Summer Entryway 2012

I hope you're having a lovely, relaxing Saturday!  We just wrapped up VBS at our church yesterday, so I'm pretty exhausted (not least because of the cold I apparently picked up while on crafts duty!).  I don't have the energy to do much crafting today, so I thought I'd share some pictures of our entryway for this summer.  Yes, yes, I know, summer started a long time ago, especially here in the subtropics.  I'm just slow like that!  Actually, most of this was done several weeks ago, but I added a couple finishing elements recently that I really love. 

The glass top table in our entryway is a piece that we received as a hand-me down from a friend of my mother-in-law.  While it had really beautiful lines, she had done a faux finish on it that just wasn't doing it for me.  Here's what it (and my daughter) used to look like:

The faux finish was pretty uneven and it really didn't highlight the prettiness of the table's legs (which, coincidentally, do a nice job of highlighting the cuteness of Lily's baby legs, don't you think? :) )  I used a light ocean-y blue paint for my re-finish and just hightlighted a little with a dark glaze to pick up the details.

Those pictures also give you a peak at what I've done on the top of the table for this summer, too!  Do you like the table's new look?  I really love it!  It has a much softer look that fits better with our house's beach cottage feel.

So, now that you've seen the base, here's the vignette I've come up with for our entryway this season:

I absolutely love it!  I practically passed out when I saw that perfectly chippy old window in my neighbor's yard during our street's annual sale last year.  The under layer is a fantastic sage green that peaks through the lovely cream on top.  And $5?  Score!  It's very old and heavy, though, so it took some serious drilling to get that baby securely on our wall.  The little bunting I just threw together from some burlap and cotton scraps I have in my extensive (read: excessive) stash.

And I LOVE how that paper bag flower turned out.  I followed Destiny's tutorial from over at A Place for Us with a couple paper grocery bags.  I couldn't be happier with it!

FYI, Destiny's tutorial didn't mention what she did for centers, so I just balled up some leftover bag scraps and glued them in the center of my rosette.  Worked pretty well!

On the table, I've place some of my favorite collected beachy, summery things.  That big chunk of driftwood is actually from a local creek.  Our family was playing there one day a couple years ago and I spotted it.  I desperately wanted to bring it home, so my ever-patient husband lugged that water-logged sucker all the way back to our car, about a half mile way.  Isn't he sweet?

That little piece of plastic fern fell out of an arrangement I was making early this month, and Lily thought it should go right there on the table.

The lantern on the other end of the table is one of my favorites, and I found it at a thrift store for $3.  Can you believe that?!  That big conch shell is actually a replica, but the shells and coral in the glass jar and little silver dish are from various beach trips we've taken.  Oh, and that fantastic green glass pitcher came from Anthropologie.

So there you have it!  Our beachy, cottagey entryway for the summer!  It'll probably stay that way for a while, though, since summer lasts so long here in Florida.  Have a great weekend!

I'm sharing here: