The Sixth House: Before and After: The Entry

Hello. It has been a long time since I sat down to write a real blog post and I feel excited about it actually. I have been wanting to write before and after posts on my house for some time now and for a variety of reasons I have yet to start them before today. There are some great things to share! We have renovated every space in our home with the exception of the master bathroom. A few areas still have a little work for us to finish up, mostly the house is done though. What a difference it has made.

I decided to start the before and after posts with the front entry, as if you are coming for a visit, and then I will work my way around the house one space at a time. Hopefully the remaining "to dos" will be finished by the time I get to those spaces.

I will share sources for things that I am able to. Most of the furniture has been with us for the long haul though so I don't have many furniture sources. I have purchased some things though and will share whatever I can. I have also accessorized a lot with finds from Etsy and I will do an entire post of everything that has come from there. I often walk though this house and think "this house is brought to you by Etsy". A truly great source for so many things.

Here is what you see when you walk into my house.

view from the front door

This is what you used to see.

the before

Quite a change. The house felt dark, dirty, and brown everywhere when we moved in. It was oppressive and depressing. We did not add on to the house and with the exception of changing the size/location of a few doorways and adding a cased opening to allow flow between two rooms we did not take down walls. I kept the floor plan in tact and focused all of my designs on making every space function better and look (way!) better to stretch the renovation dollars as far as possible.

In the entry, I removed the hall closet. The closet took up a huge chunk of the room to the left of the front door, which is now the library, and made that room asymmetrical and function so much smaller than it should have/could have. I centered the opening into (what is now) the library and lowered the height to match the height of the opening into the dining room across the hall. Aesthetically, new hardwood floors were installed. The walls and stairs were painted to match and I added a runner and brass rods to the stairs. The rest is decorating.

the after

carpet on stairs

stair rods

I framed these antique botanical prints I found at an antique show to line the stair wall.

view up the stairs

It is hard to believe it is the same space.

the before

This is the view looking down from the upstairs landing.

view from upstairs

rice paper lantern

It looked a bit different when we moved in.

the before

This is a good look at the wall where removing the closet allowed the entry to the library to be centered.

slightly different view

wicker lamps

The look up the stairs.

going upstairs

You used to see the "fancy 1990s" red accent wall indentation when you looked up the stairs. Why, why, why did anyone ever think that was attractive?

the before

Here is the view through the dining room to the entry.

view to the front door from the dining room

A big improvement to what we moved into, don't you think?

before - yikes!

I replaced the single front door with side lights with these three quarter glass French doors. This may be the single most transformational thing that was done in the house. It turned the dark, dingy hallway to a bright space that cascades into all of the rooms around it. The door also transformed the exterior of the house.

the front doors

The original entry.

the front door before

Here are some other angles of the entry.

view from dining room through hall to library

first entry table

second entry table

a trio of art under the stairs

upstairs landing

basket under table

I added an interior window to the upstairs hall bathroom to allow for some natural light because the bathroom has no exterior walls for windows. I had the antique navy Jack 48 ship flag custom framed to take the place of the red wall. I made sure the window was hung in the bathroom at just the right height to fit the flag.

naval flag

upstairs landing table

Paint color throughout entry is 50% Benjamin Moore China White 50% Benjamin Moore Linen White

I did a post in April 2021 on my design for the entry if you want to check it out. It has a lot more ugly before pictures. The design stayed basically the same and turned out very well, if I do so say so myself. The entry sets the tone for the rest of the house - relaxed, welcoming, comfortable, and beautiful.

My next before and after will center on the library.

Until then, thank you for being here,

Kerry