a functional foyer

You may know that I’ve been painting pretty much the entire first floor of our house pretty much since the end of January. I’ve shared glimpses of it on my Instagram stories and my local friends have seen firsthand my paint-covered hands!

The painting started with our kitchen…then the living room (I’ll share that room transformation soon), and FINALLY the foyer! And to say that it took forever is an understatement! Our foyer extends up the stairs to the second floor and down a short hall to our kitchen and then up the back stairs to another small landing. And there is sooo much wood trimwork…window panes, banister spindles, doorways, baseboards, doors, etc. I think I used four gallons of paint just on the white wood trim. But oh, it looks so good! So fresh and light and airy!

Before I even started the painting process, I had come across THIS INDUSTRIAL STORAGE DRESSER on another blogger’s Instagram account. I loved the look of it, but I also thought it would be a functional piece to have in our foyer since our coat closet is not super large and it is always messy as we struggle to find the right gloves, hats or even an umbrella.

Fifteen drawers to fill with our stuff! Fifteen! Wow…did I do some major closet cleaning-out and organizing! And of course, I used my LABEL MAKER from THIS POST to label all the drawers.

Of course, with some FUNctionality comes some fun decor…in the form of a chalkboard quote. I love this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson…something I hope to reinforce in my daughters.

Be silly.

Be honest.

Be kind.

I spelled it out on my chalkboard above the storage dresser, using a chalk pen and metal letters. I thought it was a fun look! Since our half bathroom is right across the hall, our family sees it every time they walk out of the bathroom.

The WALL SCONCE was installed using THIS MAGIC LIGHT TRICK…a genius idea from another blogger, which allows you to hang a wall sconce without electrical wiring. Since we don’t have any overhead lighting in this back area of our foyer, this wall sconce is perfect!