Mabey Manor: Front Entry Reveal

There’s nothing quite like a first impression, right? The first impressions of Mabey Manor were pretty bad. You can see how dreary and run down the house was in this photo. The door still has “abandoned” stickers on it, you can see the shoddily painted floors, the wood paneling, and the barren living room. What you can’t tell is the “old” smell, the hollow uninviting sounds, and the way I’d grimace every time someone came over. I knew the plan and could see the vision, but I knew what people thought.

Everything from painted brown plywood to wood paneling met your eye, and it was pretty bad. One time I was getting ready to do a post for Cut It Out frames, and the owner came to my house to drop it off. I cringed when he had to see my front entry because I didn’t want him to think that the frame would go in an area that ugly and dark. (It all turned out well, and you can see the nursery art here.)

So we started by painting the front door since buying a new one wasn’t in our plan. This gray was a few shades darker than the walls in the main parts of the house, and we had a can laying around so I painted it right away. Then it sat as we worked on other parts of the house. In some ways it was good as all the demoed materials had to go out the front door.

I wanted to build benches and have a great command center as we came into the house, but we were just tearing out the closet when we needed to sell so the new owners wanted it left open.

So new drywall, paint, and base/trim were added, and it opened the entry up. We replaced the painted plywood with rectangular tiles from Home Depot (similar tile), and that completed our quick update. It had big impact though, and that’s what we were after.

The front entry was only complete for about two weeks before we moved out. I put this sewing table and banner up for a little get together we had right before we started packing. It was short lived, but it was nice to welcome friends into my home without being embarrassed about the front entry.

Did you see all the other parts of Mabey Manor that I’ve shared? Head to the Mabey Manor Page to see them all gathered in one place (and as I add new areas they’ll be here too)!