Cast your memory back to December of 2020 and now feast your eyes upon the gloriousness that is the Front Hall! I’ve been semi-live blogging over on my personal instagram the process of redoing the front hall. Enjoy these selected images from the project up to now and pay NO attention whatsoever to the ginromous compressor hanging out. I was still using it to nail things down when these pictures were made.

We made more trips to Lowe’s in September than in the entire 21 years and 4 months I’ve lived in this house. It’s like the death of a thousand cuts. We purchased some new tools to replace ones that were stolen a decade and a half ago, but I’m not including the cost of those in this breakdown since we’ll have them for a long time to come.

I promised in an IG post that I’d break down what I spent to redo the front hall, so here we go. Bear in mind that I’ve been purchasing a little here and a little there since early 2018 so we didn’t bear this entire cost all at once. Picking up things when they went on sale or when we had a coupon/discount code made this a LOT more affordable than if we’d tried to do the whole thing all at once. This space is just under 8 feet wide and 9 feet long, so it’s not a huge space.

New floors from LL Flooring: $300
This included underlayment and an extra box of flooring to make sure the chevron pattern was just right. We may return the extra box. The flooring was just under $2/sf and each box is about 23 sf.

2023 Update: we did NOT in fact return the box. It’s still sitting on the back porch.

Paint from Lowe’s: approx $50.
It could’ve been more but definitely less than $60 for the white trim (1 qt) and yellow (1 gal). I’m not counting the cost of brushes/rollers in this because those are general supplies that we already had on hand although some needed to be replaced.

Baseboard shoe moulding: 5 pcs at $6 each.
This was used to finish off the baseboards, make two thresholds AND create a frame for the over-door overlay.

Miscellaneous Paint/Finish Supplies:
Small can of polyurethane to seal the shoe moulding: under $10
Special brush for the poly: $5
Mineral Spirits: $7
CitriStrip: $13
Frog Tape: $10
Chip Brush for the CitriStrip: $1.25
Wire Brads for the overlay install: $1.91 (with tax)
Screws with a star head that won’t easily strip: $10

Wallpaper from Target: approx $80 for two packs of the cream/gold and one pack of border.
I only needed 1.5 packs of the cream/gold but here we are.

New lighting fixture from World Market: under $65.
I had a birthday coupon for 15% off so that was a nice incentive. I wouldn’t have purchased a new lamp except that the existing one disintegrated in my hands while cleaning it. The original was only $15 from Amazon purchased September 1st 2016, so I think I got my $3/year out of it.

Curtains from Target: approx $40 for the pair

Curtain rod from Amazon: $25
5% cash back for this purchase PLUS a donation was made to our favorite charity so it’s a win.

Storage ottoman from Target: approx $100
It’s been so long since we bought it that Target no longer sells it. Plus we got 5% off anything at Target with the RedCard, so for a lot of the items we basically ended up not paying sales tax.

Hairpin leg table (again) from Target: $90 (plus red card discount)

IKEA Kallax 4×2 ($79) with Lekman drawers ($11.99×8) modified with spray paint ($6×2) and legs (Amazon, $35) and base (Lowe’s, $8).
I spraypainted the Lekman drawer fronts with special paint designed for plastic so they’d match the vibe. I created a riser out of a premade shelf from Lowe’s and screwed some MCM legs from Amazon into it, used some spare anti-skid shelf liner between the shelf and the Kallax and BAM! Got your MCM shoe cabinet RIGHT HERE, baby!

Over-door Overlay by O’verlays: $29.95
The space it was covering was NOT in square (by a lot) so I knew it was going to need a frame. No big. A little shoe moulding, caulk and some tape and I’m good to go.

Shoji paper and double sided tape from eShoji: $24.95 + $3.99
This was for a totally different project that never materialized, but may happen eventually. I only needed a small amount of the 23 foot roll, so I still have enough for that when/if it happens.

New door pulls from Amazon: $30
I’ll use two on the studio door and 2 on the hairpin table when I make drop-down fronts for the openings. It will be glorious. I’m just waiting for them too arrive.

Retail value of everything purchased: $1160 +/- ($16/sf)

Sweat equity: PRICELESS.

Also priceless? My middle kid telling me I did “such a great job” on the MCM reno that I should carry it through the rest of the house. And then telling me which color I should do the living room. #AsYouWish