Project Entryway Closet Makeover: Part 2 - Design

Yay! We're back with Part 2 of the "Project Entryway Closet Makeover!"

Start at Part 1, if you missed it earlier.

I think I should clear something up first... This closet makeover, to-this-day STILL isn't totally done. So when everyone sends me emails asking to see the finished product ASAP... well, I don't have much to show you yet, because I'm still working on all the finishing touches! I PROMISE that nobody wants to see it completely D.O.N.E more then ME! lol 

So that being said, here is Part 2, the designing stage of our closet. Part 3 will be our LAST stage for this project so don't worry, I'm not just stringing you along. ha! I literally will be searching for the perfect pillows and accessories to finish off the space tomorrow (wish me luck). And once those are found... 

YOU SHALL HAVE YOUR FINISHED ENTRYWAY NOOK!!!

(said with one fist in the air and in my best Mel Gibson, Brave Heart impersonation)

:)

Okay, so let's get this party started...

You know by now that pretty much everything around here starts with a sketch, and this project was no different. We knew that we wanted this space to serve a few different functions.

1. Beauty (visual interest and more open space)

2. Storage (for coats, gloves, hats, boots, batteries, light bulbs, extension cords, etc...)

3. Seating (a place to relax, take off/put on your shoes, talk on the phone, etc...)

So once we knocked down our walls and measured the space that we had available, we started working up our design plan. First things first, rip up the small patch of carpet and build a platform for the bottom of our nook, along with a bench above it.

We did this by building sort of a grid with 2x4's and 3 inch screws, like below.

Then we bought inexpensive pieces of 3/4 inch thick plywood, notched out the corners (to make room for the nooks opening) and laid those on top.

Once Cason and my Dad had that done I got to work painting everything with 2 good coats of primer. After that was finished we used our nail gun to adhere the bench really well to the 2x4 grid we built earlier.

Now it was time to decided what type of medium I wanted to use for the walls. For a LONG time I was determined to use wallpaper. I even found a really awesome design...

But in the end, after a lot of discussion with Cason, we decided that wallpaper probably wouldn't hold up to the wet coats and "kid traffic" that would be flowing through here everyday, and since we really wanted this space to be durable... beadboard it was! BUT, instead of putting the sheets vertical, I decided to flip them on their sides, so it resembled more of a paneled look.

The second I saw it coming together I let out a little squeal because I loved it so much!

Next was storage, so a killer-awesome shelf was in need! I designed a two shelf system for my Dad to help me build where the top level would be for baskets to house those batteries, extension cords and light bulbs in... and then the lower level shelf would be for wire baskets that would hold kid papers and mail.

Instead of just two regular shelves, one over the other at the same level, we scattered them a bit and made these custom dividers. I used the dividers as not only support for the top shelf and sectioning agents for the wire baskets (you can see in the photo below, that without all the dividers the baskets up top would be too heavy and the shelf would droop) but also as a decorative element. See below, how they mimic the shape of the corbels below on the bottom shelf?

(corbels bought at Home Depot)

** In the long run the baskets in these pictures ended up being too tall and not working, so I returned them and bought a smaller size.

Cason finished off the plywood shelving with decorative trim on the fronts to give the space a more finished, manicured look.

Yeah, I don't know HOW I didn't realize there was a big ol' fly in this picture when I took it. ha!...

oh well.

So after all was said and done, this is what the shelving unit looked like!

Before we started decorating anything we had to finish off the outsides of the nook with some pretty trim. I pre-painted all the trim before hand to cut down on work later, and then my Dad and Cason assembled the top part of molding the way I designed it. It consisted of 3 pieces. A small, thin piece of trim turned on it's side for the bottom, a 4 inch board for the middle rise and then a chunky piece of brick molding for the top, to make a 'crown molding' look.

After that was installed we finished off the rest of the nook with boards around the edges. For ME, this is the BEST part! I love the difference finishing details make!

Now it was MY turn to really get to work. I filled 2,367 nail holes (wink), sanded down everything and primed it all white. I have to say that this process was DEFINITELY the most time consuming.

For the longest time I figured we would just keep the whole nook white, and accent with color, but Cason was obsessed with the idea of having deep grey planked walls in this space... so I went with it!

I actually really like the way it makes the white 'pop' and since we're pretty much using the grey and white color scheme in the rest of our projects lately... why not? ha!

Alright, so this is about where we are in the processes, minus a few decor items that we've added. It took about a MONTH for me to find the RIGHT fabric for the bench cushion, but I finally decided on that small swatch of grey circle fabric from Dwell Studios. I actually have my cute sewing-genius-friend Katie working on assembling the bench cushion cover as we speak! Normally I would have attempted it, but I really wanted the cushion to be piped along the edges... and that is NOT a 'basic-sewer skill' ha!

I'm still struggling with exactly what pillows I want in this space, so that's my next step.

I'm getting really excited to pull all of this together! It's been a long-time coming, believe me. Hopefully everything will be done by next week so I can share!

Happy Monday Everyone!