Back Hallway Improvements

There's a dropzone next to the garage door and close to the kitchen that wasn't working for us. So it was time to fix it.  It was once a closet with doors, but there are two other closets in the same hallway so we pulled off the doors and moved in the dresser for storage and spot to drop keys.  

But the shoes just piled up around the dresser. And we no longer stored kids' socks next to the door. Or masks. And the top of the dresser wasn't large enough to drop off the mail, purse and keys that I need it for. See? No longer working. So I came up with a plan ... 

I tried to convince David to demo out the wall on the right, to add some extra breathing space with the garage door, but I couldn't get him to agree. Regardless, we need a longer countertop, some extra shelves, and a bunch of baskets for allllll the shoes in this house. So many shoes.  

Once I cleared everything out, I repainted and attached all the shelf bracing using some scrap wood I had in my garage. I decided on butcher block for the countertop, to match with the kitchen. I didn't have a circular saw large enough, so it took a combination of my too-small circular saw, Saws-All and jigsaw, plus a full day, to finally cut it down to the right size. But we got the heavy piece wedged in. I'm happy to say it's very solidly in place.  

I bought this beadboard for another project but never used it. And it's perfect for this "backsplash." It just adds to the leveled-up, intentional design. And it was pretty easy to install. A little calk around the edges and it's perfect! I just need to decide if I'm going to paint it. Hmm. 

Meanwhile, I installed a second shelf below but it's far too narrow, so I'll need to head back to Home Depot for a deeper shelf. In the meantime, it looks pretty good and leaves lots of space for the open baskets below. And they're FULL of shoes! 

Here's the view of the back hallway now. The extra countertop space is perfect -- plenty of space for mail, keys, my purse.

Next will be the flooring. This tile needs to be replaced but that's not in the budget. Instead, I'm going to paint it black to match the kitchen tile (I'm standing on it to take this photo). The paint is only $80 but it's going to be tricky to paint, since it can't be walked on for 24-hours. This is a high-traffic area.

For now, it's a far more useful space for daily use.