Welcome Home: Updating Your Entryway DIY Style

Today, I'm talking entry ways and I'm giving you a couple of super easy ways to update yours, DIY style, of course.

I shared an updated picture of our entry way on Instagram yesterday and got a HUGE response! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for all of your beyond kind remarks! So many people commented on the front door and the wreath. Well, good news! Both of those are easy DIY's that you can do in one afternoon. But before I repost the updated entry way picture, allow me to share a "before" of our entry way shortly after moving in to our house. You have to get the full effect, and the only real way to do that is with a quick before and after. The entry way was NOT pretty, and neither was the living room, for that matter. My, my how my tastes have changed in just five short years.

BEFORE

AFTER

Paint is the easiest DIY in the universe. It can be time-consuming, but it's still pretty dang easy. Our front door used to be dark red {see above}. Our house is also brick, so it was all the B words: bland. blah. boring. I wanted the door to stand out. When we have guests, it's way more fun to say "yep, just look for the blue door", instead of "yep, look for the red brick house with the red door and the red stone front porch.". SO MUCH RED. I bought 1 quart of Valspar Duramax paint + primer {don't know if this is still a brand} from Lowes for about $15 in the color "Mackinac Blue". It took 3 coats to cover the front of the door, with plenty leftover. {The back of the door, on the inside, is black}. If you remember a few posts back in my bathroom makeover post,  I mentioned a tip about buying paint. When buying it, try to determine if you can use the paint for multiple projects to get the most bang for your buck. I used this one quart of paint to repaint all 3 exterior doors, so that they match. 

Now my yellow Forsythia wreath on our front door was actually a $2 Goodwill find several years ago, but you can make one for pretty cheap too! I just made one for our side entry door, and I'm going to "teach" you how to make one for yourself using the materials shown below.

I found this grapevine wreath at Goodwill about 2 years ago for like a dollar and some odd change. This is something I want to encourage you to do too! Look for wreaths at thrift stores, but look beyond what you see on the shelf! Look at the wreath underneath all the flowers, or garland, or whatever else maybe covering the actual wreath form. This one had disgusting, ugly fake flowers all over it when I originally bought it. I pulled them off + removed the excess glue, leaving it plain and exposed like this. {I actually use this one grapevine wreath for multiple seasons, so whenever I add decor to the wreath, I don't typically glue anything, so that it can be easily removed for the next season}. I bought these 6ft. yellow faux Forsythia vines at a local closeout store called Big Lots for $5 each {you could probably find something similar at Hobby Lobby or Michaels. Dollar Tree also sometimes has decent faux florals.}. So this entire wreath costs about $12 to make including tax. ;) Literally, all that I did was unwind the vines and wrap them about 4 times around the grapevine wreath form. I just tucked various pieces into the grapevine to hold it in place. Good as new and definitely cheaper than buying a new one. The cheapest I've seen for these is around $24, so making it in about 5 minutes for $12 ain't bad! Here's how it looks on the side entry door.

Three final ways to easily update your entryway are to invest in a basket in which to store clutter, add real greenery, and a chalkboard. My husband, God love him, literally has the most random crap stuff in his pockets, and he used to unload it all over the counters and the front entry table. Well, wifey to the rescue! I got this basket seen on the entry "table" below at Target for like $10 {p.s. thrift stores are great for baskets too}. My hubs can throw anything in it and I don't have to see it. It not only looks good, but it eliminates clutter from the tabletop. In addition to the basket, real greenery always looks beautiful. The plant seen below was a cheap indoor plant from Lowes that I potted in a $1 terra-cotta clay pot {I just painted it white}. Nevermind that it's never grown bigger than the size it is currently. It's literally been that size for like 2 years. Precisely why I don't have a ton of real greenery, but rather stick to the fake stuff. The last easy update is to add a chalkboard. This one was a friend of mines {thanks Tracy!} that I scored when she was moving. I added a mini glass vase {25 cents at Goodwill} with some faux pink + white tulips {the entire large bouquet -not seen- was on sale for $1 at a local home store}. 

All in all, this entryway was a very budget-friendly space in our home. And because someone is probably bound to ask, I will share that the entry "table" is an old kitchen cabinet that I found in the garage when we moved into our house. I turned it on it's side, removed one door, and painted it white. Now it holds books, pictures boxes, and shoes {under the door} + the top portion serves as a tabletop. Also, the jute rug was $10 at Ross. I love a neutral rug, and jute holds up well in an entry way with all of the traffic coming through.

I hope these quick updates/DIY projects provide you with some inspiration. Do you have any quick tips for me that you've found especially helpful in your entryway? If so, comment and share with me! I'm always looking for new ideas. Thanks for all of the love y'all. XO!