Making the most of a small entry

images (left to right): 1 / 2 / 3

My mom teased me the other day that I'm always changing things, and I guess she's right. I pinned the three images above ages ago, and I've wanted to switch up the hooks in our entry ever since.

My decluttering efforts turned up a couple of long pine boards in our garage, abandoned by the previous owner. Unfortunately, neither one was long enough to span the entire wall, so I used one in its entirety and cut a small piece from the second. The seam is near the door, where it's least noticeable, and my spackle job was good enough that it's really not noticeable at all :)

To get the board ready for hanging, I sanded it and applied a coat of KILZ stain-blocking primer (water-based). I love using KILZ on anything pine, because it's the only primer I've found that covers knots in one coat. And it dries really quickly.

The paint is Sico's Cotton Rag Paper (same as the trim). The board is screwed into the wall studs and I used spackle to hide the screws and any major dings, etc. in the wood. My husband asked me why I didn't use wood putty, and really I just find spackle easier to work with, so that's what I use. I applied one final coat of paint to the board on the wall, and then I was ready to attach my hooks.

I purchased five of these hooks from Home Depot, and I think they're a great find, especially for the price. I spaced them 15 inches apart, leaving 30 inches between the wall and the first hook so that we can open our front door fully (you know, without banging it into a hook).

So that's it! Really easy to do and I love how it turned out. We only added one hook (we had four before), but it feels like we have so much more room - and I'm loving the new view from the living room.