Entryway Refresh for a Fresh New Year

When we bought our house (in the summer of 2018), we knew that we wanted to make it our forever home. Over the last year and a half we’ve already done so much (kitchen reno, laundry room Reno, tons of exterior work)! I love adding these personal touches and (excuse the cliche) but I think it helps make your house a feel like a home!

Our most recent project was a smaller one but even so, made such a HUGE impact! We have a decent size entryway and even though I love all of our furniture pieces in this space, it just felt kind of bland. I had been wanting to try a board and batten project and this was really the perfect spot. I wanted the boards to go straight to the ceiling in order to accentuate the height of the ceiling and to give it the clean line look.

Here’s the before:

We have quite a bit of wall space for wall hooks as well as a dresser, which is so nice with all of the kids hats and mitts.

Slowly removing all the STUFF!

Our (almost) clean slate!

After taking it all down, I realized how cluttered it had looked! As much as I loved having the little desk/shelf there in the corner, it would always get piled high with papers and it just cluttered up the space.

Now, it’s time for the board and battens!

We have our go-to handyman that has helped us with a lot of different projects, everything from building our shed to trimming out our library. We asked him to do the battens and then, I could finish the project off with painting.

I’m not super handy and I don’t know what it’s called but that laser tool worked so well for this type of project!

The way that the wall worked and where the studs were, we ended up doing 2 1/2” battens every 24” apart and framing it around with 3 1/2” trim. We went with MDF painted boards.

Once all of the battens were up and secured, I plastered over the nail holes and any other blemishes in the wall. Sanded it down and was ready for paint. I’m trying to make our house more cohesive throughout, so I ended up going with a warm white paint that is similar to our kitchen cabinets. In future, I would definitely paint before putting up the batten boards but you live and you learn!

After the paint was dry, we moved the mirror and dresser over, added new coat hooks and we are DONE! We went with budget-friendly hooks from Amazon, putting them at both regular height and kid-height so that Emilia can hang her own coat.

And here’s the finished product:

We absolutely love the end result! We were able to keep all the existing furniture and just used a couple pieces from other parts of our house (the faux olive tree I took from our stairway). And now, it’s more of statement wall. The warm white paint and clean lines help create a more cohesive look throughout the main floor. This was a small project with big impact! You just might find me sitting in the library admiring it every once in a while! Hehe!