The Ugly Baby’s hit some teething problems. Our entry way, much like many small apartments, has no division between “Where do I sign?” and “Please come in! Won’t you stay awhile?”.
The UPS guy can see exactly what’s for dinner and the neighbours get a full show whenever we come and go at the same time. (Why do people always try to look inside your barely open front door? Less than subtle, guys. When I want to gawk at your apartment, I’ll at least lie & pretend I’m out of sugar). So that’s problem one. Lacking privacy. Not a huge concern for buyers because it’s same deal in any apartment anywhere, but an annoyance to would-be hermits like me.
How to separate ‘here’ from ‘there’?
Problem two, more chronic, is the lacking separation between entry and entire existence. There’s just a small coat closet and a little hallway to separate front door and everything else.
Yea right.
Visitors to any small apartment I’ve ever rented, never given the chance or space to take off shoes or coats, simply come on in. It drives me crazy. Wet coats get discarded on the couch, and wet shoes are trod all over. I’m certain it’s a habit born of a tiny apartment – you don’t see a shoes-and-coats zone, so you keep going ‘til you hit one. I’m allowed to take off my shoes at the first chair I find – at the dining table – but you’re not.
That’s the massive disadvantage to small-scale apartment living. There’s hardly any buffer at all between outside world and inside home. I recall an open house from early in our search that lacked any hall closet at all. The sellers had attempted an artful doorway demonstration of the Hunter Wellies rainbow but it fell flat. All I thought was “no storage, no storage, no storage”. I’m scouring Houzz.com and similar for a dual solution: keep the world out, bring the buyers in.
Come as you are, as you were… (but take off your shoes).
Ok, yes, it’s ugly. That’s to scare the baddies away.
- Do we tile the foyer area separately – to define the space? Neither the laundry nor kitchen can have laminate (wetness) but its glorious teaky brilliance is needed to join hallway, with bedroom and living room: “this looks way bigger than it actually is, but you won’t notice”.
- Do we install some coat hooks and a tacky welcome mat?
- Maybe put in a baby gate to emphasize the house-training:
You with wet shoes. You stay there.
Maybe just a good Chinglish sign would settle the matter – cheaply.
Can you reverse the direction the front door opens? So that people see the closet door first thing?
My other thought would be to remove the closet door, and open it up to a recessed-mud-room-nook type of area. With shelves for shoes (that people can’t miss) and a knockoff-Anthropologie coat rack or hooks.
I’m also a huge fan of half-walls (especially ones with storage) to define but not close off spaces. But only if you feel up to that kind of construction. Of course.
Interesting – I have no idea! That would be way better – then the nosey buggers can’t see the kitchen, no matter how hard they try. Really like the idea of taking off the door as well. No, I love it. Thanks Christine!
How about a tall(ish) divider bookcase just into the living room that blocks the view past. If you make it one of those just shelves one, you can use it for artful display as well as an eye-stopper (literally!) You could put it in far enough to make a little turn/hallway/go thataway-into-ourdivinespace sorta thing.
Also, I was totally thinking the same idea as Christine by taking off the closet door and making a recessed accessible nook that says, stop here damn it and put your shoes next to mine.
Yea! Ok! Grand plan. And failing that, an airport X-ray machine with a strict “shoes off and in the plastic tray” policy.
Go to this link, picture #5 is their entryway. The white paint amid a sea of dark floor screams DO NOT STRAY FROM THIS POINT! I think it could work for you.
http://www.housebeautiful.com/decorating/small-apartment-decorating-0710?click=main_sr
Hi Adrianne! Oh that’s such a cool picture! There’s probably invisible trip-wire set into the white border as well. Really, really like that. Thanks ever so much! Now I’m getting excited – far better than the fear of last week.
I’m with the other posters – take off the closet door and turn the space into a mini-mudroom/entry console. You could paint the inside (and possibly the entry door?) a bright color that coordinates with the hallway/living room paint (a darker turquoise?) and add cubbies for shoes, a shelf for mail, keys, etc. and a couple baskets for storage. Then put up some coat hooks on the wall where you show the little table.
Laminate floor for sure – in the entry AND the kitchen! In my last house, I put Pergo over my fabulous orange-and-olive-green-parquet-look 70s vinyl in the kitchen and never had any problems. It’s not like you’re going to hose it down or the pipes will freeze, right?
