Remodeled DIY Board & Batten Entry Way

Turn your entry way into a functional space to store shoes and hang coats for guests when they come over! This is a great small entry way space.

Entry way remodel before and after shots

Something my husband and I have made a major hobby of in life is remodeling. We have done major renovations to every house we have lived in. We move stairs, we move walls, we build new walls, and things like paint and flooring are child’s play. We really enjoy it. We love being able to solve problems the way we want to.

This entry way you see was created by me when we bought this house more than five years ago. I didn’t like that you could see the kitchen from the doorway. Let’s face it–kitchens are not always in a state of clean! So we doubled the length of this wall so it would cut off the line of site from people who were just dropping by for a minute. 

But it was also quite boring. I love to decorate, and this area people saw when they first walked in was so blah. Even so, being purely an aesthetic problem, it was low on my list of priorities. 

Then the kids grew up, started going to school and carrying backpacks, and most of all, wearing shoes as they came and went. And they came and went often. They say necessity is the mother of invention, but often insanity is better, and children drive you to it (insanity) effectively. The shoes!!!!! 

Enter Pinterest. And enter me stumbling upon this picture:

image source

I thought, “That space looks a lot like mine!” I showed it to my husband and it became my Christmas present. 

Our hooks are primarily dedicated to guests so they have somewhere to put things when they come over. We sometimes hang coats there if we are about to leave the house.

We also added a bench. The bench was necessary for solving the shoe issue, which was leading to slight insanity. My husband made the bench. We looked in stores and on Amazon for a bench already made, but we wanted four cubbies–one for each kid. These were good, but not quite what we were looking for (search Storage Bench)

It turned out great! We found our baskets at Smith’s Marketplace–I have also seen them at Shopko (though significantly more expensive). 

Here is how we did it.

  1. We painted our wall white. 
  2. Then my husband put up the boards (MDF) using glue and nails. 
  3. He then put up the shelf–and supported it with a small board placed at an angle. He assures me this is not over-engineering; it is necessary to hold the shelf up along with my decorations.
  4. Then we caulked, puttied holes, and did touch up paint. 
  5. Then my husband made the bench, caulked, and painted it. 

The cost total, including baskets, was right around $300.

I LOVE it! It looks awesome. I love having somewhere for guests. I love that each child has his/her own basket for shoes. I love that there is a bench to sit on to put shoes on. I love that it actually has worked for a month and a half to keep shoes picked up (not to say we have had 100 percent, but a quick reminder gets things picked up easily). I love that when it is time to leave the house, we easily and quickly find shoes to wear. I love that our coat closet doesn’t have a thousand pairs of shoes piled on top of each other.

I just like it.

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4 thoughts on “Remodeled DIY Board & Batten Entry Way”

  1. looks great! i am curious is this the main entryway your family goes through? We have one by the front door but we never use it as we use the entry way through the garage. But as the kids get older it has been challenging with backpacks, shoes, snowgear,etc. So just curious as this looks so neat! Way neater than mine! We came up with something I like….we have pegboard and we have hooks so every child has 2 (jackets, snowpants,etc) and then can hang their backpacks,etc. It gets everything up off the floor and out of the way but it's not overly neat looking but guests don't go through it. IN the winter I have just come to realize it's a messy time of year no matter what! We have a boot tray for snow boots. If you leave the snow gear in the garage it is still frozen the next day. so it comes into the mudroom but things still get wet,etc. i figure it's probably as going as it's going to get and overall i'm pretty happy. we have a cube organizer and every kid gets a bin for their things (sunglasses,hats, gloves, mittens) and the cube underneath for shoes.

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  2. Thanks ladies!Yvonne, the kids come home this way. It is the main entrance. But we keep backpacks in the laundry room–I will have to post that. It isn't fancy, but it is a good solution for our backpacks/dance bags. It used to have shoes, too, but I have put ALL shoes in these baskets other than dance/sports shoes. Seriously awesome.

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