Sharing our 8 best entryway decor ideas for a beautiful and totally functional front entryway!

Our Front Entryway

Happy almost weekend, Friends! I’m really excited to be sharing our next apartment makeover here with you today. Our front entryway! The front entryway is such an important area in the home. It’s the last space you spend time before heading out the door and it’s the first space you walk into when you get home. Talk about stating the obvious, right? I know, I know. In updating my hallway at this apartment and our previous apartment I realized just how much having an organized front entry way can impact the flow of your day and honestly, your overall happiness and stress levels for the day. It might sound dramatic but I’m fairly convinced.

Here’s Why Entryway Decor Matters

It’s 2019 and everyone has some place to be – work, events, classes, you name it – we are spending less time at home and more time on the road. Unless you are incredibly organized chances are that you, like me, are running about 5 minutes behind schedule on a good day. Trying to find all your essentials before heading out the door can either come easily or frustrate you at every turn.

Without an organized front entry system in place your morning might look something like this: you open your front closet and it gets suck on the broom or an out of sorts clothing hanger. Ugh. Shoes fall out and you scrounge to find the match to the pair you want to wear. Tiny kids coats are on hangers underneath adult coats making it tough to find the ones you want. Kids fall over while you try to put on their boots while standing and your sock gets wet from a small puddle left from yesterday’s wet boots. You remember you need $3 for parking at an appointment and you run back into the house to search through the pockets of yesterday’s sweater. You collect your purse, keys, and phone all from different locations and you are finally ready to leave…but first you run to the bathroom just to check your hair one last time.

That sounds like an intense 5 minutes, right?!

Let’s hope that not all of those things will come up while heading out the door but even if just a couple of them happen to you it is not the most stress free way to start your day. With organized front entryway decor where all your daily necessities have their place I honestly think that the stress of packing up and heading out can be reduced significantly.

What about my Front Hallway?

For me, I was dealing with a super dated apartment so, in addition to adding functionality I wanted to make sure that those functional elements also looked great so that this was a space I would leave and come home to with a feeling of calm.

Look at the before! Talk about dark and dated, right?! I’m pretty happy with how it turned out!

Before

After

Entryway Decor – 8 Elements for an Organized Front Entryway

1. Shoe Storage

Shoe storage is a must. Whether this is within a closet, on a neatly placed mat, or a shoe rack – having a spot to keep the shoes you wear on a daily basis is key when considering entryway decor. However, it is important to know that this is not a location where you will keep ALL you shoes. Trying to store more than 5-10 pairs of shoes in a front hallway will result in mismatched shoes falling out of the closet every time you open the door (and a tinge of frustration to follow). Select just a few pairs of shoes that you wear on a daily basis to store in your front entry and keep the pairs that you wear less frequently in another storage location.

Interested in the shoe rack in my front entry way? It’s a DIY shoe rack project that we made a couple of years back. It’s simple, totally customizable, and has served us well for over 2 years!

2. Coat Storage

Similar to the shoes, having a spot to keep the coats you wear frequently is key. However, unless you have a very small coat collection, I don’t suggest keeping them all here if you can help it. I like to switch out the coats that I store in my front closet seasonally and put the coats that I won’t be wearing in the current season in storage elsewhere. If you don’t have a closet space, consider hooks for each family member or a coat rack with an arm for everyone – any of these simple solutions will help make your front entry way more organized and not cluttered.

3. A Spot for Keys, Wallet, and Change

Before I had a designated spot for these small necessities they would pile up on my dining room table which made my space feel unnecessarily messy. If you have a surface (like my shoe rack) in your front entryway, put a small tray to keep these items organized and contained. If you don’t have a surface for a tray then consider small hooks for keys or a small basket or tray that is attached to the wall.

4. A Carpet

Aside from the fact that carpets make a space warm and welcoming, they are also a necessary entryway decor element for drying off boots. You can keep your carpet functional with a traditional doormat or go for a dark coloured carpet of a natural fibre. This area will get a lot of traffic, dirt, and moisture so selecting a natural fibre like wool will ensure longevity. Although they look fancy, Persian rugs like mine are incredibly durable and can handle YEARS of daily wear and tear before showing it (and even then they are still charming!).

5. A spot to Sit

This can be a bit of a luxury when adding entryway decor and will definitely depend on how much space you have but if your space allows, having a bench or small stool is great. It provides a spot to rest your bags while you put on your coat and makes it so that you don’t have to bend too far down to pick up your bags and shoes once you are all bundled up and ready to head out. If you have kids, having a spot for them to sit while you help them with their shoes is so helpful.

6. A Mirror

There’s no denying that we all like to give ourselves a final check over before heading out!

7. Lighting

If your front entry is removed from natural light, make sure you have adequate lighting in the space so you aren’t digging in the dark for your necessities and have a well lit environment to come into when you arrive home in the dark.

8. Pizzaz

The final touch. If you still have wall space after hanging a mirror and the necessary hooks, consider some art of something that will make you happy in the space each day before you leave your house and when you come home. I chose 2 bold prints and I painted the door a lovely soft blue and added trim (tutorial in my first hallway makeover post).

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What do you think about our 7 entryway decor tips? Are there any changes that you have made to your front entryway that have made a big difference in this small but important space?

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