry wall is BLAH there's no artwork hanging, no cute bench to sit on, no cute table to place our keys at...just BLAH. Well I plan to change all that and make it charming and chic. The entryways below inspire me for several reasons:

I like the funky rug on the hardwood floors and the bench that serves many purposes, the tree rack is also fun. This entryway has personality.

This entry is amazing! I like how the space was used, its also very similar to how you enter our home (minus the chandelier, perfect wood floors, lots and lots of light - now I sound depressing). I like how the sofa is positioned looking into the living room. I'm going to have to move our furniture around and see what happens.

This is simple and crisp, again like how you enter our home, you can even see into the living room. I like that there's just simple LARGE artwork on wall.

My girlfriend and I are doing a 'girls shopping' day on Satuarday -so this will be a perfect weekend to look for items to enhace our entryway. What have you done to enhance your entryway or is it still WIP - work in progress....?

{ pictures: Martha Stuwart.com & Country Living }