Goodness, Suddenly old threads are reborn! Thank you all so much. As many of us here know, these big projects take so much time and effort and resources that you can really sour on them by the end. So it really, truly, makes you day when someone likes what you've done. Thanks. Andi K, The link below is for the lights. I really love them. I wanted two lights because i wanted them over a rectangular entry table. But when you enter, the hall goes straight through to the back patio and the pond, and i didnt want the lights to obscure the pond view. These are so airy! (BTW I would imagine they can be found in less costly versions, although at the time I could not find the size I wanted anywhere else and I caved for these. I can't say they are great value, though they are great quality) Lake Girl - my kitchen is STILL not totally finished, and I am waiting for that before I post. Let's just say it now involves courts, sigh. Someday I will give in and post it anyway. Polly, thank you! I am very proud of them because from the time we started our 2+year whole house project I felt the choice of front door was important. In then end I overruled all sorts of fussy ideas from the professionals and chose these doors. I think they fit my vision for the style of the house, which I call "farmhouse, after a particularly good crop" and DH calls "Shaker, but without all the frills". Funny though, I guess we don't have too many farmer friends or equestrians. When confronted with our front door, they never seem to know how to unlatch it. They just slide the whole thing over ... Here is a link that might be useful: my entry hall lights

Sorry for the confusion. Let's see if I can clear it all up. We are planning to replace all of our floors, and also put hardwood on the staircase, and maybe replace the bannister depending on the cost considerations. The modern picture in the post contains the same flooring hardwood color as our new floors. We were also initially planning to match our stairs and the staircase/bannister to the light hardwood flooring. Upon seeing the modern pic above, we are now desperate to achieve the same look of matching the hardwood flooring with the walnut(?) stairs and also add the distinct accented walnut bull nosing. Upon further investigation, we discovered that Tempered Glass railings are prohibitively expensive in our area. So, we were hoping to use the same walnut stain on the stairs as depicted in the modern picture above, and somehow attempt to match wooden bannisters and spindles to those floors. I was hoping you could advise as to what kind of bannister and wooden/metal spindles would work best with the walnut stairs, and light hardwood flooring. I am also entirely terrible with colors. Are the stairs in the picture look walnut color? Worth nothing, we are aiming for a modern, minimalistic/clean, mid-century look throughout the rest of the house. On the staircase you see in the "current house" picture, I was hoping to get rid of the swirl at the end of the railing. Thanks in advance!

This is super adorable! My first home was also a circa-1960s ranch bungalow (also in Canada) with that type of rear entry - I think it is ubiquitous across homes of this era in Canada and as you know it can get a bit crowded, especially in winter with all the added necessary winter gear - and I wish I had thought of something as clever as that shoe wall. We just had one of those little cuts outs in the lower part of the wall where we piled our shoes instead. Great job!

Two things: the ikea Hemnes shoe cabinet (or two. Or three.) and discipline. No, seriously. especially with little kids, teach them to put their shoes in their cubby when they come in. If one of them goes to preschool, they have that kind of routine anyway so she should fall into it, especially if you do, too! IKEA Hemnes Or, you could have a console table along the wall, even in front of the mirror, and a couple of shoe trays under it. Now, do as I say, not as I do! For better or worse, my commonest entry is out of sight, so there is a whole Payless of shoes on a row of 3 shoe trays along the wall under our coat hooks. We have no incentive to keep them at bay since we don't see them. But, at least they are in the trays, contained, not scattered on the floor. Somehow, the same mess contained looks tidier than on the floor. And I know, with little ones it often seems like you come through the door and head right to the bathroom/changing table or meal prep (sorry to use those in the same sentence, but it’s true!). But if you can take the extra 35 seconds, yes, just 35, to take off everyone’s shoes and put them away, keys in the top drawer or in a tray/bowl/basket on top (that will be so much easier than a drawer so that might be your best bet) it will be so tidy. What kind of bags are you talking about? Tote bags? Your purse? Backpacks? Most can go on hooks hung at the appropriate height for the user. If there’s room in a Hemnes for your purse and extra shopping/tote bags, put them in there. Also, can the older child reach a hook? We installed two staggered peg-hook strips, one a little lower for when the kids were little but not so low that they aren’t useful by all of us. I think you need hooks in the doorway entry, if only for the kids’ jackets, then yours could go in a wardrobe/cupboard elsewhere, like CD’s idea. Think about this: you would never take off your coat and leave it on the floor, right? Think the same way about your shoes. I‘m not sure there is room for a wardrobe between the door and the stairs. So CD’s idea for under the front window is cute, you can probably find something that will work at ikea, even it it isn’t wardrobes. Think kitchen cabinets? Tall uppers, installed on the floor, no shelves? Establish a coming-in-the-house routine, with the shoes in their cubby, the keys in a bowl, mail in a basket, it will really help Most of all. I remember an interview with the guy who started the Container Store. He said they sell tools, but they don’t work if they aren’t used.