The past year has been crazy for everyone in many ways. For us, COVID made us escape Manhattan and temporarily seek refuge in central Virginia, where we spent probably 90% of the time at home, indoors. It also made us realize how much we loved having space - a yard for our mini wiener dog Beak, a big family room to lounge in, and having each a home office to WFH.

So… we decided to buy a house (exterior pics to come in a future blog post!) outside of DC and jumped on the #homeowners train! While it’s been quite literally like a second full-time job like many say, it’s also been so much fun investing in a home and making improvements to it every day. I don’t think we ever thought we’d be researching what type of mulch to buy, or what the difference between a single-pole and a three-way switch is.

To that end, one of the first “rooms” we put together was the entryway. We wanted to have a homey, welcoming experience coming home so made this one of our first weekend projects.

This entryway area was pretty easy to put together, since the layout was pretty much made for a relatively standard console table to fit. Our walls were already painted neutral so for now we decided not to change that. I forgot to take a truly “Before” picture but here’s a comparison of the “Before” when our console table arrived, and the look today.

I wanted to go for a classic, clean neutral look for now so went for mostly neutral, earthy colors, but added texture by going for some woven baskets and a woven clay vase. We also randomly found that there was a mini gourd plant growing in the front yard so picked the three gourds and added them to create a fall vibe!

Here is where all the pieces came from in case you’re interested:

• Parker Console Table from Downeast Home (all solid wood, super heavy, I strongly recommend)

  • If it’s out of stock, you can find similar styles at Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware, because let’s face it #supplychainissues

• Woven baskets from Homegoods (similar, similar, similar)

• Clay vase from Homegoods (similar, similar)

• Faux eucalyptus branches from World Market

• Lamp from Homegoods (similar, similar, similar)

• Coffee table books from Amazon (1 and 2)

• Woven trinklet box from Homegoods (similar, similar, similar)

• Gold mirror from… I took a wooden mirror from an old dresser and painted it gold using this

• Eero wifi router (it’s so chic it doesn’t even deserve to be hidden behind the lamp) from Amazon

This entryway is by no means perfection but I think it lays a great foundation now for us to change it up by putting in seasonal greenery, or swap out the candle for a small sculpture for a different look. Excited to see how it evolves!

If you have any suggestions on how to improve the entryway, throw them in the comments below!