Shop Your Home: Kid's Bookcase to Entry Table!

I am constantly (and this is no exaggeration, people) looking around my house for things that could be moved around and used somewhere else. Accessories, lamps, rugs, furniture - most of the items in my home have lived in multiple places - they could be in our master bedroom one day and the kids' playroom the next - it's kind of, ok, ok, a total obsession of mine.

As you know, I've been giving the dining room a makeover these days. I was playing around with the idea of replacing the bench we have on this one particular wall in there, with more of an "entry table." I use that term loosely, because technically, it's the dining room, not an entry, but in our home there really is no other wall to place an entry table. You walk in and it's all pretty open, with the exception of a super narrow space that wouldn't be wide enough for a table.

So since I looooove to shop my house all the time, I decided to try out my youngest daughter's bookcase as a makeshift entry table. My other daughter had a spare one in her closet, not doing anything but being in the way, so I gave the younger daughter that one. This way she'd still have a place for her books and Polly Pockets, and I could get a "new" table;) Win-win. Turns out, a 4 year old's bookcase does work pretty well as an entry table...who knew?!

Here's what it looked like in my daughter's room...

I knew it would need something along the back to give it a more grown-up look, and Target happened to have to loveliest green print contact paper when I was there recently. I just had to cut the pieces to size and stick them on there. Best part is, if I get sick of it, or want something else, I just remove the contact paper. Love it!

I went looking in my laundry room for an old mirror we used to have hanging in the dining room (in the black furniture/gold walls days) and decided it would look nice hung above the table - painted white of course;)
So it went from this...

to this...

Then I just filled the shelves with things I had around the house - I hope to prettify it along the way, but for now, this was all I had...

Some devotionals and summer-y seashells and sand (yay for summer around the corner!!!)...

A bowl I picked up at a yard sale last year for 50 cents works great for catching keys...

And a favorite photo and more summer accessories for now. The bottom baskets catch all the stuff that the kids leave laying around, a matchbox car here, a lego there...I throw them in there when I'm tidying up and when they scream "MOM! Where's my ...." I tell them to go check the baskets;) I'd like to get some nicer, larger ones in the future, but again, using just what I had around the house so that's what's there for the time being.

Here's a Before pic - you can see how the door is open, and the closest thing to an "entry" is part of our dining room...

And now we have a little table, perfect for catching mail, keys, and stuff. (Plus, it was one less thing I'd have to paint white! LOL!) My favorite thing about it is the soft glow of the lamp at night. It's so nice and homey.

Of course, I'd love to have some incredible piece of furniture, perhaps some unique, worn entry table that has a history...but for now, while I'm making over our dining room on a budget, this will do just fine. And didn't cost me a cent;) Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some more shopping to do...(in my home, of course!)



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