Before & After: Entryway

We finally have one room completely, for real, not changing except for the decorations, finished in the house! It is the entryway, so it isn’t the largest or most exciting room, but it is finished and I love it!

The dark picture on the left is what the entryway looked like on the day we got the keys to the house. That tile…I forgot how terrible it was! The ceiling was the same color as the walls and the moldings were ‘white.’

The much lighter and much happier picture on the right is what the room looks like today. The new wood floors and molding around the opening to the dining room definitely help but that light fixture brings it all up to date as well – isn’t it great?

The Finley Small White Pendant is from Crate & Barrel and was a family affair to get it in our house. Conner’s parents gave it to me for Christmas and my dad installed it this past weekend – they both saved me a ton of money on buying this and having it installed! Even after the new paint on the ceiling, moldings and walls, this light fixture really made the entryway more modern and flow with the rest of the house much better.

The mirror on top of the painted buffet was a nice way to judge how low the pendant should hang. There was a ton of extra wire that we had to cut to make the light hang just right so we measured several times and hoped for the best once we hung the pendant. It worked out and is the perfect height for the room.

Each time we update a room, I’m always surprised by how little can make such a big impact. While the new wood floors are a definite plus, paint and a new light fixture were the biggest visual updates to this small area!

Now the floors in the dining room? They were a huge update and I will show you that before and after in the next couple of weeks.

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Our new dining room rug!

Our new rug is here, under the table and it is wonderful!! I am so happy with what we picked out and am so happy that we went with the size, texture, pattern and color we purchased. (and for all of you who have asked about it or just lurked and creeped around hoping to see this…sneak peak of the almost finished dining room ahead…)

And here she is! All 8′ x 10′ of her beautiful sisal in a perfect Malawi sand sitting in the almost finished dining room. I love how this breaks up the floor from the rest of the furniture. When we picked out the stain of the floor, I had no clue it was so close to our buffet and chairs. Now, this rug breaks it all up and adds a lighter color and contrast. 

To pick out the right size for our rug, we measured the dining room table plus chairs to see how big that area was. We added a little bit to behind each chair so when a chair was pulled out, you wouldn’t be sitting half on the rug and half on the hardwood. Getting a 5′ x 7′ rug would have hit right under each chair when they are tucked in so getting the 8′ x 10′ was a perfect fit! The room is a pretty good size, especially now that the wall is down, so it needs a  larger rug to ground it all.

I love, love, love the pattern on this rug. It is exactly what I wanted for this room – neutral, natural and casual but still so elegant! We went with the smallest size binding available with a color that almost matched the rug. I didn’t want something standing out or contrasting so we used a binding that would blend in and help keep the rug timeless. This rug is pretty heavy too, so we didn’t have to use a rug pad. I was thrilled with that – those ‘extras’ add up quickly!

The paint in this room (including trim, yay!) is all finished so now I’m working on the chair seat covers and a fun little project for those new frames hanging on the wall. I would say my goal is to get those both finished by tomorrow but we all know how my deadlines usually go…

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We found a rug!

To celebrate our anniversary this weekend, we bought a rug! I am so excited and can’t wait for Friday, when the rug will be ready to pick up.

After looking all over locally and on the internet, we went with this very soft jute rug at a local store called Rug and Carpet of Oklahoma. It is a great place with a ton of options including this pretty thing! We selected this sample from their remnant room so they will be cutting our rug (we need an 8′ x 10′) and adding a small border of neutral binding around the edges before we can pick it up.

The samples I ordered from Ballard and other places just ended up not as great in person so I’m thrilled we found something that was still neutral but very soft and we were able to support a local store! I’ll share pictures as soon as we get the rug home and situated in the dining room.

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