One of the fun things about moving to a new house is the opportunity to decorate and I began with the entryway. Entryways are the very first thing a visitor encounters in your home. They set the mood for the entire house. So of course mine had to have color. The very first thing was hanging up a quilt. I chose my Songs of a Distant Lancaster quilt that was made for the Modern Amish show at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles in CA.
The next three items were practical. I needed a dog barrier to prevent my two cairn terriers, Fearghus and Fiona, from charging the front door when people came a-calling. Of course Fearghus seems to have discovered that he just needs to push it aside. So one last project remaining to do is to cover a brick with felt to set at the edges to prevent the little stinker from moving the gate. Otherwise I love this free-standing fence/gate a lot. I can move it out of the way for deliveries etc and didn't need to permanently install something to the wall.
Since we live in a wet environment I needed a rug at the front door to catch any moisture that didn't come off on the doormat. My next door neighbors have wonderful Persian rugs and I loved the look. I found this one on Overstock.com and it was just the right touch .. a bit of greens and a subtle aqua tone that went well with the laminate wood flooring. I didn't want the colors to be overwhelming on the rug. I also needed a place to store Steve's walking sticks and canes. This little bamboo umbrella stand was just the right look.
Once that quilt and rug were in place I knew that I needed to find an awesome piece of furniture to set under the quilt. My heart was set on a reproduction Jacobean buffet from the 50s. They're a bit hard to find. Finally on OfferUp I found one! It was already spray-painted in white but I wasn't going for the farmhouse look. Thus my first encounter with using chalk paint. I'll do a separate post about painting it. While I was painting it I ordered new upholstery fabric from Top Fabrics in LA so that I could recover the seats of Steve's parents' old dining room chairs. Bang, that really was making it come together.
Then the buffet was finished. Two of my wonderful neighbors saw me moving this from the garage and ran to help me carry it into the house. (Good neighbors are so wonderful to have and I'm very blessed with quite a few of them!) Wow! That really looks great together.
Hmm, the buffet looked a little bare so I cut a piece of pleather for the top. Then I added my doll that I had made ages ago. It still was bare and I decided that I needed a tall lamp to balance her. Kudos to my mom for discovering this stained glass lamp online at Overstock.com. It was the perfect addition. Finally I found this teal tray at HomeGoods and placed the photo album that my mom had made for Steve and I of the house as it was being built as well as the land down the kayak path.
The finishing touches to the area was the framed Irish blessing that we had bought on one of our many trips to Ireland. And then I made an old-style blueprint of our house plans and framed it to honor Steve and our journey to get the house built.
The entire entryway is both inviting and an extension of who I am and what the house means to us. Welcome to the Levin's home!
