Modern Tudor Foyer BEFORE + Progress Update

FOYER RENO! A look at the foyer BEFORE + A guided tour of the progress we’re making in this gem of an entry!

You guys have seen my design vision for the foyer, but what did the actual foyer look like?! If you’re on Instagram, then you may have already seen it. I’ve been story-ing up a freaking storm. But here’s a closer look at the BEFORE of the foyer.

The word ‘foyer’ sounds so fancy, right? Well our house isn’t exactly fancy. It’s a small 1930’s duplex that we own/occupy. The upstairs is an apartment + den that we rent out. (Are you sick of me explaining that yet?!) The foyer is the spot that it splits into two units. Go to the left for the door to our unit, and go up the stairs to the door to our tenant’s home.

BEFORE

The previous owner laid down this beige shag carpet while getting ready to sell the place 5 years ago, in an effort, no doubt, to avoid having to refinish the stairs (I totally get it–refinishing stairs is WERK!) Not ready to tackle the stairs when we first moved in, we laid this god-awful (if I do say so) plaster runner overtop of the carpet. Why? Whyyyy? You ask?

As I mentioned, our tenant uses these stairs through snow, rain, sleet and mud to trek up to her apartment. Since we didn’t know when we’d get to redoing the stairs, we laid this plastic runner to protect the carpet from collecting mud, sanding salt, and the like. To put it lightly, it’s ugly, and I honestly have never liked welcoming people into our home through this foyer. It’s just not a good indicator of the rest of the house, which we’ve poured our hearts, souls, and paychecks into helping it reflect our style and work for our modern lifestyle.

The previous owner also painted the walls beige and laid this black slate tile. I like the tile floor, but I’m ready for the beige walls to hit the road. You’ve probably also noticed the aforementioned radiator. It feels a little ‘nakey’ as my daughter would say, so I’m hoping to build a custom radiator cover to help it feel a bit more substantial, and function more like an entry console table.

I forgot to snap a picture of the front door before we started painting the walls! But this is the original front door that we refinished a few years ago and I still love it’s original charm and details. The mail slot to the left of the door is still functional, but we don’t use it for every day mail since we need two separate mail boxes. Don’t worry, we’re not removing it. I love it too much to get rid of it!

View from second landing looking up to our tenant’s door.

Let’s Talk Progress!

Paint:

I hit the ground running painting the walls white. I’ve tried out several whites from different brands and the white I like the best (with the best coverage), is Behr Ultra, Home Decorators Collection, Color: Whisper White, HDC-MD-08. All paints are not created equal, and I’ve found this particular paint to cover the best, and the price is great too. I’ve worked with other paints where I’ve used 2 coats of primer + 2 coats of paint and I still could see the original beige color coming through. 2 coats of Behr Ultra was all I needed here. I’m not sponsored by Behr to say this–it’s my honest opinion and advice. Painting is alot of work, so it’s important to make sure your paint works hard for you!

 

Stair Carpet Removal:

After paint, I tore out the plastic runner and carpet on the stairs. Removing the carpet was no big deal, but the hundreds of staples left behind from multiple carpet installations was enough to throw my blistered hands over the edge. Luckily, my sister and Ken took shifts pulling staples to help keep things moving.

We used a combination of needlenose pliers and regular pliers to pull the staples. Truth be told there were 2 staples I couldn’t for the life of me get out, so I pounded those suckers back into the stairs. Shhhh….

With the staples removed, I began sanding the stairs. I plan to write a separate detailed post on exactly how I sanded/refinished the stairs, so for now, I’ll keep things brief. I started with a heavy grit sandpaper and worked my way to a finer grit, vacuuming between sandings. Along the way, I may or may not have thrown my back out sanding these suckers!

Refinishing The Stairs:

I’d been debating on whether to paint the stair risers white, but in the end, decided to leave the stairs entirely wood. The risers were in relatively good condition, so I didn’t need to sand the risers.

Next, I busted out the stain! Varathane’s Dark Walnut was a great match to the risers. I’ve used their Premium Wood Stain on a handful of other projects, and I knew I liked and trusted their products.

The final step was to protect the wood with polyurethane. I stayed in the Varathane family with their Water-based Floor Polyurethane. It doesn’t distort the wood tone the way oil-based poly’s sometimes do, it’s low odor, and it’s made for high traffic areas, so it was a great product choice for in here.

Ceiling Medallion:

After sanding the stairs, the light fixture in here was COATED in sawdust, so we took it down to clean it up, and installed a ceiling medallion before hanging the light back up. The long and short of installing the ceiling medallion is this:

• We dry fit the medallion to make sure it was congruent with the junction box and light fixture canopy.
• We applied a bead of construction adhesive around the perimeter of the backside of the ceiling medallion.
• Next, we hung the medallion, and secured it in place with a few nails from the nail gun (brad nailer would also work!).
• Typically if there are gaps between the ceiling and the outer perimeter of the medallion, you’d caulk the gap. In this case, it looked pretty good, so we didn’t caulk.
• Once the medallion was hung, we wired in the sparkling clean light fixture.

Read my in-depth ceiling medallion hanging instructions here and check out my Instagram Stories to see us hanging the medallion!

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So that’s the foyer progress in a nutshell. Up next I’ll be tackling the runner installation, fabricating a custom radiator cover, refinishing a french-style mirror, and adding some picture frame molding to the radiator wall. Stay tuned my friends, and as always, follow along in Instagram stories for real-time happenings!

Read On!

• Modern Tudor Foyer Design Direction
• I Am Landlord: Permits, Inspections and Marketing Your Unit
• DIY Medicine Cabinet Makeover

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