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From the moment we decided to put an offer on our house, I was set on getting rid of the entryway closet. I grew up in a no-shoe home and planned to continue that with my kids, and the closet didn’t seem ideal. Besides, I liked the idea of a more open entryway.
We got the keys on a Friday, and Saturday my dad tore out the closet while my husband ripped up the carpet. To be honest, I can’t even remember the house with the closet, and I only have two pictures of it. My dad put up drywall and mudded everything, and even with the obvious signs of construction, it looked a ton better!
And then, as these things go, we put the rest of the project off for three years. We had a new baby. I cut down my hours at work and then stopped working altogether. My husband lost his job. We had another baby with a NICU stay.
Basically, life happened.
We finally decided it needed to be done before that winter so we had somewhere to put coats and hats and gloves and shoes. My dad is amazing and so talented! We hired him to do it, and it turned out so perfectly.
We put in a bench to store shoes and to have somewhere to sit to put shoes on. We have shelves for kids shoes, tennis shoes, and flip flops. We have bigger shelves for my husband’s skater shoes. And then we have a spot for boots.
I saved a whole bunch of pictures from Pinterest and pieced together my perfect design. I loved watching it all come together!
I found the baskets before we did the upper part so I would know they would fit. Thankfully the width worked perfectly, too. I love these for all of the small things that I don’t want to have to keep track of or always have out. During the winter I keep hats and gloves and blankets up there. During the summer they are full of sunscreen, bug spray, bubbles, chalk, and water balloons.
It may have taken a few years to get it finished, (and we still need to finish the floor), but it is my favorite thing that we’ve done to our house since we bought it.
