Morning! We are in the dead of winter here and this grayness is taking its toll on me. Like big-time. It was cold, rainy and just plain blah here this weekend. I guess there’s no excuse for getting inside house projects done, right?! I know it will be March before we know it but January is one long (and gray!) month in Portland…

One of the many challenging parts about moving into a new place is trying to find a home for each furniture piece. Items that fit perfectly in our old bungalow have either settled in here nicely, or really don’t fit anywhere in our new space. I smell another garage sale this summer…

Anyway, one of the pieces I’m incredibly thankful we can continue to use in our new home is the entry way bench and shelf that my sweet in-laws had made for us a few years ago. This piece is crazy practical and works hard for us. It houses our hats, gloves, shoes and other random items such as scarfs, purses, and keys. Whatever I don’t want to lose, I place on the bench.

This is what it looked like in our last home…

As you can see, it was black. As of last week, it’s now the same color of our island (Farrow & Ball’s Down Pipe) thanks to some leftover paint and an afternoon spent painting. Since the bench is going in the same large room as our island, we thought it would be nice if both of these pieces were the same color.

Here’s the space before we brought in the bench/shelf (the kitchen is on the left). It needs something in the corner, don’t ya think?

And here’s the space with the updated entry way piece (sorry for the poor photos in advance)…

Again, the photos are poor – it was so dark in the room due to our lovely weather:(. I’m still unpacking boxes and trying to find my baskets for the upper shelves, so obviously the piece has yet to be fully styled. But at least it’s painted and in place. A small success!