When this house and I first met, the entryway looked like this. It was there, and that was pretty much all you could say about it.

In other words, it felt like the cosmic delivery of a low blast radius project to get these feet wet. So to open my long friendship with the Lowe’s down the street, I got some plywood and trim boards. I miter-sawed them to workable imperfection. I learned how to use the nail gun, and the paint sprayer (the end result was good, but I still made a mess).

I found corbels that felt appropriately fancy, and a nice pine board to rest on top of them. I found a big piece of whiteboard and encircled it in oak. I found adulty hooks for the top row and adorable elephants for the bottom.

An eraser shelf and marker holder later, the entryway was in business!

Of course, most of the time it looks like barely-contained chaos.

But it cleans up pretty well too.