How to hang hooks and faux wainscoting to increase the use of your space and make your entry feel more welcoming.

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The entryway is the first and often only place many people see of your home. By making it welcoming and spacious you give an impression of what you’re whole home looks like.

There are different techniques to use whether you have a small, narrow space or large space that needs focus. Today I am writing about how we gave a larger entry focus. Read here for tips on a smaller space.

The reason for the project

I found that when people arrived at our home they had no convenient place to put their jackets. Though we do have a small coat closet, people usually chose to just lay them on the floor. I wanted there to be an attractive and useful spot to quickly put visitors items and help them feel welcome.

I also hated the orange peel texture, so you can see in my before picture that the project is already underway…And I forgot to take a picture before I had started 😅.

If you would like to see how to change the texture of your walls, check out my YouTube channel.

Patch Walls / Smooth-out Texture

This can be done (as demonstrated on my YouTube channel) with a skim coat of dry wall mud. You can buy this in powder form and mix to the desired consistency or pre mixed.

Tip:

Bumps on the wall are more concerning than dips in the wall. You can always come back and fill in a hole. It’s much harder to scrape off a poorly filled hole that sticks up and is now painted.

Space Vertical Trim

When I first started doing faux wainscoting, someone had suggested to use a computer program to decide where to put each piece of vertical slat. I don’t have the patience for that.

I place the piece where it looks normal up close, then I back up to see if it looks good.

After it visually looks good, I measure between each piece and make slight adjustments. You may have light switches, plugs or door frames to maneuver around.

The slats are pine, 1/4 inch by 2 inches, found in the buy-by-the-foot trim section at the Home Depot. I believe they are lattice slats.

Tape Each Slat in Place

Once I am sure of the location of each slat, I tape it in place with painters tape. It is also a good idea to use a level as you tape them down. It may look perfectly vertical when you are up close, but when you move away the slight slants really stick out.

Secure the slates in place with either finish nails and a hammer or an automatic finish nailer. We bought the Porter – Cable combo pack nailers and upholstery stapler with an air compressor. It had the best price and highest reviews.

Add Boards for a Shelf

Two 6″ X 1″ pine boards make a narrow shelf and a great support to add coat hooks. You can also add a piece of decorative trim where the boards come together, for extra support and detail.

Secure in place with finish nails and a few screws. I used my awesome magnetic stud finder and placed the screws into studs. The shelf isn’t meant to hold much weight, but it will be holding several hooks and weight from coats.

Caulk All Joints

Use paintable caulk along all joints. This is what gives a finished, professional look.

Friends have told me before that they were intimidated by all the caulk choices. See my caulk choosing guide here.

For this project I went with DAP paintable caulk.

Fill in any nail or screw holes with caulk.

Choose Your Paint Color

Paint can dramatically change the feel of a room. I went with a light blue on the upper wall to help soften my crazy horizontal lines along the ceiling.

As you can see in the image below the diagonal wall painted in blue draws less attention to the strange angle, than the brown.

It works because the wall color comes closer to matching the ceiling. It blend in instead of sticking out. In this case I really wanted that effect.

I painted the faux wainscoting the same color as my baseboards and trim. This created continuity and gave the impression of more space.

Add Coat Hooks

I searched everywhere for hooks that looked nice and weren’t too big or expensive. Many were too tall to fit under the shelf and leave enough head room to fit a coat over the hook. Many looked cheap.

Eventually I chose these. They had good shape, good reviews, they held your attention, but didn’t draw away from the rest of the design.

Our home immediately looked elevated. I recieved complements from people who were seeing the home for the first time as well as old friends.

I thought it, “worked! The entry really does speak for the whole home.” 🙂 It’s worth investing in.

I hope you liked this little tutorial today. What is something you want to upgrade in your home? What do you wish you knew how to do (maybe I’ll make a tutorial 😉).

Take care,

Have a great day,

Natalie