Hi there! Thanks for checking in this Tuesday. I have every intention of posting on Mondays, but I also recently designated Monday as laundry day, and after nearly six hours in the laundromat yesterday, I was out of blogging time. Yeah, six. I'm working out the kinks. Never you fear, I'll share it all in excruciating detail!

Anyway, let's take one more trip down memory lane to our trip to California. Brandy and Mark's house wasn't the only house we got to have fun with; we also spent a few days with our dear friends Sonal and Nate, and got to help out over there as well! They have a truly gorgeous home, brand new, but in the style of Craftsman - the best of all worlds, right? When I got there, Sonal had some pretty clear ideas about what she needed and wanted, and I basically helped to execute her vision. It turned out fantastically! Today, we'll start with the entryway. Sonal was having a pretty typical entryway problem, which is to say it just wasn't doing much for her.

With nowhere to put all the stuff you need walking in and out the door, the dining table was pulling duty as Place to Dump Stuff.

Feel familiar to anyone? It's such a common problem, but one easily solved! In this case, Sonal knew what she needed: some hooks for hanging stuff, a place to put shoes, and a mirror for last minute food-in-teeth checks and to spruce the place up. Click through the slideshow below to watch the transformation!

Sonal wanted to offset the nook from the rest of the room, so she started off by painting it a soft shade of gray she had on hand, before I got there. Then we hung the hooks and the mirror, which Sonal had also had and which she painted a delightful shade of tealish, grayish aqua.

The mirror was a sort of oil rubbed bronze before, but it didn't pop at all against the wall. Oh, and quick reminder: spray paint is not the only option when it comes to sprucing things up! This regular old latex wall paint sample covered the mirror beautifully and the result was fantastic. Once everything was hung on the walls, I went ahead and made use of it all.

There is a coat closet, on the right of the below image, so though we considered putting a little shoe rack beneath the hooks, we ended up keeping out only the most used pairs, and relegating the rest to the closet. Speaking of that nook, it didn't escape untouched! It started out like this:

I cleaned it up a bit and brought in a plant, and after I left, Sonal painted it a killer shade of coordinating teal we found in the oops department.

Gorgeous, right? And so functional. I went back a week or so later and the entryway was in full functioning mode. It seems like I overstate things, but making use of that space is life changing for Nate and Sonal's fam. It makes finding things so much easier than rifling through piles of stuff on the table, and it brings a sense of order and calm to both the entryway and the dining room, which can now go back to being just a place to eat!