Foyer Progress – Reupholstered bench and artwork

Honestly, I like it the way it is. If I made it narrower so that there was more space on the right side, I would have to leave the same space on the left side, and then there would be a gap between the bench and the wall. That seems annoying to me. And I really like the width as it is. I think it looks perfect.

With that decision made, I was ready to begin this redesign. I started by painting the base with two coats of the same green paint I used on the dresser. And you can see my point of view the whole time I was painting.

But that’s okay. She’s damn cute and keeps me company. As long as her tail doesn’t get in the wet paint, everything is fine.

I started stapling in the middle of one of the long sides, right in the middle. I used about five staples to hold the fabric in place.

And then I pulled the fabric taut and stapled the opposite side in the middle.

And then I pulled the fabric taut at one end and put a few staples in the middle.

And then he repeated that at the other end.

And then I went back and stapled the rest together, working from the center to the corners on each side of the bench. At the corners I folded the excess fabric from the long sides to the end and then folded the fabric at the end over and stapled it in place.

Once everything was tacked in place, I trimmed away the excess fabric with a razor blade (or several).

And then I used my hot glue gun to glue the green trim over the staples to finish the whole thing.

And here is the bench in the foyer, along with the watercolor chapel painting that I ended up hanging on the wall. I know I still have to lay the cable. It’s quite distracting and I’ll start doing it soon enough. So you’ll have to ignore it for now.

The new bank appears to be Cooper approved. And I love how it turned out too.

I wasn’t sure about the base being green, but I ended up really liking it. I think it adds just the right amount of color to this corner.

I also haven’t had time to sew my bird pillow yet, but here’s a look at the bench with the pillows/cushion fabric.

I also added some other artwork to the foyer. I bought this Bible study book a few months ago, but I bought it specifically because of the pictures.

I can’t remember the artist’s name, but there are 52 colorful images in the book that are similar to this one, and you can see why they appealed to me. The colors are just right for me…

I didn’t like all 52 pictures. Some of them had hands and people clearly visible in the pictures, and I didn’t like any of them. For example, this is one that I didn’t like because of the hands.

And here’s another picture that I didn’t like because of the prominent hand.

You have the idea. I think there were about five of them.

And then there were a few of them where one person was featured prominently in the picture. I didn’t like these for my purposes. The artwork itself is beautiful, but I don’t want it hanging on my walls.

But there were also a few that had people in them, but the people were tiny and weren’t the focus of the picture. I like this one because the main focus is on the landscape around the tiny people.

So I cut out all the ones I really liked and I ended up with sixteen.

And then I picked the four that had the most orange in them and put them in the frames I used earlier in this foyer to the left of the main entrance.

And then I hung these on the wall to the right of the closet door.

I love the color this little grouping of pictures adds to this wall. And I have to tell you, I really love this whole “shop my house” thing and finding things that I can reuse and repurpose for these areas.

Here’s a larger view before I set up the bench.

So these are just four of the sixteen that I chose from this book. I have twelve more that I can use somewhere, and the twelve that are left would make a nice gallery wall if I can find a place for it. But I think these four are perfect for this wall since they are all orange. They help tie together the pink tones in the closet and foyer with the orange tones that feature so prominently in the bedroom.

I have a few other things I’m working on in the foyer. I still have two light switch covers to wallpaper. I have a total of three light switches and I’ve already covered two of them, but one needs to be redone once I decide which one I like better. For one of them I used a plastic cover, for the other I used a metal cover. Here is the metal cover…

And here’s the one with the plastic cover.

The problem with the plastic cover is that the plastic is pulled too tight in the middle to tighten the screws enough to keep the bulky cover close enough to the wall at the edges, making it slightly concave. And since the wallpaper has a slight sheen, it’s noticeable. But I like the corners on the plastic covers better than the rounded corners on the metal covers.

I know this is one of those details that literally no one will care or pay attention to. But I notice it and it’s important to me. So one of them needs to be replaced. I think I’ll go with the metal panels because they’re more durable, easier to cover, and I can tighten them as much as needed so the edges of the panel fit directly against the wall without the center bending and becoming concave. I only care about the rounded corners, which I don’t particularly like.

I hope I can hang the mirror on the wall today. It’s a bit of a challenge since the walls have a thick chair rail, but I think I’ve come up with a plan for it. And since it will stand out a bit from the wall, I decided to try adding strip lights to the back of the mirror instead of putting sconces on either side of the mirror. I looked for sconces, but I just didn’t like anything I found. Plus, sconces seemed too predictable to me. So I’m going to try lighting the back of the mirror instead. I have no idea if it will look good or not, but it will be fun to try this idea.

And then I’m waiting for a few things I ordered for the foyer, and they won’t be here until tomorrow. But I hope I can finish this little area fairly quickly. My goal is to have it finished by the end of the weekend, so we’ll see how it goes. It will feel great to have another area of ​​our bedroom suite finished along with the wardrobe and then leaving the bedroom.