Progress is Progress.

I had hoped to be able to show you our completed entryway this morning as Josh and I finally (seriously, FINALLY) decided on what to do with it. Unfortunately, we have hit a small speedbump (more on that later) in our progress but still, progress is progress. And so, today I'm going to share with you what we've done so far (and what our plans are to finish up). Since moving into our beautiful apartment (in August, almost 6 months ago, as I mentioned last week), our entryway has been super lame. Case and point:

I made some feeble attempts to make it look nicer by hanging this art here and putting a boot tray down, but unfortunately, it just wasn't cutting it. And I wanted to make it look better, I so, so badly wanted to make it look better, except the problem was that I wasn't quite sure HOW I wanted to do so.

First, I thought about getting a table. I wanted something basic, under $100 (really under $75, but I was willing to stretch this for the perfect table) and that fit in the space (under 40" in length and under 15" in depth). I'm not sure if you've ever tried searching for this, but um... it's hard. Like really, really hard. There are some great tables out there that fit the dimensions I needed, but they were all well over $100 - sometimes even in the $200-$300 range - and that was way, way too far out of my budget. And the tables that were under $100 either didn't fit the needed dimensions, or just weren't what I was looking for. Then I thought about making a table. I even drew out a picture (and I am not an artist) which, out of kindness to you and your eyesight, I will not share here. And then I thought about putting a bench there, but decided that might be silly because who would sit on it. I also thought about maybe just putting a full length mirror there (one of those awesome big ones from Home Goods) but my mother pointed out that people might not want to stare at themselves when they came into (or left) our apartment.

In case it isn't clear, I had literally been agonizing over this decision for months (as my mother would say, if this is the worst of my problems, I'm doing alright, but still - it was torturing me). I went back and forth between a million different options and made absolutely ZERO progress. Until two weeks ago. When Josh said, I really think we should put some hooks in the hallway because it's aggravating to have to deal with the coat closet when we need to take the dog out. And we need a place to hang Nash's leash. Um... Have I mentioned before that my boyfriend is a GENIUS??? Because he is. As soon as he said this, and I immediately decided that he was right and everything else fell into place! If we're going to hang hooks, then obviously we need a bench. And if we need a bench, then obviously I'm going to check IKEA for something easy, cheap and possibly hackable. And of course, IKEA will come through.


But I couldn't just leave it be, could I? Nope! I decided to paint it! Using leftover paint from a project I did during the summer pre-move, and making it slightly lighter by doing some self paint mixing (that was terrifying), I painted this bench in just 2 evenings!

Dog Nose Photobomb!

After putting it together, and leaving the screws slightly out so they wouldn't be covered in paint, I sanded and primed the bench.



Then, using 2 different paints I had leftover from an older project, I mixed them together to get a slightly lighter shade than the dark gray from one can.



Then I set to work, painting 2 coats - the second about six hours after the first.

Putting on the finishing touches!

And then, before we knew it, the painting was complete!

Yes, this is pre-screwing the screws all the way in - we waited until she was dry to do that.

Then, the next step was to hang the hooks. We already had hooks because I got them sent to me for free from Liberty Hardware after filling out a survey ages ago. I wouldn't call these hooks perfect, but they were free, so I'm not about to start complaining.


Except then I went to hang them. I measured, made marks on the wall, got out my stud finder to make sure there were studs behind my marks and ... speedbump. Except less like a speedbump and more like a "stop everything and go back to the drawing board" bump because the wall in our entry we want to hang the hooks on doesn't have studs. Any. At all. And so, the next step is to search for studs in the surrounding walls and maybe move things around or ... figure out something else entirely. Either way, the entryway is finally coming together and at least we can say we've made a little bit of progress. Hopefully we'll have figured out what to do soon and maybe even (fingers crossed) be able to give you the full reveal next week!

Until then, I hope you have a great day and I will see you back here tomorrow (and the rest of the week) to share some amazing recipes with you and show you how well my art project for the master bedroom turned out! Happy Monday!

PS. I linked up to the painting link party over at Domestically Speaking. Come check it out!