Before and After: An Unfinished Entryway Is Now Functional, Cozy, and Family-Friendly

When Lipi Moitra (@moiandsoi) was mapping out the entryway redo in her family’s apartment, here’s what she was thinking about: When she walked in, where would she put her handbag? Where would her family’s winter wear, her daughter’s school bag, and her reusable grocery bags go? If she added a shoe rack, it wouldn’t be very useful unless there was a place to sit and actually put on shoes. Plus, any seating she added would need to have storage as well. 

“A simple example is while heading out,” Lipi adds. “Do you look for sunglasses and car keys? In that moment, you might wish you had a catch-all bowl on a chest or cabinet.” She recommends taking note of these moments during your daily routine and thinking about the details of your design from there. This advice aligns well with Lipi’s self-described design style of “utility before beauty” — although her entryway redo is a bit of both. 

When Lipi, her husband, their 5-year-old daughter, and Lipi’s mother-in-law moved into their home in 2018, the entryway was very bare-bones and unfinished. “The estate agent came and introduced us to this apartment stating that the entryway is narrow and dingy, and from there I knew I was going to make it quite the opposite of narrow and dingy,” Lipi says. She hired pros to help complete the trim and floors, and then add beadboard for texture, pegs for hanging bags, and trunks for storage — all of which made a difference in the space. 

Paint was also transformative here. Lipi selected hues from an India-based brand called Asian Paints: a gray called Snowflake for the beadboard, door, and trim, and a warmer white called Cream Pie for the wall up top. An elegant light fixture, a gold-framed mirror, and a gallery wall are the cherries on top in this now-charming entryway. Note that Lipi used the same hanging frames to create a uniform look for her gallery wall — she just took the chains off of the frames on the bottom row to create the right spacing. 

Lipi’s other favorite detail in the space is the solid wood furniture — she advises saving up for quality furniture whenever possible, as that can last years longer than flat-pack furniture typically will.

But the elegant wood tones, beadboard detailing, soft paint colors, and gold details come together beautifully in Lipi’s “grand entryway” as she calls it. “It’s practical and stunning simultaneously,” she says. “I would change nothing.” That’s pretty grand indeed!

This post originally published on Apartment Therapy. Read it there: Before and After: A Bare Entryway Is Now Functional, Cozy, and Family-Friendly