A house’s entryway (or foyer – even vestibule – depending on your level of pretension) should give guests a sense of your home. It should be welcoming and comfortable and accommodating and all that, but it should also reflect the homeowners’ design philosophy somewhere in its long list of duties.
We want our farmhouse to reflect the ideas of simplicity, honesty and craftsmanship (as opposed to what the house represents now – frilliness, affectation, and gingerbread cutouts). Since we’re lucky enough to have an actual entryway and not just a door that opens into a room, our job is to make sure that 7′x7′ space introduces our house properly.
Or at least properly introduces our future, de-victorianized house.
Fortunately, we started with a good shell. The knick-knack shelves, golden umbrella bucket, and fancy wrought-iron left with the sellers, leaving us with a beadboarded cube. 
The flooring was green and white vinyl tile, which held on tight and left plenty of evidence. Fortunately, a couple weekends with a sharp chisel and adhesive remover made quick work of it. Sanding took care of the rest (and yes, I should have been using a floor sander. And probably a mask. In my defense, it’s a tiny little entryway). I stained with Minwax Provincial, which looked like a medium golden-brown on the can, but showed much darker on the floor. Missy likes the color, though, so it’s all good in the Division Street hood.
Our entry table (which deserves a post of its own) should be here in the next week, so I’ll need to put on another coat of Provincial and a couple coats of poly to seal it.
Then it’s on to the doors. The screen door is getting a new screen and new paint, but most importantly, surgery to excise the victorian spindles. We’ve always wanted a naturally-finished front door, so I’m also going to unholster my heat gun and strip the exterior side of that. The inside is beautiful and it’s a solid-slab door, so I’m pretty confident there’s something attractive under the paint. Assuming a 26×28 piece of glass isn’t outrageously expensive, I’m also going to try my hand at replacing that. The glass in there now is a starburst/firework pattern that offends my delicate sensibilities.
What does a classic farmhouse welcome mat look like?
