Entry Drop Zone Makeover DIY

With no place for a mudroom, and school upon us.. I had the idea to make our little entry from the garage into a dropzone with a bench to hide shoes, and hooks for backpacks!! Thankfully Nick was on board. This was our first time doing beadboard, and our first time with wallpaper. Not sure I’ll ever convince Nick to help with wallpaper again lol (hopefully though!!) Shop the entryway decor here! And Shop our most used DIY tools here.

Follow along on Instagram for more before/after projects!

Before and After

Here is the blank space before!! It’s a small entry from the garage, with our laundry on the left (and a pocket door) and a storage closet on the right. So three doors in one tiny space, not including the opening into the living space!! I wanted to try beadboard because I had just installed vertical shiplap upstairs, but I knew I wanted a wall feature!

Nick constructed the box with plywood, using pocket holes. It came together super fast! He added pine for the face trim (on the top).

Test fit! It fit perfectly!

We used clamps to secure a piece of pine inside the box, to ensure the lid wouldn’t fall into the box, especially since our kids will be sitting on it. We made the bench 18″ high.

We used Liquid Nails and the nail gun to fasten the beadboard to the wall.

One of our most used tools, the DeWalt 15GA Cordless Angled Finish Nailer.

Wood filler in the holes and sanded, almost ready for paint! I love Benjamin Moore Aura paint.

Nick taped all 3 doors off, and the opening to the small area so I could use the spray gun to paint. To be honest, I’d just roll/brush it if I were to do it again. I LOVE the finish of using a spray gun, but it’s such a tight space that it made it really difficult.

Still wet in this picture, and terrible lighting.

Wallpaper was the tough part for us. Trim and paint we can handle. Here are the tools we used! It took an entire evening, into the night, and the next morning/afternoon.

WELL worth it, I love it!!

The finished look!! Of course I styled it to take photos, it’s usually a mess of backpacks and shoes. And I’d still like to find art that fits here a little better. The blue is in between the above cell photo and the below camera photo – the light makes it hard to capture accurately.