This entryway has been one of our biggest problem areas, as I’m sure it is for a lot of people. There isn’t a ton of space and there is an awkward corner area. We used to keep a coat rack in the corner, but it just was getting so cluttered with stuff! So, when we put in our new floors, we moved it upstairs and it never got moved back.
I’ve been wanting to put hooks up on the wall for some time now. It was one of those projects that you just never get around to doing, even though it’s a simple (and fairly quick) fix! You can either buy pre-made coat racks that attach to the wall or you can make your own. I decided to go ahead a buy some hooks and attach them to some old pallet wood I had hoarded saved in the basement. P.S. Does anybody else’s workspace always look like mine? Who doesn’t need two waters, essential oil rollers, grocery bags, half a strawberry and a dish towel to help them paint?? #workinprogress
I knew I wanted one hook at regular height and another at the kid’s height so they could learn to hang up their own stuff. I didn’t want one wall to get too crowded with jackets and things so I decided to put one rack on each wall. I measured each wall and cut the wood to fit. Then I gave everything a good sanding because pallet wood is really rough and I didn’t want any splinters on fingers or snags on coats!
I gave each piece a coat of whitewash (just white craft paint and water) and then marked where I wanted my hooks to go. I put 5 hooks on the adult height one and 4 on the kid height one (that side of the wall was a bit shorter so 5 hooks would have looked crammed). I just made sure they were pretty evenly spaced and in the middle of the board.
Once all the hooks were attached, I found the studs in my wall and marked them on the board so I could pre-drill some holes (this makes screwing them to the wall way easier!) I held the board up the the wall (making sure it was level) and drilled through the board and the wall where the studs were, then attached them with a long wood screw and voila! Instant organization!
Alex can definitely hang up his own coat and Christian just needs a little guidance but he can almost do it himself!
Now that the coats were all hung up and organized, I needed to do something with our shoe situation. We are pilers. Everything gets kicked off and tossed, so our shoes were just piling up on our boot tray which made me (and John) crazy!! I decided to just go with it and put a crate down so at least our shoes will be contained when we throw them! I also have cubbies in the closet to hold extra shoes that we aren’t wearing as often. The crate is mostly for whatever shoes we are currently wearing everyday and my rain boots. So far, it has worked like a charm! It’s easy peasy for the boys to put their own shoes away, so there are no excuses!
I also added some cute decor to make the entryway pretty 🙂 It was totally necessary!
My MIL bought me this metal “R” for Christmas, so I just lined it with some pretty spring paper that I found at TJ Maxx (they have the best paper!). I also put up the new Grateful, Thankful, Blessed sign from our shop!
So there it is! For about $30, I gave us a functional and pretty entryway (finally!!!). I know I say this every time I finally do a project, but I don’t know why I waited so long!
