The Foyer

This is the foyer if you are standing in the living room looking at the front door.  When you come in the door to the left is an opening into the den and to the right are the stairs going to the basement and going upstairs.  there's also a hall closet and a nice half bath.  I've always wanted a hall tree and I was thinking the wall across from stairs would be a great place.

I love the look of this one but I'm worried the color might be a little dark

my grandfather made a bench for my family almost 30 years ago.  It's a throw back to the 80's with dusty blue and tole painted geese.  It's got a checker board painted in the middle so you can sit on either end and play.  Mom and Dad said I could have the bench so I'm think about painting it and creating something similar to this

I like the idea of having a place to drop my purse and jacket when I come in the house.  I also like the idea of having some baskets to put clutter that needs to go upstairs.  I liked the dark brown/black paint on the ones I've seen but I think that not having the back piece will help this stay light.  For the upper shelf I was thinking about using some corbels on the ends with a few hooks in the middle and a shelf on top.  I really like the idea of using old door knobs as hooks like this

so I'll definitely be keeping a look out for some old door knobs.