Entryway Oomph (+ Key Storage)

Hold off temptation to roll your eyes as I tell you that I covered another (yes, seriously, a third) wall of my house in shiplap paneling. (If you’re just arriving, see how I installed pine shiplap paneling, and stained it in my bedroom. I like to remind people that it’s way easier to stain the shiplap before you install it!)

I created a focal wall in the entryway.

Keep in mind that I was knocking down two birds with one stone, and bear with me as I elaborate. (Two animal references, one sentence, weirdo.)

1) Let no shiplap go to waste. I had extra stained wood pieces from when I finished the dining room wall a few weeks ago. This leftover mix of full-length board and scrap pieces was enough to fill in a wall in the entryway. Bingo, bango. Not intentional. I still do have a few more boards, but not enough for more walls, so go ahead and breathe a sigh of relief.

2) Give me key storage or give me death. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to better organize our multitude of key rings (since I added it to my to-do list here). The entryway seemed like a logical place to install those keys, but I wanted whatever I did to blend in instead of stand out. You might say that one of these reclaimed barn roof boards with dozens of original nails was a main point of inspiration for the whole wall:

Before I get to the key solution, back to the entryway itself.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved the blue wall that I added just a few months ago; it flowed really well with the the golds and purples on the first floor, but with the addition of the stained brown to my palette, I figured that extending the shiplap in one more direction would tie in this rustic-eco-paneled look that I’m enjoying at the moment (hopefully for longer than a moment, considering the investment). Consider this the working “before” image:

Using entirely scrap materials, I slowly built up the wall. I can do it fast now. I’m kind of a shiplap pro. For hire. Just kidding.

Quick tips:

• I used 1×2 boards to frame the wall before lining it with shiplap.
• I used 1-5/8″ nails to install each board, and used a nail gun to help make it go quickly.
• To space each panel, I used two quarters glued together to create consistant gaps.
• And as with the other two walls (links at the bottom of this post) I was working with a simple wall; no complex angles, no outlets or switches.

Installed in a single afternoon, it really does transform the space.

It looks just as great as I expected, pulling in the rich wood tones from the opposite side of the first floor on the dining room wall. It looks really nice from the kitchen too:

It’s dashing here too, as I snapped this photo coming down the stairs. Just focus on the wall and not the eternally filthy painted cement entryway (there’s a solution for that, and I don’t mean scrubbing the cracks with a toothbrush). Side note: Another glimpse of my favorite Amber Perrodin piece.

Better yet, the wall serves as a better backdrop for us to store our keys. That piece of reclaimed roof wood that I showed earlier received a coat of stain (Rust-Oleum ULTIMATE in Kona, same as used on the shiplap) to help make it blend in, and was accessorized with two simple d-rings on the backside; those rings hung on small nails in the new shiplap:

Much better than the previous key storage solution (shown in this post), it gives us plenty of room for growth yet still blends enough to not detract from the entryway wall as a whole.

And, if you haven’t already joined the shiplap train, check out those other projects here and here and here and here. Enjoy.