i bought a jigsaw (it's craft time!)

i am brewing our morning coffee and henry is about to whip us up a batch of peanut butter and jelly quesadillas (with the new quesadilla maker he got from santa). i don't have to work tomorrow. what a sunday!  i am also so excited because i just finished this awesome project that i'm about to show you.
we have this south minneapolis home. i love it. it's full of charm and built-in nooks and love. i absolutely adore our house. but anyone who knows south minneapolis homes knows two things. we aren't known for our closets, and more likely than not, our entryways are big enough to fit a few pairs of shoes and that's it. this is what i don't like. i don't like when the kids come home with hats, mittens, snowpants, boots, book bags and shoes. you can imagine that our teeny little entryway becomes quite cluttered.
the idea began when chris sent me this well thought out (but maybe not so much) idea. he sent me an email that said, "what do you think? let's print these out and hang them around the house." bless his heart, it was a great idea, but i don't want these hanging throughout our house.

so i had to think of something. i knew we needed some sort of organization. i had this idea a while back, and i even bought a very cheap $10 cabinet off of craigslist last summer. of course that cabinet was just sitting in the basement collecting dust. it was time to take action. i pulled out the hammer, brought up the cabinet, laid down a tarp and got to work. i even bought a jigsaw! that's how determined i was.

here is the entryway before, along with a picture of the ugly cabinet i pulled out of the dust. small, white walls (and not even all white after i pulled the radiator cover off the wall). boring. plain boring.

ya see where the cabinet is bitten up by the previous owner's dog? lovely! and that ugly metal scroll work! something needed to be done.

here is the finished work. i couldn't get it all in one picture because that's how small our entryway is. i can't even stand far enough away to get it all in one picture! the entryway is literally 4x4, at most.

a little "station" where the kids can take their shoes off (and store them in the cabinet)

all my favorite thrift store picture finds...finally a place to put them!

 a bag for each kid to put their mittens and hats and other fun stuff!

 mail, sunglasses, chalk for the new quote chalkboard

right side. a little chalkboard to write daily affirmations to the kids

 left side. a place to hold the keys and some of my favorite little girl pictures

  i bought this wall decal sticker as a border...because i was too lazy to paint the unpainted area

plus i just thought it added a little oomph to the area

what do you think? i am very happy with it. did i mention i bought a jigsaw? here's my fancy scroll work!

yep, that's the inside of the cabinet. it needed to be "customized" to fit the radiator.

now i'm inspired to be crafty this weekend. i think i will run to the craft store!

xoxo,

megan bird