front entry makeover

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I enjoyed the day with my little cuties and some other family and decided to take a little bloggy break. The time that we have as a little family of 4 is coming to a close and I just decided to focus on this last Christmas where my kids didn't outnumber my husband and I. :)

Today I have something that is very exciting for me to share with you, the full evolution of our front entry makeover! It has come so far from being a dark and depressing space, to being so inciting and seeming so much more open!
So, this is what we started with...

Changing out the light fixture helped to brighten the space significantly; the new one gives off much more light than the old one so although Mike wasn't sold on the appearance, it won him over by being about twice as bright. Then I also painted about halfway down the wall the same color as the rest of the house (dapper tan by Glidden). While I was at it, I painted the doorbell chime box too so it would blend in a little more.

I love the contrast of our new floors against the white paneling that we installed in front entry.

And yes, those are the same paint chips taped to the back of the door that are in the first shot. I think I have it narrowed down to one of two colors though. Maybe. The door itself is in good shape, so rather than replace it, we have some plans for a little makeover that will happen sometime in the future.

So what we do in this space?

• new light fixture
• paint
• install wainscoting, molding and baseboard
• change the trim around the door
• new flooring

And what still needs to be done?

• paint the ceiling (I am really not looking forward to the process of doing this to the whole house, but know it will be amazing once it's all done, as evidenced in {this} post).
• install crown moulding, if we decided to install that everywhere like we've talked about. Right now it could go either way.
• put glass windows in the door
• paint the door