The Foyer Reveal: Part 1

In my quest to slowly make my way through the entire first floor of the house, I eventually stumbled into the foyer. I figured since I had re-done the front door and front stoop, which you can read about here and here, I might as well fix up the first thing you see when you actually get inside the house.

Alas, my foyer. This is what we started with when we moved in (absent the furniture - again, I'm using those pesky MRIS photos.)

As you can see, we were sporting shades of white both below and above the chair rail, which left the entrance with sort of a drab, unwelcoming look.

With these inspirations in mind (all of which came from Pinterest)...

This one comes from Young House Love

...I decided to do a gallery wall to liven up that narrow hallway that leads into the kitchen. In college, I did a gallery wall in my apartment using all black frames, so this time I decided to try something different and go white instead.

I pulled out all those old frames - most of which had already been painted once to make them black. But, a quick visit from the Spray Paint Fairy, and they were ready to go in a new, glossy white finish. I mixed in some new ones I found at Target, (they're by Room Essentials, and were really inexpensive), and then I set about filling them up with fun and interesting photos and trinkets. 

Wedding cocktail napkin

Wedding invitation and photos

Favorite

I'm totally in love with this section of wall. I bought the letter "a" at a craft store a few months after the wedding, figuring I would incorporate it somehow (in case you didn't know, our last name starts with an A.) I glued it onto scrapbook paper and put it in a shadow box (that was black in a previous life) for a really fun, 3D look. The top picture I took the morning after our wedding. I stacked our rings on the hotel nightstand and snapped a photo with my phone. I love the way it turned out, and it's one of my favorite pics.

I was trying to mask the giant thermostat on this wall - I framed an old greeting card, some photos I took, and the card from a bouquet of flowers the Mister sent me. I also found this old skeleton key at a local antique store - I'm completely obsessed with keys. (You can see another one sitting atop our wedding invitation.) I spray painted it white (shocker) and threw that up there too.

After getting the gallery walls hung, the white-ness of the foyer was overwhelming. No biggie though - I had some leftover Glidden Water Chestnut from painting the family room. I decided since the other rooms on the lower level were painted in cooler colors (or were all going to be in the near future), it'd be nice to tie the family room into the rest of the house by repeating the Water Chestnut in the entrance.

And for what you all know is my favorite part:

So, in my mind, that was the end of the foyer project. Little did I know what inspiration was about to come my way...