Organizing My Entry! Easy, and on a Budget!

This post is Sponsored by IKEA.  Thank you IKEA!!  We love working with you and all your fabulous products!

I mentioned on Sunday a bit about the new house we are working on, and this project has us SO excited!

Maybe it is because I have lived in and through countless remodeling projects over the years, there is just something about the feeling I get when a new project is done… I admit I am a bit addicted #remodelaholic.  But there is nothing like, after living in a hectic mess, the feeling of gratitude and appreciation you have for a single point of beauty in the room… maybe this is why I remodel slowly, space by space if I can, so that I can really enjoy the finished project for as long as possible.

Also, to be clear, this project is not just beautiful — this is ALL about function.  You see, I’ve also never been lucky enough to have a mudroom (well my first house sort of had one- but we didn’t have kids, and kids are the MAIN reason to have a mudroom… #messy ) I know I am not the only mom out there fighting the entry drop zone fight?!  Right?  My kids get home and there are coats, gloves, school papers, hats, backpacks, lunch boxes… just to name a few, and now we will finally have a place to not only corral all the things, but also organize!!  And do it all on an amazing budget.

This little nook by our front door didn’t actually exist as it does now.  When we bought the house it was the back half of a bedroom closet on the other side of this wall,  but we installed a PAX closet system in there for our daughters (which was not sponsored and I can’t wait to show you HOW much we love that), and that left us with 8 extra inches of space behind the system. Add that to the thickness of the wall (4 1/2 inches) and we had a whole foot of inaccessible space that we were able to open up to the living room!  HALLELUJAH!

Easy Entry Organizing, on a Budget

I love the idea of an entry as a separate and distinct room from other spaces (but I have never actually had one in any of my 7 houses) so this little nook has some big shoes to fill- give me the entry space I’ve always dreamed of, organize all the stuff and do it on a budget!

Let me give you a peek of the before and after:

After:

I had a lot of fun perusing IKEA online to find the best storage options.  There are a lot of ideas that I explored!!  Ultimately, I chose the universally used KALLAX shelf (or you may be familiar with the previous version, EXPEDIT), which is super affordable at only around $65.00!  The best news is all the different things you can do with a KALLAX shelf.  There are SO many color and insert options.  ANYONE can make a KALLAX work for them in their space.  There are baskets, boxes, wire baskets, really cool slings shelves, dividers, doors and DRAWERS (which is what I decided to go with!!)

Like I said above, the options are endless to organize you KALLAX.   So you can use whatever you like to make it work for your space, and with your existing decor.  I really love how you can personalize the piece and make it your own!

To fill the shelf spaces, I decided having hidden and yet so-easy-to-organize drawers would be worth the minimal extra investment.  So I bought 4 sets of the KALLAX two drawer units.

 

And I can’t help myself!  I love bringing in a natural woven texture to all of the spaces I work with, so for the bottom shelves, I bought 4 rattan BRANAS baskets.

I mean look how good it looks with both options.. if I do say so myself!

Once we go the storage portion taken care of, there was the matter of the big blank space above this new beautiful furniture piece.  So, for the wall, I decided it is nice to be able to check out my crazy hair before I answer the door, and the STOCKHOLM Mirror was the perfect answer to the need.

 

We also needed some light for the space!  And the truth is, I wanted to be able to switch out the lights whenever my mood dictated, so the best feature is that my super amazing husband installed a switch with a plug that turns it off an on.  Which means any plugin wall sconce can go in this space and be switched out as desired.  So we chose 2 of the RANARP wall clamp LED spotlights and I love how the gold looks in the space.

Lastly, while you can’t buy our full sized Swedish clock at IKEA (free building plans at that link), they do have a VERY similar colored small yellow clock, the IKEA PS 1995 that you could use to recreate the look if you love it but don’t want to build one!

After assembling all the pieces and putting it together, we were able to clean out our cramped and uninspiring front closet so that everything now has a permanent home, and I will show you that process soon.  For now just enjoy the new goodness of a finished space (the only one in our main living space!)

I’ll show you how we finished the rest space up real soon- well as soon as we actually do it, so stay tuned!

I am a Brand Ambassadör for IKEA U.S. This is a sponsored post.

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