Sprucing Up the Garage

We recently added a mud room to our house. I designed it and my husband and father in law made it happen. I love it, and will share it with you soon. We live in a tall, skinny townhome and our front door is actually on the 2nd level of the house. We have quite the set of concrete stairs leading to that front door.  And I was always terrified that I was going to fall down them when I was pregnant and later when I carried my son up and down them. Once my son started walking and insisting on doing everything on his own, we started entering the house through the garage, which leads to the basement, in an effort to avoid those dreadful stairs. This new habit led to the creation of the mudroom...which has led to the sprucing up of the garage. Everyone now enters our home through the garage and into the basement...so I wanted them to be greeted with something more appealing than this:

( I almost forgot to take before pics--bad blogger!--that's why the ladder is there...I had just started painting.)

Now our guests are greeted with this:

It doesn't really look like it in the photos, but let me assure you that I painted those walls! I used left over paint from our living room and kitchen (Benjamin Moore's Dunmore Cream). I still have more painting to do. (Can you spot where it ends?)
The shelves were once in a closet and were moved to the garage.
The galvanized buckets were purchased several summers ago for ice and drinks at a party. I added the numbers using peel-and-stick chalkboard paper I had in my stash. I printed out the numbers, taped them to the chalkboard paper and cut the out. Easy peasey.
I also already had the watering cans...I just spraypainted the larger one black with a silver spout. And who doesn't grow flowers in their garage?!? The other pot is holding a stash of twine.

I love seeing all of our boots lined up ready for use at the first sign of a rain cloud!

We hung the curtains--which are drop cloths--last fall all across the width of the garage to hide our storage area. We have shelves full of stuff, stuff and more stuff behind there. I still need to iron those drop cloths!

I painted the door black and added the white vinyl house number, which I purchased from the fabulous Shelley at Wonderfully Wordy. And I found the L rug on clearance at a Marshal's that was closing for under $10!

I think our guests will appreciate entering our home much more now...I know I do!And here's a little sneaky peek into the mudroom! I promise to show you more soon.

Where do you enter your home? The traditional front door, the garage, or somewhere else?

This post is part of "DIY Day" at A Soft Place to Land and "Get Your Craft On" and Today's Creative Blog.