The Big Reveal: My New Entry!

Imagine walking in a house and being greeted by your wrinkled dress, having just exited your car, or the spinach left in your teeth. Yep, the giant mirrors that were the closet doors hitting you the minute you entered my house did just that. While it might have been nice to do a discount double check on your way out, the entry for guests really left something to be desired. It was like "Welcome to my home. Enjoy our giant mirrors. We are vain and judging you."

Off to the side we had our "go station". What is a go station you might ask? Well, simply, a place to put your crapola when you walkin the door. Keys, bags, etc. The closet wasn't functional and kind of hideous and the go station was even less desireable as it was bascially behind the door. And then it hit me. (And by then of course, I mean after many, many, MANY hours on Pinterest.)

Lets ditch the closet doors and create something way more useful, colorful and welcoming. Alas, we are done! So how did we do it? Fairly simply and inexpensively actually!

The walls.  Oh, the walls.  I had wanted wallpaper but after weeks and weeks of searching for just the right one, I concluded that my taste was more sophisticated than our budget for this project.  I was way less afraid of paint than trying to a roll of wallpaper worth a few benjis so a stencil seemed perfect.  This particular pattern, Nagoya, came from Cutting Edge Stencil.  Seriously people, it was easy.  It took some patience but it was less than one day and I was trying to cram the majority in during naptimes. 

The bench/cabinet looks way more custom than it really is.  How might you ask? I'll share my little secret!  I measured the width of the closet and found a perfect tv cabinet at Target with mid century lines.  Seriously, we couldn't have asked for a more snug fit in the closet frame. The only problem?  It wasn't as deep.  El Husbando to the rescue!  We purchased an inexpensive desk top from Ikea in the same brown/black shade, measured a few hundred times, and cut it to fit the closet, making it look totally built in.  We'll let future house owners bask in the genius that was our entry hack.

Aa few finishing touches, including a large carpet tile rug from Flor, an Ikea mirror covered in an ungodly amount of yellow spray paint, some shelving, a new pendant light and custom bolster pillows using a fabulous Ikat from Spoonflower designer Scrummy by Sharon Turner. pulled it all together.  The cabinet is the perfect amount of room for the little things we like to keep on our way our the door, little man's hats, sunglasses and sunscreen, umbrellas (for all that LA rain) and of course, a wooden elephant.

House Crashers: Behind the Scenes

I seriously can't believe it's taken me a year to come back and write this post.  It's been an insanely amazing year and we are even more in love with our new lounge than ever.  So, how did we get this amazing gift?  Lets start at the beginning . . .

Once upon a time, very early one Saturday morning, new parents were awaken by their 5 week old.  What do you do when you can't sleep at 7am on Saturday?  Get coffee and start running errands.  Like all weekends, post house purchase, we were off to Lowe's, lattes in hand.  Seriously, we were starting to look like Lowe's groupies for a while there but that's a whole other story.

We figured we were only hours away from another nap, the perfect chance for El Husbando to install the irrigation system we desperately needed.  As we combed the aisles we spotted Josh Temple.  How did you recognize him?  Easy.  We are OBSESSED with House Crashers and all things DIY Network and HGTV.  In fact, we were watching it before we left for Lowe's that morning.  Serendipitous?  You betcha!

Long story short, the producer spotted us, we chatted, ended back at our house, on camera, touring all the ugly bits we hadn't yet attacked and our wish was granted!

Above you will see some before shots.  This was an unused space, a garage conversion techincally albeit a total bonus in the house.  We were thinking of using it as a cozy playroom for our son and had only gotten as far as painting the walls and installing a super plush carpet.  In the bottom right picture you can see the back of the house that the prior owners had framed in, creating a potential mudroom but in reality, the UGLIEST pass through to our backyard and a dark hallway of crap.

We had the most amazing designer working on our space, Mollie Ranize of Dmar Interiors.  Seriously, she nailed it.  Mollie saw through our barely-started redesign and remodel of our house and honed in on our style.  Best part, she challenged it!  Mollie found a way to put the fun in functional and gave us the best gift of all, something we had never imagined doing.







 A few of the exciting details - 

• Custom bar with a 3D chevron wall treatment
• Gorgeous Silestone countertop
• New wine fridge and a place to keep our second fridge (embarassingly full of Zevia, beer and vodka)
• We blew out the back wall and installed an accordian door opening up the room up to the backyard
• Cork floors (I totally heart them and thanks again Lumber Liquidators!)
• Custom built-ins with a fabulous wallpaper accent 
• A gorgeous custom art piece made from, I kid you not, painted electrical boxes
• A pair of pendant lights from Rejuventation that I swoon over daily

We were gifted a truly perfect space for the ridiculous amount we entertain and the most exciting three days a DIY geek could dream of.