Adventures with Mod Podge

How did I miss the Mod Podge era in the 90's?  I was steadily crafting thru my teens, but I guess I was more focused on sewing and stamping.  At any rate, I have now discovered the medium that is Mod Podge, and John is going to have to hold me back from covering everything in the house with this amazing shellac.  So how did I introduce myself to this miracle stuff?

Over the summer, I finally painted the stairs, remember?

And with painting the stairs came painting the bathroom, and upstairs and downstairs hallways.

Downstairs "hallway" may be a bit of an exaggeration.  It's really just the tiny 4' x 6' space you enter when you walk into our house, with the stairway just in front of you.  The kitchen is off to the right, and living room to the left.  When I see a feature for "Organize Your Tiny Entryway!" in my home improvement magazines, I always flip eagerly to the article, hoping that they have the magical solution to my non-room . . .

And I'm always disappointed.  The options are quite limited when your 24 square foot space has three doorways and a staircase coming off of it.

When we moved into our house there was a  tiny little shelf with a couple hooks on it hanging on the wall.  Shortly after we moved in, someone overestimated the previous homeowners fix-it prowess and hung their large purse on one of the hooks.

Goodbye tiny shelf, hello giant holes in our horsehair plaster walls.

Fastforward four years to a blank canvas of entry walls painted with Benjamin Moore's White Dove, holes fixed and all.  Now when you walked in the front door, you were greeted by beautiful ombre effect stairs, and not much else.

Then I remembered that I had a medium-sized shelf with a mirror and hooks in the basement that I had been meaning to make over (for a few years) to replace the tiny one.  It had a cherry finish, and I am just not a big fan of cherry for our house, so what color to paint it?  With so many shades on the stairs, I wanted to keep the shelf pretty basic, so painted it gray and hung it up.

Blah.

It was so boring I never even took a picture.

But it was something to (sort-of) dress up the hallway, and more importantly I didn't feel like filling holes, so it stayed up.

And annoyed me every time I walked past it.  Which was frequently, as it is the only way to get upstairs.

So in the midst of finishing paying off student loans, making a bajillion bags, and then sewing curtains for the living room and dining room, I thought (obsessed?) about how to fix the entryway boredom.

I thought about painting stripes.  Or some other geometric pattern.  Or covering it with cool wallpaper.  Or . . . you get the picture.

All the while in the back of my mind was this amazing entryway/hallway over at The Inspired Room.  I love her use of the maps as wallpaper, but as our entry merges into the stairway, it would be too much for my small space.

But wait . . . I had a map of the world that had been sitting in my craft room, just begging to be used.  A quick stop by Walmart for some Mod Podge and I was ready to go.

Talk about easy! and quick! and fun!

So without further ado, here is my updated shelf before-and-after and entryway . . .

(See how blah?!)

No more blah!

Now my entryway makes me smile!  And while I don't plan to make it a complete catch-all, it will be a great place to toss our keys when running in and out.  Just don't go hanging any heavy purses . . .

Off to find my next Mod Podge project!