Before & After

I love a good before & after. But then again, who doesn’t!

I have always loved the idea of the entry table and I knew I wanted one for multiple reasons. To start, it is the first place that welcomes guests into my home. Additionally, I wanted the space to reflect me, my life, my interests, and give a glimpse of what’s to come throughout the rest of the home.

I wanted the space to catch some incidentals like mail, keys, and Amazon packages, – until I can get to them of course. All those things needed a proper home in lieu of the kitchen island, bar stools, or living room coffee table.

The tricky part was finding the right size table for the space. The entrance itself is long and narrow, so I measured the space to work with, and then I went to work.

With any new decor endeavor that will take my before to the optimum after, I tend to follow a step by step formula to design my project.

With this particular project I knew I didn’t want to spend a lot. I also knew that if I approached it from a ‘capsule’ point of view, I only needed to buy a few key pieces. The console table, a mirror, and a lamp, and the rest I could fill in with what I already had.

I initially bought this entry table from Amazon – just to get notified the week it was supposed to arrive, and after waiting the 6 week lead time, that it was damaged and it was their last one. Thereafter, they canceled my order and refunded me my money. I wish I could say this didn’t upset me – but, it did.

After an hour of woah-is-me, to anyone who would listen, my husband finally said look for another one. I ended up finding the exact same one at the Ashley Furniture online site, and on sale. Thank you furniture universe! I ordered it AGAIN, and 4 weeks later she arrived.

Putting the table together wasn’t without its difficulties. It all seemed simple and straightforward, in theory. 1 large top piece, 4 long legs, 1 bottom shelf, 4 short legs, and then just fit the drawer handles to the exterior. Simple enough. NO!

Retrieving the short legs from one of the drawers they were packaged in required a knife to push through the top slit to cut into box that was wedged in there so crammed that it wouldn’t allow the drawer to budge, yet alone slide open. Headache.

One of the glued corners from the bottom shelf that attaches the long and short legs was completely separated, along with the wood peg that fit inside of it. So I improvised, I broke a pencil to the appropriate size to replace the wood peg and used Gorilla Glue to attach the pieces back together. This seemed to do the job.

Next, I spray painted the metal drawer pulls gold before I attached them. In some photos you can even see the pulls hadn’t been attached yet.

When that was done, I had the husband drill the screw into the wall to hold the mirror, thank goodness, that thing was heavy. Then it was time to pull it all together.

The cat loves the before and after. Now, I’m not completely finished with decorating the space. I also like to move things around until they feel right. I find that decorating my space is like working on my mental game and personal growth – constantly a work in progress. Honesty, I wouldn’t have it any other way!

That being said, I really do enjoy the entrance, and where I am going with it. Since I took the original images, I have already made a few changes – I removed the brass lantern & the large candle, and I also swapped the vase & lamp – as seen throughout in the after-after. I definitely prefer the after-after so far, – let me know in the comments which you prefer.

I do love the potential of the space, and I am excited to watch the space transform along with me. Time to buy so flowers to fill the vase.