How To Make an Entryway Table For Under $25

So I'm really good at this thing called self doubt, and every time I get the urge to write on my blog I inevitably think of all the legit bloggers out there (you know, the ones that create all of my inspiration photos on Pinterest) and I always decide not to post anything because I feel insecure about the way my home looks, my poor photography skills, my grammar...the list goes on and on. But I just have to remind myself that I'm not really trying to be like those super cool bloggers; I simply enjoy writing and like the idea that maybe I can help out some gal who, like me, can't afford to spend $1,000 on a lamp from restoration hardware-even if deep down we really wish we could.

And since you didn't really come here for my sob story I'll just move on and get to the point. Our home has a VERY small/narrow entry way (See Exhibit A) and I struggled to know what to do with it. I didn't want to bog it down with anything too big, even things that seemed like they should be small enough felt like they were in the way.  But, as I scrolled through Pinterest one day I found a post about how to make your own corbels and inspiration struck!

Exhibit A

So I went on a trip to Lowe's and found some cute corbels for about $12 each. They weren't TOTALLY what I had in mind, but what I had in mind would have cost a lot more and this girl is on a budget. So I took the corbels over to the wood section and looked for an inexpensive board that would be wide enough to lay over the top of the corbels. I ended up with a simple pine board that cost about $10. I asked Brandon to cut the length of the board down because the line to have it cut at the store was real long and aint nobody got time for that! When he asked me how long I wanted it, I stretched out my arms and said, "this long." And he, like a good husband, cut it THAT long.

I stained the board with two coats of miniwax wood finish in the color provincial. For the corbels I stained/painted several layers to help get an aged look. Those layers are as follows:

     1. Miniwax provincial stain -2 coats.

     2. Sherwin Williams Rainwashed which is a greyish blue paint (leftover from my bedroom)

     3. Benjamin Moore Smokey Taupe (leftover from Evie's room)

     4.For the last layer I took plain white paint and added just a touch of the smokey taupe to get a kind of creamy, off-white color -2 coats

Then I sanded it down so that you could see all the different colors and layers show through. I wish I would have taken a few more photos of the process but here's a little bit of it!

Then we just screwed the corbels into the wall (make sure you screw then into studs,) laid the board on top, and screwed the board into the corbels. That's it! Super simple, super cute, and super inexpensive!! WOO!

All in all it only cost me about $22 since I used paints and stains that I had on hand. If you don't have cans of paint laying around like I do, you can get the sample sizes at whatever hardware/paint store you go to; they're pretty inexpensive and for small cans they sure go a long way! I also have the smallest can of stain, which costs about $8, and that little can has gotten me through 5 projects and I STILL have some left! As always thanks for reading! Let's see if I get the courage to post again before another year goes by!