Today our front entry is making its debut, but before jumping to the much-anticipated photo unveil, I want to ask you a question. What do you call the area just inside your front door? When I was young Mom referred to it as the entry hall because the space was defined by doorways to the various living spaces~ the kitchen, the living room, and such. Alternately we simply said, entryway. We were taught very early to refer to the lobby of our grammar school auditorium as the foyer, pronounced, foy-yay. I think I grew up thinking only school auditoriums had foyers.
Many years later, however, when married life led us to St. Louis, I discovered while house-hunting that locals referred to their home's entry as their foyer, which was pronounced foy-yer. At first, I was really put off because admittedly I'm a bit of a language snob. But ultimately I had to adapt to this awkward pronunciation or risk sounding pedantic, and that was a challenge. Perhaps it's just a regional thing; one of the many dialectical quirks peculiar to the Show Me state. In the 17 years we've lived in Northwest Washington, I've yet to encounter anyone interested in sharing news about their foy-yer; or their foy-yay for that matter.
I also learned that some folks had a mudroom. That was a new concept for me because I grew up in a suburban Los Angeles ranch-style home, and had never seen nor heard of a mudroom. We did have a service porch, although I'm not entirely sure how a service porch would be properly defined. As an aside, if you're not from California you might wonder why we natives say ranch house rather than rambler; but I'll save that conversation for another post.
Anyway, I generally say our entryway, although my mom calls it our mudroom. It is actually a separate room with an interior door to the living room, a tile floor, and a bench for shoes, so I think Mom is correct in so doing. It's appropriate. We certainly have no shortage of mud in Washington State.
And now the tour~
Both Larry and I have wanted a new front door for years and years. I mean like 16 years. The old door was faux wood grain, which I couldn't abide, so I painted it. I always painted the interior white but the exterior was first one color and then another; most recently sage green. It was installed incorrectly, such that the door stuck to the framing. Therefore no matter how carefully I painted and how long I let the paint dry, there were always obvious marks in the paint along one side, where the paint had pulled away. That just made us dislike the door even more.
This past summer we finally purchased a lovely solid wood door and Larry did a masterful job tearing out the old and correctly installing the new. It's as if the house got a facelift and I love it.
Aristotle said the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, right? Well, that is exactly how I feel about our entryway. This past week while Larry was away, I spent every day working in here. Just before Larry left we replaced the old baseboard with straightforward cottage style molding; something we're working at, one room at a time. I spackled, sanded painted both the molding and the paneling. I painted the ceiling and cleaned the blinds. In other words, I did a makeover. The room looks light, bright and pulled together. But it simply does not photograph well. It's fairly small and I just can't get far enough away with my camera to snap an accurate representation. So the best I can do is show you all of the parts and hope you can envision the whole.
The window is directly opposite the door.
The view with the blind raised.
We have another window to the right of the door.
I made this on the occasion of our tenth wedding anniversary. ♡
We are coming up on 37.
We are coming up on 37.
Opposite the chalkboard, we mounted vintage doorknobs for hanging guest coats.
We made a reclaimed wood shelf and the display is subject to change.
Almost every room in the house has a water view and the entry is no exception. We are very blessed to have such beautiful panoramas, and no pun intended, I hope we never lose sight of this. It's a wonderful thing to step through the front door and be greeted by the view.
I am really bad about taking before photos, but while I was painting I remembered to take a quick iPhone shot of the old color. The entire house was at one time painted this shade of taupe. I wonder now why I ever chose it. Do you ever wonder about your own dated decor choices? But again room by room, I am repainting with a lighter, prettier shade, Valspar Coconut Milk.
Very ugly photo!
I'm not a minimalist, although sometimes I wish I were. Therefore the room is decorated with a
few meaningful accents, enough to cozy it up, but not clutter.
For a variety of reasons, the entryway will forever remain my photography nemesis. I really do not love these pictures but I hope they help you get a sense of the room. Oh, and in case you're wondering, the room dimensions are 5.5' X 7.5'. Although it is by no means large, it functions well.
While working on it I had the thought that our Christmas tree would look perfect in the big window. And because the room has so many windows, the lights will sparkle merrily for passers-by.
But maybe I'd better concentrate on fall decor first.
As always, thanks so very much for visiting.
~Dana
