Make An Entrance!
Your entryway is the first thing visitors see in your home, it sends a strong statement to the world about your home.
They also usually have to be really hardworking, multi-functional spaces that, without some careful planning can become really messy and disorganised!
Don’t panic, I’ve got you! Check out my top tips for getting the most out of your entryway.
Picture the scene, you get home after a long day. You’re exhausted but still have a million things on your to-do list - pick up the letters from the mat and slap them onto the dining table, grab that parcel put it next to the letters to open when you’ve got a second, shrug off your coat and chuck it over the back of a chair, drop your bag next to the stairs, fling your keys somewhere, slip off your shoes - any of this ringing a bell?
If you’ve got a partner/kids/dog the problem is compounded further with even more stuff that needs a home! Where do you put all of the coats, shoes, hats, gloves, bags and leads without your house looking like Piccadilly Circus?
Design For Your Lifestyle
To make your hallway work well, you first need to think about what you need it to do. Think about what you do when you come into your house and what you need to store there. A place for coats, school bags, keys, sunglasses, dog leads, winter hats, scarves, gloves, they’re all going to need a place.
Space Planning
To say my entrance hall is a quirky space would be understating it, my house is old and old = weird stuff usually. It houses my boiler in a cupboard, my stairs, and a strange leftover curved wall in the middle of the floor leftover from when the house had a different layout (we presume), leaving us with a funny little alcove. There’s next to no natural light and given that it’s the only ‘spare’ space in the house it is home to all sorts of random stuff!
We’re lucky enough to have a (admittedly poorly laid out) porch, so coats are stored there but our entrance hall stores; shoes, some tools, the hoover and broom, a laundry area, keys, sunglasses, suncream, work ID badges, the key for the gas cupboard, the iron, a pool cue (!), our internet router, plus winter hats, gloves and scarves. It is an incredibly hardworking space and needed some very careful space planning to fit all that in!
I turned the weird alcove into a bespoke laundry space, tucked out of sight - it works brilliantly, even for 5 people’s worth of laundry! There was a space under the stairs blocked off that I turned into a cupboard, this houses tools and the pool cue. I used turned two wall mounted cupboards into a bespoke console table with a beautiful chunky piece of wood and some reeded wood trim on the doors, this houses some more DIY bits, the iron, sunglasses and some more random bits and bobs. Some cute little bamboo boxes house keys and work IDs. Winter hats, scarves and gloves live in a gorgeous vintage wicker hamper that sits inconspicuously by the door. The hoover and broom live with the boiler as the floor of the cupboard was completely unused space. Everything is tucked away out of sight, everything has a place and you certainly wouldn’t know how much is hidden away there! It sounds complicated and yes, it did take some clever thinking but it works brilliantly.
Style It Up
Just because it’s a space that needs to work hard doesn’t mean it can’t look gorgeous, after all this is the space that people see first, it should set the tone for the rest of the home. Think really hard about how you want to feel when you come in the door. Perhaps you want to feel energised after a long day? Or is it the opposite, do you need peace and calm after a tiring day? Personally I need my hallway to be calm and quiet, I want to come in from the world to a safe haven, a port in a storm.
I used natural textures, with wood, bamboo, wicker and jute coupled with a neutral colour scheme to layer give a rich, layered look. I also knew that it was going to need a bit of a slap in the face, something to shake it up and give it pizzazz! Like I said, the entrance hall should set the tone for the rest of the house, and reflect who we are as a family so I added some pop with a very cool Emma J Shipley wallpaper.
On top of console tables is a great place to add some fun styling elements, but make sure you’re not adding clutter. Coffee table books are always a staple for styling any surface, add a tall table lamp (hint: if natural light is low try using one with a crystal base to bounce the light around even more) and a reed diffuser so that your entryway always smells lovely. All rooms should have something organic in them, preferably living so if you have a plant that can cope with the lighting situation that you have then get it in there! I included some extra tall stems of faux bougainvillea for a big burst of colour in what would ultimately be quite a dingy corner of my hallway.
My last tip is a large full-length mirror, as big as you can get, it’s great to be able to check how you look before you leave the house (and grab one last outfit selfie for the gram!)
A warm palette with neutral colours and natural textures, punched up with some Emma J Shipley wallpaper
Lighting
Entrance halls are a great place to make a statement with lighting, here is not the place for recessed spotlights or a boring flush mount. Try something modern and elegant. I love using glass in hallways to really throw as much light as possible around. These are three of my current faves.
So there you have my top tips for your entrance hall, I know sometimes it can seem overwhelming but with careful space planning and clever storage you can have the perfect organised hub that you need.
Let me know in the comments what your biggest issues are when it comes to your entryway!