diy coat rack & faux foyer

the last time we saw my apartment entry way dining room corner, i found a basket that corralled the many pairs of shoes littering the dining room corner.

and i revealed our dining room table standing in for a coat rack.

something had to be done, and i had an idea. our building is pretty old, and has some great details–the carved wood columns between the dining and living room, six-inch-plus baseboards, moldings around doors, doorways and windows and chair rail moldings in the hallway and kitchen. i wanted to emulate the chair rail moldings and bring it up for a built-in coat rack that looks like it’s been there for a while.

with ryan’s help i got ‘er done, and i love it. here’s what we did.

at home depot we bought a six-foot length (we trimmed it at the store since it was pay-per-foot) of what ryan calls “lattice” wood (thin and about six inches wide).

it was a bit wider than what we needed so at home ryan trimmed it lengthwise so it was  four inches wide.

after measuring the corner walls, ryan cut the board into two pieces. then he cut a 45 degree angle on one end of each board for the corner.

before attaching to the wall i brushed the boards with a coat of primer. once dry, the two boards were attached to the wall with a brad nailer (the empty space between the boards at the corner will disappear with the next step)

next the gaps in the corner and against the door and window moldings were filled with caulk, and the countersunk nail holes were spackled. after sanding and taping, three coats of paint (leftover paint from when our molding were painted white when we moved in) were applied.

i bought black hooks from hobby lobby and used rub ‘n buff (“it is made of awesomeness” – my sister-in-law) to turn them gold, since i’m currently obsessed with gold. i loved how they looked, but when they attached to the wood up they were just too… gold against the white.

while spray paint would have been the best (easiest) option, rather than unscrewing the hooks i left them in place and painted them white using the same paint i painted the wood with (they took about three coats). i also hung up the awesome metal initials and a totally cute heart key hook i picked up at urban outfitters.

the white is so much better. they blend in with the wood but you can still the pretty details.

the project turned out exactly as i had imagined – or maybe even better. since the same paint color and molding style was used as the rest of the apartment , it looks like it’s been there the whole time.

{the gap is gone}

although so pretty, the best part is it’s so functional. the table chairs are clear and my purse, umbrellas and beck’s walk necessities are off the floor and sideboard.

built-in coat rack + shoe corral basket = one functional, organized faux entry way. and a happy justine.

one final before & after:

what are your storage solutions? are you lucky enough to have a coat closet or a real entry way (not in a dining room)?

{justine}

linking to mommy by day crafter by night, southern lovely, primitive and proper, between naps on the porch & remodelaholic

the o.k. (shoe) corral

lamest post name ever, apologies. it was the only thing i could think of, since this is a post about baskets. baskets to hold shoes (but i will say that i think my shoe corral is more than ok).

we don’t have an entry way, or foyer if you will, in our apartment. when you walk in from the hallway, you enter our dining room immediately.

what do you usually do when you walk inside? take off your shoes. so this is what our non-entry way usually looks like:

a mess of shoes (with my purse and umbrellas thrown in the mix too).

i’m not the neatest person (ryan will be the first to tell you that) but the shoes drove me crazy. every single time i came in or out of my place, which is a lot.

to clean up when people came over we would organize the mess by lining up the pairs together. which still drove me crazy since it just looked like a less-messy bunch of shoes.

while we have a shoe rack in our closet, it is already full of lesser worn shoes and it’s just not reasonable to think every time we came in we would bring our shoes to the closet. so a quick, cheap and non-ugly solution was in order. i figured my best best was a large basket and i set off on a search. i shopped both my house and a couple stores.

contender 1:

this one was owned by me already (home goods a couple years ago). i love the color, but it’s small and limits the number of shoes stored conveniently next to the door.

contender 2:

this dark beauty is from home goods. it had a liner in it, but it was ugly. it has a lot of space, with room to add more shoes. but i’m not sure i’m digging the really dark color against the light wall and floors.

contender 3:

a large basket with a lid from home goods. love the size (all the shoes are in there with room to spare) and that you can close it to cover the clutter even more. not loving the little doohickey bead things though.

contender 4:

a gorgeous basket from target. love the color, but it’s one of the smaller ones and kind of smelled funky.

and the winner is…….

……..

……..

the size and ability to close it really sealed the deal. i still don’t like the huge, round beads for securing it closed (which will never be used) but i have already gotten used to them.

and i like it even better moved against the other wall, tucked into the corner.

next problem to solve: the mess of keys and beck’s walk necessities on the sideboard , my purse  and other items laying around,  and dining room chairs serving as a coat rack.

i may have something up my sleeve…

{justine}