Before & After: A Makeshift Entryway Gets a Kid Friendly Makeover
Our entryways are often overlooked. These hard working spaces can create a foundation of organization for the rest of your home. Even if you don’t have a formal entryway, you can still carve out a functional drop zone for all your shoes, coats, and keys to land. Not that its an easy task! Believe me, for this entryway I went to the masses (via Instagram) to help me come up with solutions to get my entryway from makeshift to made over.
Again, nothing is exactly wrong with these spaces. They just weren’t serving our family in the way we needed. Even though this is the back door to our house, its where most everyone parks and comes in. It’s important to me that this space is inviting AND able to handle kids coming in and out ON CARPET all day long. Do you have a space like this?
An actual entryway table really transformed the space and gave it a more structured and formal feel. The rustic style of the table makes it casual enough for kids too. No one is going to strach or “mess it up” because that will only make it look better. PHEW! I added a lighter lamp (soon to have a black shade) for balance and ambeince. Functionally, we needed a place for keys, sunglasses and maskes. We also wanted a spot for shoes - both a shelf to kick them off and a basket to toss them. We also had a variable with the HVAC vent so having something that was open on the bottom was essential (and why some of our other design options failed).
As far as the adjacent wall, I knew I wanted to use it for coats but the original hook I purchased was too high for the kids. I ended up going back to the drawing board and purchasing two matching hooks and hanging them parralel to one another. This way the kids can hang their coats, hats, and helmets without needing help. Another win for Mom!
We’ve had this system in place for about two weeks and so far its working well. We tested it with literally 9 neighbor kids visiting for a spaghetti dinner and there were ZERO mishaps. One thing I will say is that we “orient” everyone when they come in our home. Not in an obnoxious way but in a shoes go here and coats go here way and as long as they land somewhere near that vicinity I call it a win.
My favorite part of the space was actually a last minute change. Originally I wanted to do a mirror over the table but I kept finding myself looking for a place to put party invites, and pictures and kids art. I saw these bulletin boards for $8 and knew they were serve us more than a fancy mirror. I’m so glad we made that last minute change to our entryway and can’t wait to fill it up with all the good stuff!
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