Last, but not least, I’d also hang a big print over the electrical box – one of those stretched canvas deals would probably fit perfectly. This one would do nicely: http://www.art.com/products/p14484493-sa-i3000474/keep-calm-and-carry-on.htm?sorig=cat&sorigid=0&dimvals=222452&ui=4a6fe4d6d1d046c286bc28d08f1e49c2
Ah, this Sally has fabulous ideas.
Love the print! (and the idea of darker turquoise in the mini-mudroom)
Thanks, Karrie — you are too kind! Given the Ugly Baby angst, the print would be a pretty good “inside joke”, wouldn’t it?
Oh yes!
She does, doesn’t she. She’s even been hard at work fixing my dishwasher dilemma – a behind-the-scenes miracle worker.
Hi Sally! You’re painting a very pretty picture and had me at the word cubbies.
Your old vinyl sounds even prettier than mine – I don’t have current plans to hose the floor, haha, no. Ok – very interesting – you’re the first person I’ve heard to give a vote of confidence for laminate in the kitchen. Extremely tempting – especially as we’ve got lots of extra.
LOVE LOVE LOVE the canvas idea – and you picked the very perfect slogan. Maybe with a scribbled adendum at the bottom:
LOL! Glad you like the canvas poster idea, Lauren! Hail, Britannia, eh? And it’s turquoise, too!
Re laminate in the kitchen: the guys that installed mine way back when weren’t worried about it at all. They did draw the line in the laundry room, however, which had a floor drain – apparently you don’t want water getting underneath a floating floor. That’s a BIG no-no. Sure, the dishwasher could overflow, but how often does that happen? And you’ll be long gone by then, right?
So if you’ve got extra, I’d use it everywhere except the bathroom — too many different types of flooring in a very small space just seems to make things feel even smaller. You can always use rugs to delineate spaces.
I agree with the single flooring. Changing it in a small space would make the place feel choppy. I’d use rugs to delineate spaces.
Me? Well, I would go with the tile to delineate the area, but I would keep a door on the closet. I don’t know what it is about shoes, but they always look so untidy and I would not want mine out in the open. It is all well and good if you only have three pairs that can be neatly lined up, but even I, someone who never buys shoes / clothes etc have more than three pairs that I use fairly regularly. I do like coat hooks though (because I am far too lazy to actually hang a coat on a coat hanger and put it in a closet) – maybe on the back of the door?
Plus wet shoes kinda smell, right? Maybe it would be reason to chuck out all the mucky pups and get brand new, clean ones. I went to an open house last summer where the bedroom closet had only white shirts & brand new Converse All-Stars in it. The most contrived thing I’ve ever seen – but perhaps slightly genius.
Maybe I should just move the couch into the hall closet – since that’s where all our coats end up anyway.
It depends on what you do to the kitchen, and how much space you have to play with. If you remove a wall, it changes everything.
Usually if people see coats and shoes by the door, they pick up on the hint to take theirs off too (unless they follow you in and you don’t remove yours. Then it becomes monkey see, monkey do).
Keep the floor the same, add a coat hook and maybe a shoe rack or something. Add a table, if there is space, to dump your keys, mail, phone etc.
Just make sure there is aesthetic continuity will all furnishings in the space, especially as it is open-plan.
There once was a Kiwi named Jono,
With wonderful ideas for our con(d)o,
Every comment was wise,
And totally prized,
You’re even cooler than Bono.
I guess the issue of whether or not to open up the closet is up to you. I’d wait to see how it fits into the schedule and the BUDGET before I’d commit to it. It sounds like a great idea, really. But looking at the photo of the space, isn’t it a tremendous amount of work for a place you’re not planning to hold onto? For some potential buyers it might be seen as a plus, but probably not enough to pay extra for, so you’ve put in a lot of effort for what return? For others, eliminating that closet it could actually be a big minus.
As to the floor, I’d go with tile. I might even continue it down the hall, into the bath and up to the doorways of the bedroom and living room, then lay down a pretty runner. Mmmmm, homey.
Ohhhh right, the B word!! Had conveniently put that to one side. Thanks for the reminder – needed, as always! Maybe that should go on the canvas poster, too.
Keep calm, carry on, BUDGET!