Making an Entrance

If you buy a house that needs updating and redecorating, you don't expect it to happen overnight. This is even more true when you have two little ones running (or crawling) around, their curious little fingers dangerously drawn to power tools, paint and so on. No surprises, then, that we still have a lot of big projects to do. However, this weekend I just wanted one of those instant updates that make a difference to how the house works.

This was how our porch looked on Friday. We'd thrown out some of the crap that was in it when we moved in, but then it had become an unlovely dumping ground for our own crap. Meanwhile, beyond the porch in the hall, tides of shoes, coats and hats kept heaping up on an old table and wrongly-sized-for-the-space shoe rack. As entrances and exits tend to be a flurry of wellies on the wrong feet, nappy bags and emergency bananas shoved into pockets, we needed to get a bit of calm and organisation.
I headed to our local DIY store clutching a load of measurements and with an idea in mind. I had some MDF cut to size and bought paint and hooks for the walls. I went home, found the MDF was not quite the right size and the paint colour was frankly wrong. So I went back and got the MDF cut a bit smaller and bought some new paint. Plus a new door handle for the inner door, some baskets for hats, gloves, waterproofs and so on and the little flower picture.
Many, many coats of antique white paint later, plus a couple of the soft green, some messing around with power tools and wood glue and we can now clear space in the hall and, you never know, get in and out of the house with just a touch more calm.