Since moving into our new home in January, our front entryway had been a gaping hole of nothingness. Besides an ugly brown carpet, there was simply nothing there--no furniture, no place to hang your coat. When we'd walk in the door, we'd set our grocery bags right next to our large pile of shoes on the floor. It wasn't very welcoming and it wasn't a place that we might spend any time lingering in.
It had been on my list of to-do's to find something fitting for this area for quite some time. In my mind, I was picturing something like a hall tree (with a bench and coat hangers), but the more I looked at them, the less I liked that particular style for this particular spot in our home. My idea for the furniture that I was looking for kept morphing to new ideas. For months, I'd been scouring Craigslist and local thrift shops in search of something.
And, well, persistence pays off. Last week, this gorgeous antique double-width school bench appeared on Craigslist and I just happened to get in contact with the seller before someone else snatched it up. I never would have thought to look for something like this but, when it turned up online, it just seemed like the perfect piece for this little corner of our home. Better than anything that I could have imagined.
I love the character of it--its gorgeous wood and wrought iron legs; the inkwell and pencil holder on the desk portion. I love that it has a history (even though I don't know what that history actually is)!
There's still not a place to hang up our coats when we walk in the door, but I have a feeling that I can find a solution for that before winter comes. Assuming something nice pops up somewhere.
And these little details, here.... my mom found the cat artwork somewhere online and printed it out for us (this is just a tiny zoomed-in portion of a much larger piece of art) and then she found a used frame and personalized it with paint! Don't you just love the little paws?! HEHE
