Hello hello! I’m so excited to be sharing the fun farmhouse entryway makeover I tackled this past week! I took some time off of work to relax, focus on my side hustle, and of course, get my DIY on! When we moved in, our entryway was a complete eyesore. Now it’s the cutest little farmhouse entryway nook I’ve ever seen! And I did it all BY MYSELF. In TWO DAYS. And with less than $140 spent! I call that a win!
**This post may contain affiliate links – please read my Privacy Disclosure page for more information!**
Here is our entryway when we moved in:
We had one of those drywall boxes that really serves no purpose other than to collect dust! This past summer, my dad helped me rip that baby out and patch the wall. We knew we wanted to get rid of it before we re-did our floors.
Getting that box out opened up the space SO much more, and gave me a lot more room to make the entryway space purposeful. We don’t have an entry closet, so I knew we needed a space where guests could hang coats, jackets, and purses when they visit. But because the space is still quite small, I also wanted to make sure it was bright and open, just to make it look as large as possible.
Armed with some experience from my last Board and Batten project in our guest bedroom, I went to town! I also purchased all pre-sanded and primed boards for this project (because my LEAST favorite task is sanding). But if you are cool with spending that extra time, you could bump the cost of this project down to about $75 (for the same amount of space)! Note that I also already had the power tools, nails, sandpaper, paint, etc. All I had to purchase was the wood!
Getting the battens up was pretty easy. I eyeballed the height I wanted ahead of time and then cut everything to size using my trusty miter saw. As you can see below, I used 1x2s for the battens, a 1×4 as the top rail, and a 1×3 in the middle. I used the same easy measuring technique that I used in our guest room for the battens (and happened to get lucky with the outlets)!
Using 2″ nails and my brad nail gun, I easily attached everything to the wall. (P.S. I always link and highly recommend Ryobi power tools because they have interchangeable and chargeable batteries. They are a great and relatively inexpensive tool set for a beginner DIYer!). I recommend driving your nails in at an angle to ensure the most sturdy attachment.
The tricky part for me is that I have textured walls, which I loath. I could have put up my underlayment before the battens to make things easier, but then my battnes would have stuck out past my baseboards, which I 100% did not want. So instead, I used my jigsaw to cut individual pieces of underlayment to fit each little rectangular space. It actually wasn’t as difficult as you’d think and took only a few hours.
I filled/sanded all my nail holes with wood fill and filled all the seams with caulking. I created a peg rail with a spade drill bit and some cut/stained dowel (more detailed tutorial on this process coming soon)!
One coat of Zinsser Bullseye 123 Primer (my favorite!) and two coats of paint later, and I was done! I used Alabaster by Sherwin Williams in an eggshell finish for the paint to match the shiplap we also have downstairs.
I styled our new and beautiful farmhouse entryway with items I already had, including this fun skinny bench from Marshalls and an old vintage print.
And now it looks like we have a true entryway. Guests have somewhere to hang their belongings when they come over, and yours truly has another fun place to decorate! Win win!
I think my sweet Napa approves too!
Remember, changing the look of a space doesn’t have to be expensive or incredibly laborious! It just takes some wood, paint, and a little elbow grease! As always, I’m here encouraging you to pick up those power tools (carefully of course), watch a YouTube video on how to use them, and get after it! The most expensive part of home renovations is the LABOR, so if you can learn to do it yourself, you’ll save yourself so much money (and often a lot of headache because we all know how frustrating dealing with companies and contractors can be)!
I hope you enjoyed this mini farmhouse entryway makeover! And I’ll get ya my super easy peg rail tutorial ASAP!
Until next time…
XO,
Ana
Leave a Comment