Budget
Before & After: A Budget-Friendly Entryway Makeover
Updated on November 28, 2023
Interior stylist and blogger Sarah Gunn gives us a behind-the-scenes look at this impressive transformation — plus, shares how to get the look.
Your entryway is the first space guests see when they enter your home. Ideally, it should be welcoming, functional and a reflection of your style. Ours was none of these. After a few weeks of planning, painting and shopping our home, this small space now has a ton of style and function. All done on a budget — and in quarantine.
Scroll down to see how we transformed this tiny corner of our home!
With dark grey walls, no spot to sit and lace shoes, along with an unorganized closet, it wasn’t meeting anyone’s needs.
As much as I would have loved to install new front doors, it just wasn’t in the budget. Instead, I gave the basic builder doors a fresh coat of denim blue paint. The natural woven rug adds warmth to the tile floors. It’s a practical, durable option for high-traffic areas.
Art doesn’t have to be pricey to make a statement. This print is a happy reminder of our whirlwind trip to London two years ago. The one splurge we made was this beautiful floral wallpaper from Wayfair in soft shades of blue. It both brightens and adds style to the space. Large-scale patterns work so well in tight spaces.
A white shaker-style bench provides a much-needed perch. Simple black hooks hung above add storage, but also hide a secret: the light switch and house alarm panel are hidden behind the chic seagrass bag.
The closet, which sits opposite the bench, functions like a dream thanks to the addition of a modular wardrobe system. There’s a spot for everything – even a drawer dedicated to my family’s extensive baseball hat collection. Before installing the new shelves and rods, the closet was painted in the same shade of blue as the front doors.
Stores were not open when I started this makeover, so I took it as an opportunity to repurpose items we already had. Blush pink paint breathed new life into this display cabinet that sits just down the hall. The basket above used to live in our kitchen. Now, it houses the necessary, but unattractive, deliveries I often get for work.
Working on this project during a pandemic was both a challenge and a gift. I had to be creative with design decisions because stores were closed and, since I was no longer working, I wanted to make it happen on a small budget. But I also learned to fall back in love with pieces we already had in our home, by bringing them from other rooms into this new space or by wrapping them in a coat of paint. I can’t wait until the day we can welcome guests into this fresh, bright entryway!
Total Cost: Less than $2,000.
Courtesy of Sarah Gunn
Sarah Gunn