Guest Post + My favorite room

Rene at one of my favorite blogs, Cottage & Vine has invited me to guest post on my favorite room in the house...I am so thrilled to be included in her "Favorite Room" series.  I actually had not even thought about what my favorite room is until I received her email.  It took me about two seconds to decide that it's my entryway.  Here's what I love about it . . . Both my front door and entry from the garage converge into the same space, so everyone drops their stuff in one spot.  Which is actually kind of perfect because you only have to have one space to organize and everyone knows exactly where they can find their backpack, jacket, shoes, keys...whatever it is they are looking for...there's a space designed for it.

But first...my entryway begins outside...I adore herringbone so we added the brick, the lighting is by Bevolo as well as the mailbox.  Lighting is like the icing on the cake...it has to be perfect.  I wrote more about it here.

Once inside...this is the first thing you notice.  I designed a quarter round shelf just for this lamp.  In my old house I had a tiny, but tall black table that was about the same surface size and I had the same lamp by Jamie Young.  This little lamp is lit all the time and its 15 watt light bulb welcomes us home.

We use white religious candles to line the walkway and the steps whenever we have guests...It always makes people feel welcome.

One thing in a small house that is very important is to have a place for everything.  I knew we needed a space for cell phones, keys etc. and this little cubby was the perfect solution to avoid having it all end up on the kitchen counter. 

Our entire interior is pretty much black, white and neutral so it's fun to add a little color with things we are using for the beach, the pool or just going out.  1.  Summertime blues and stripes, 2.  Black and tan, 3.  Yellow and green and 4.  Shades of red.

Fourth of July is a really big deal in our neighborhood...there's a parade, a bluff BBQ, sand castle contest and our house is on the path that everyone sees...so we have a lot of flags and a lot of red, white and blue.

We used to have a beautiful bar set up in our living room all the time.  I loved the look of the different bottles and glassware, but in a beach house with kids, it just didn't seem right anymore.  This little cabinet is perfect and no one even knows it's there.  I didn't even put knobs on the door.

This photo was taken last winter when flip flops disappear and Hunter rain boots and jackets take their place.  It's probably not a coincidence that all our jackets, sweaters, sweatshirts are in shades of black and gray...it goes with the neutral colors in the house, so anything else ends up on the hooks just outside in the garage.  It took my husband about a week to discover that his orange and brown Northface was relegated to the garage hooks...sorry honey.

So come on in . . .  the door's wide open!  Thank you Rene!