Just Behind the New Red Door

Since the entry to our home is feeling cozy, I decided it was time to make the first room you come into feel just as inviting. (Not to mention that I have this really bad habit of starting more than one major project at a time.)  This room has seen the most change since we bought the house.

Here's how it looked when we bought it.

So many great things about this look...the light fixture, the forclosure sign on the door, the tile, the window that doesn't open, and of course the wallpaper.  NOT!

Yes this room has five different doors in it.  And not one looks like the other.  My favorite is the glass panel door that closes off the main house from this area. It is also one of two doors that are original to the home. I even decided to keep it's original color.  I really like the way it adds a touch of wood to the place.  The other one is Pam's door.  It had to be painted white because...well, it just did! 

If you recall, the day before we were to do our final inspection someone kicked in the front door and stole all the copper piping.  This was the real estate company's way of locking the door. Nice, huh?!

Can you see all the bird poo on the chair rail?  Yuck...

After the initial rehab it looked like this:

 

 

And if you remember, Caleb used it as his bedroom for 383 days.

 

 

 It really is a large room.  In reality it is larger than his bedroom from our last house.  It's just that it's long and narrow.  Not square.

And now behind the new red door...

 ...you see this:

After living here for a year and a half, we have a new sense of purpose for this room.  Adding two new members to our family last summer meant they needed a spot of their own. They are pretty large dogs and having their kennels in our living space was really a distraction.  So now this room serves a couple of purposes.  First off, it is our entryway.  This is what our guests see first upon entering our home.  But it also serves as our mudroom/puppy playpen.  I had a general idea of what I wanted the room to look like once I realized this was to become a multipurpose space.  For those that know me well, I thrive in a well kept environment.  I started checking out different ideas from Pinterest, blogs and magazines and quickly realized I wanted to create a built in look for the puppies kennels.  They are such an eyesore.  I saw a variation of what we ended up creating on Pinterest and told Craig he needed to get his saws warmed up!  I was delighted when we went to the barn and found that the only thing I needed to buy to make these a reality was one piece of plywood and a little bit of finishing trim.  Always a good thing when you find the supplies you need right in your own home!

Next up, I went shopping. In the barn that is!  I didn't really want to spend very much money on this room--or any room for that matter.  Fortunately, Nana brought a slew of chairs and knickknacks from her old place when she moved in last spring.  After rummaging through what's left in the barn and the garden shed I decided gardening would make a perfect theme for this room.  It is so bright and cheery and all of us are so excited to have the space outdoors to make a large garden a reality.  So I picked through the dusty signs and knickknacks, grabbed a chair and stool and got busy cleaning them up.  I must say that I am thrilled with how this space turned out.  The character and whimsey this room now has makes me so excited to enter our house.  Love the idea of reusing what we had to make it feel new!

Here's a few more shots to give you a better feel:

Who doesn't need a pair of gardening boots?

Lilly's Corner.  The green stool in front of it belonged to my 95 year old grandmother.  I love all the paint splotches covering it.  Worn and loved it surely is!

Quinn's Corner.  The truck on top of his kennel is the one that I would love to own one day.  Only in the grown up version that is!  I can honestly picture throwing the dogs in the back of that truck and taking a ride through the country with the windows rolled down and the wind blowing in!

This is the room that connects my  mom's place to our place.  It is our common space.  Since we only have one mailbox for the house, we decided we needed a place to put each others mail depending on who picks it up from the box each day.  This was our answer.

The door on the left is the one that takes you to Pam's place.  It's also convenient because the laundry is located off this room, as well.  It's the door with all the slats.  I told you this room has 5 doors and not one of them is the same.  Crazy, but it's kind of grown on me and I love the character it adds.  A very multipurposeful space, I say!

If you look closely you'll see that the window now opens.  Well that is because we decided to replace the windows that didn't open with windows that do.  The fresh air really make such a difference!

This newly renovated space brings a huge smile to my face when I come home now.  Between the front door makeover and the entry room makeover, our house is surely not a house any longer.  

A home is definitely being created here!

Now it's just a matter of going back and completing these projects, so we can officially check them off the list. Outdoor trim and eave painting, finishing work on the kennels, and a lot more landscaping is still calling our names.  Hopefully we can wrap it up in a couple of weeks!

Then I can show you another project we're working on...