The first part of my inspiration to add a little sumthin’ to our entryway had nothing to do with the entryway at all. Instead, it had everything to do with a little slice of counter in our kitchen that would get covered with mail, sunglasses, wallets, keys, and other entryway type things. This was beacause, as you can see, there wasn’t a lot of room in our landing for stuff.

The second part of my inspiration came when I found this green mirror at the local thrift store for $4.99. I knew that I had a little shelf at home already, along with primer and glossy white spray paint. I just needed to buy some hooks!

In trying to figure out the best way to pain the frame (for instance, should I first pop out the mirror) I actually broke the mirror—so I felt like a big dumb doorknob (origin of that expression: my mom). I also may have cursed a bit lot.

In the end, the breaking of the mirror ended up being a blessing in disguise since I decided I’d cover those broken bits with corkboard and chalkboard, making the mirror even more functional.

Because of this I only covered half of the mirror for the painting part.

I primed both the shelf and the mirror with three super thin coats of primer, the annoying green stain was still bleeding through a bit after the third coat. Yikes! Then I spray painted them with two thin and even coats of high gloss white.

This whole process took a very long time. Why? You ask. Because it seems to only rain in Vancouver and waiting for nice outdoor days to paint and spray paint seems to take forever.

I then cut a piece of particle board I had lying around and painted it with chalkboard paint (which I bought for another awesome yet to come project), and cut a piece of corkboard to size (side note, that stuff is surprisingly expensive).

I glued them onto the broken mirror in the freshly painted frame. Then I screwed the hooks onto the mirror (for keys).

Next, I installed both the shelf and the mirror… and presto: new (and much more functional) entryway!

PS: No cute messages on the chalkboard because it needs 7 days to cure.
PPS: I may have realized that the shoe stand was backward with the unfinished edge pointing out. This small detail just added to the final effect of my simple entryway makeover!