"Makeover Monday" - Foyer "Makeover" For Only 15 Dollars!

Well, it's back to organizing for me!   Today I want to show you our foyer...Before and After. 

Before:  It was in a pretty sad state.  NOT welcoming to anyone who knocked on our door.

Of course, we would do a little cleaning when we knew company was coming over, but it still looked pretty cluttered even then...and if anyone happened to come to our door and we didn't know it in advance...oh dear!  It was bad!

Our foyer had become a "catch-all" for everything we wanted to discard when we walked in the door...our shoes would come off and  they'd just sit on the floor in piles  (yes, those are MY ducky slippers...haha!)....



Our jackets would come in from the car and be thrown on the foyer table waiting to be hung up (which never happened!)  Papers and mail would be dropped here...see the coloring page for my "little home girl's" Sunday School class (not just above, but in the pic above that)?  That was on the table and then dropped to the floor.  MESSY!

We had a mismatched placemat with an open basket full of junk...a leash, and YES, that IS a DIRTY SOCK on our foyer table!   UGH!

Our rug would continually bunch up...and nobody was fixing it...we just got used to stepping OVER the bump!  Then one day when I was vacuuming, the vaccum caught onto one of the fibers and unraveled the string.  But did I cut it off?  No, I just left it like that.....Good grief!   =/



So, I had to get to work.  Lots to do to make this entryway look more inviting!

I remember seeing on a Home show on HGTV once that the best place for clutter is hidden away in a closed container so nobody can see it.  I then heard Nikki Boyd talk about it again on one of her organization videos on her blog (www.athomewithnikki.com) and that was just what I needed to go find a new way to organize this space.  

Our basket was a nice place to put our loose change and keys and all, but it would quickly get cluttered with receipts and other stuff that shouldn't have been there and just made it look messy...soooo...I got rid of the basket.  It is now in our bathroom holding washcloths!  I found a new, cute, closed-top box that worked perfectly for storing keys and loose change.  We could even put our "Home Doggie's" leash in there along with some of her clean-up bags.  

I also love decor that has writing and neat sayings on it.  This one was perfect.  I found it at Joann Fabric and crafts for like $4.  Worth every penny for the clutter it hides!

I got rid of the mismatched place mat on the table and cleared off the extra clutter.  

I saw on a video by interior designer Elaine Griffin, that grouping things in 3's is pleasing to the eye.  So, I grabbed one of my pillar candleholders with a nice candle that goes with our living room decor, and a heart for Valentine's Day with some cinnamon chips in there to give the foyer a pleasant welcoming scent, and this is what we got!

Oh, my....it just looks so neat and clean now!  


We had a family meeting and took all shoes into our rooms and said that when we come in the house and take shoes off, they go in the BINS underneath the table.  Then when the bins start to get full...all shoes go into our rooms.   

This has helped a great deal!

On another note, I wanted to share with you the fun craft I did for the "Winter Welcome Sign", if you're interested.  

This picture, and the idea is from Courtney at "A Diamond in the Stuff".  

I got 6 black frames from the Dollar Store.  I then printed out large black letters in Word.  I think the font size was like 520 or something!   

Then I found some cute seasonal scrapbook paper, cut out the letters and pasted them to it, and framed it.  It was so easy.  I found this in the fall and did one for Autumn that I like even better than this one, but the great part is that every season has 6 letters, so all I have to do is change the scrapbook paper and letters and I can leave these frames up all year, but with different looks for each of the seasons!  

I am really just falling in love with my home all over again as I go step-by-step through this organizing process!  

I also like how much easier I know entertaining is going to be. Instead of spending HOURS trying to clean and make the house look tidy...and missing so much of the de-cluttering we needed to do...we won't have to spend much time at all, and I can focus on preparing the food and a few little spot cleaning projects!

I'm so excited!  Can you tell?  It's just a wonderful feeling!  I can't wait until it's all done!  =D

Have a great evening.  Thanks again for taking time to come by and check out my blog!  It means a lot!

This blog was added to "My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia's" Tuesday's Treasures, Savvy Southern Style's Wow-Us-Wednesdays, The Dedicated House's "Make it Pretty Monday", and Craft-O-Maniac's Monday LinkUp!, A Humble Creation's Monday Makeover, Between Naps on the Porch's Metamorphosis Monday, The Blackberry Vine's Tuesday To Do Party, Twelve Oh Eight's Pretty Things Link Party and The Cowgirl Up Link Party