We Put Baby in a Corner

This baby, that is:Ok, hold the phone while I back up a bit… This particular corner of the house is what we lovingly call the “foyer”, even though it’s a tiny triangular sliver of linoleum as you come through the front door. For some time it was completely open and empty, but I had dreams of adding some sort of storage/ bench contraption that was triangularly shaped so it could be tucked into that corner. Maybe something like this, but corner-y (photo taken from Grace Lee Cottage)…

I liked the idea of having storage, a place to sit to put on shoes, maybe a few hooks, etc. Whatever we ended up with had to fit into that corner though, so the door could open all the way. Let me fast forward and just tell you that we immediately nixed the “we’ll build something custom-made ourselves” plan when I found a gem at the Restore. We’re frequent fliers there and every so often we strike gold…At first glance, it looked like a neat piece- half closed storage, half open display space. But WAIT, there’s more… check out the profile:Perfectly shaped to fit right into a corner! We weren’t really diggin’ the honey wood tones, so it got a crisp coat of white paint to match the door and balusters. Much better.Oh, and some new hardware- courtesy of Home Depot.As for the inside, the bottom is convenient for storing shoes that we kick off as we come in the door. Every so often, we clean it out and start a fresh “collection”. The top is a melting pot of form and function. The bottom shelf holds a bowl for keys (this has really helped the WHERE-ARE-MY-KEYS-??? issues that come up as we’re racing out the door) and other odds and ends- pool passes, the key to the mailbox, etc. The second and third shelves are just for show- I switch things up in there every so often.Truth be told, I’d like to do a better job with this. This is prime display real estate that gets a little boring because not much attention has been paid to it. However, now that it’s public knowledge on the blog, I’ll probably feel more accountable to keep it decent looking and up to date with the seasons.

And those lights? They  are battery operated puck lights from Lowes. They stick right to the bottom of each shelf and really help to illuminate what’s going on in there at night… otherwise it can get kind of shadowy. I’ve been meaning to paint the sides white so that they don’t look so intrusive when you’re looking into the cabinet straight on. Someday…

So, there’s the story of the corner shelf. Yet another spot in our house that had never gotten any air time on the blog until now… hooray! Have a great day, everyone.

-Leslie