Front Entry/Mudroom Tour

It's often good to start small and work your way up. I'm starting my home tour with the smallest room in our house--the front entry. I feel like it isn't really fancy enough or large enough to qualify as a foyer. If you read my last post you already got a little sneak peak at my front entry (remember the fingerprinty mirror?). We use our front door a lot. My younger kids' bus stop is our front yard so they go out that door every morning (and forget to close it almost every morning. Argh!). Our mail box is on our house so almost every day I open the front door to get the mail.

Below is the view from the threshold of the front door looking into the entry area. This is what anyone who comes to our door sees. Not super impressive. That closet straight ahead is unattractive but necessary. It holds all our winter gear, hats, purses, jackets, spare computer cords and cables, our ice cream maker, and vacuum, among other things. Converting it to something cute like this isn't really practical but I do love the idea of replacing the decrepit doors that are always coming off the track with something like this (I really love the idea of sliding barn doors too, but I'm not sure the space would accommodate them).

If you look to your left you see this (fingerprinty mirror):

I love this little console table. It was a birthday gift from my in-laws last year and it makes me happy.

If you look to your right you see this:

This bench was a gift from the in-laws for Christmas. It also makes me happy (have I mentioned how great my in-laws are?). I put a couple of pillows on it to prevent it from getting scratched up. Eventually it would be nice to have a custom cushion on there. I love all the storage for our hats, gloves, scarves and such. It is very practical at this time of year for friends to come in, sit down and take off their boots and put them on the boot tray (the tray of rocks to the right). For some reason my boys' friends would rather leave their boots on the floor in a muddy puddle of melted snow and salt though. Maybe my dollar store rocks in the boot tray intimidate them? We're working on that.

Because of the problems we've had the last couple of winters with the melted snow and salt puddling in the entryway (despite our efforts to provide a boot tray for visitors and family), I'd like to eventually replace the flooring with something more durable. I'm really in love with slate tile at the moment, but we'll see.

As you exit the front entry this is your view into the rest of the house:

I'll come back to this when I give you the front room tour.

Okay, now turn back around  slightly less than 180 degrees:

I don't love the weird little window--I'd like to enlarge that. It doesn't look bad here, but it is especially unattractive from the outside. Also I really don't love the mid-century three window door. It is just a cheap door and I'd like to replace it with something more cottage-y. Those are other upgrades that I'd like to make eventually, along with taking out the weird sandpaper textured walls and replacing them with SHIPLAP! or maybe just regular old dryway which I think would also be great.

So hopefully that kind of orients you a little. Here are a couple more pictures from another angle standing inside the entry way.

Detail of the console table. 

And a couple more photos of details that didn't get picked up in the first pictures:

 These are the current curtains I have in the entry way. They are actually cloth napkins from Target. I have plans to replace them with a valance of some sort. I'm thinking buffalo check. Are you surprised?

This is the light fixture. It is a little too low for our tall family (two members of the family are over 6'2" and three members still growing). We'd like to replace it with something flush mounted if we can find something we like so that people don't feel the need to always be ducking their heads when they come in through the front door. Also, as you can see the one shade is chipped so that needs attention.

So, here's the breakdown of changes I'd like to eventually make:
--Remove sandpaper textured paneling and replace with shiplap or drywall
--Replace tiny window with large multi-paned window
--Remove dropped ceiling and replace with dry wall
--Replace front door
--Replace closet doors
--Lay slate tile
--New valance
--Replace light fixture
--Cushion for the bench

I figure it will probably take at least 10 to 15 years (or more!) to get all of these projects done and realistically some of them may never happen. We just have to do little bits at a time due to our budget constraints. Also my husband has absent-minded professor syndrome (we suspect ADHD) and a very busy work schedule during the school year and I'm not very handy when it comes to things like drywalling. And then there's the whole thing about sending our oldest off to college in the fall so that will definitely put a kink in the renovation budget as well, but we'll figure it out.

I like this little room. I think it's pretty cute and although I have listed all these changes I want to make, I'm happy with it as is for the time being.

So, what do you think? Do you have any great idea or inspiration for this space. Please share your thoughts.