We just came up on our 3-year anniversary of living in our house! It’s crazy to look around and see how far we’ve come. We converted a room that was a hair salon into my office (yes, really!), we took a kitchenette out of our master bedroom and replaced it with a wall of closets, and we removed a LOT of wallpaper and painted a LOT of wood paneling. After a ton of these big projects, what are left are lots of little projects that are much easier to ignore. I attempted to tackle one of those smaller projects on a rare free weekend recently: our back-door entryway.
Our back-door entry space wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great — it didn’t feel cohesive with a lot of the improvements we’ve done to our downstairs. It was dragging some better-looking rooms around it down and it needed some love! The things that bugged me about how it currently looked: an outdated light fixture and a dull, industrial-looking door. We made an easy plan – update the light fixture to tie into our kitchen lighting and make it look a bit more current, and paint the back door to make it pop and match our kitchen island.
I worked with my friends at Clarkson Lighting and Martha Stewart Living to find a light fixture for the hallway. I had some tight measurements to work with, since the door opens up underneath the light, so I dug into the ClarksonLighting.com site for some great options. Finding flush mounts has always been a challenge for me, and I loved their selection. We picked the Tabby Flush Mount in Oil Rubbed Bronze – the finish tied in really nicely with fixtures we have in our nearby kitchen, and I love the simple lines of the glass globe. The exposed Edison bulb is such a nice touch too – it makes it feel current and on-trend. I’m amazed at how updating our old fixture for new lighting could so significantly transform the space – it makes such a big difference when you walk in the door.
And speaking of the door, I gave the old metal door a few fresh coats of paint in a deep grey-blue color that we used on our kitchen island’s legs. I love how it ties into the next room to make them feel connected, and the color makes the space feel fresh and new. A coat of paint and a new light fixture, plus some accessories I pulled from around the house and it feels like a brand new space. They were such easy updates, but made a really big impact!
Please note: this post was created in partnership with Clarkson Lighting and Martha Stewart Living. All opinions, images and content are my own. Thank you for supporting brands that support this site!
