That Nook: A Reveal

Over a month ago, I shared with you an ugly little nook that resides just inside our front door. The configuration wasn't a good use of the space, and it wasn't meeting its storage potential. While I thought my little nook overhaul plan would only take a weekend (When will I learn?), it took us closer to a month.

The walls of the nook weren't perfectly even (areas were concave, etc.) so we had to change our design plan along the way. We also had a weekend guest, a 1st birthday party to throw, and Jon and Quincy both came down with colds in the month, so yeah, we got delayed. BUT it is finished, and it's looking lots better.

Jon getting his power tool on in our garage.

I shared on instagram our wood staining in progress.

We went with Min Wax's Special Walnut for a dark aged look.

We used some tutorials we found online as our jumping off point,

but Jon had to customize our plans to fit our imperfect nook.

There was lots of gluing, bracing and drying.

Here's the before again:

And finally, the after:

The shelves turned out exactly how I had envisioned them.

Kudos to Jon.

During the process of building the shelves,

we started demoing in preparation for our hardwood install.

Hence...the baseboards have been removed,

revealing that the house was previously painted burgundy.

I'm aware that this is a teeny tiny space, and a teeny tiny update, but it makes me happy. I can see this spot from any vantage point in our living room and it is so much easier on the eyes now. And, more importantly, the additional shelves and bins are making our home work for us so much better. No more gathered piles of shoes, gloves, hats, and socks (Are my children the only ones that are constantly removing their socks?) at our front door. Everything is contained and hidden away.

I'm still on the hunt for some vintage letters to adorn each basket, so we know who's junk is who's. And, we may add a fifth shelf, but we can't do so until after the hardwoods (is anyone else getting tired of me saying "after we install the hardwoods"?) are laid in that little space.  I'm currently dying (DYING!) to replace that terrible front door with a single pane french door, but alas, because of clearance with the flooring, that project is on hold too. But, as soon as those hardwoods are down, that door will be at the top of my list. I plan on giving the french door a coat of gray paint (or navy...or green...), kind of like this:

Torontolife.com

Today I am thankful for attractive storage solutions and a husband that is dead set on doing every project correctly, no matter how long it takes. Hours after finishing the shelves, Jon immediately dove into building us a custom baby gate (it will be white and planked!), that will reside at the top of our stairs for the next year or two. I'm beginning to feel like a bit of a slave driver.