The entry way of our trailer went through a few iterations before I finally settled on something I’m really happy with. This is such a narrow space that whatever I used here had to 1) look good 2) provide enough storage for our entire family 3) be no more than 12″ deep. I had originally tried this cabinet and open bookshelf combo from IKEA, and it looked too clunky for my liking, plus the door kept falling off which was not safe and made me mad each time it happened! I then used a short, vintage mid century bookshelf with cute little peg legs. I loved the look of it, but quickly realized that open storage in such a tight space was going to drive me nuts- with kitchen overflow items and kid craft stuff it was too much clutter in sight!
I decided to get a few of these wood cabinets from IKEA (two of them went into the kids’ room, one for their clothing and one for their toys). I wanted to buy something that I will use in our house once it’s built, and I can already picture a lot of places these cabinet will go! I used this primer left over from the interior of the rv and painted them over the course of a few days, because I decided it’s time for me to actually follow the instructions on the paint can and let coats of paint fully cure :). I wanted a soft color for the cabinet since it’s visible from every room. Our local hardware store had a pint of this called Mandarin Mist, and I’m pretty happy with it! I ordered these hairpin legs from Amazon in 6″ height. They are really heavy duty and I definitely recommend them for projects that need to hold a lot of weight, or visually need something substantial. They install with screws that are included, and even come with floor protectors for the legs! This was such a simple project, it was mostly a lot of waiting for the paint to fully cure between coats so nothing sticks to the paint!
Just for the heck of it, here is a picture of what the entry way looked like when we bought the RV. It had a tv/mirror combo that swiveled into the master bedroom. We knew we wouldn’t use it, since we use our laptop for watching shows/movies, and it wasn’t at an angle that we could comfortably see from the couch. The storage above it was about 4″ deep, so not much could go in it. The space beneath the tv was just wasted space! I know these are designed for travel and not daily life so storage space is minimum, so I totally understand why it was built that way, it just wasn’t enough storage space for us, and didn’t look like what we wanted to see everyday. Now it’s much more reflective of our style, it’s functional as an entry way and storage solution!
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While we are in the waiting period with the City of Portland to fully tear down the house (and because we are on a budget and trying to do a lot of the teardown work ourselves to save money), we are slowly dismantling it from the inside out. By “we” I mean my husband so far 🙂 He is getting it to the point where it is safe for us to have the kids with us while we work, but we had to send out for asbestos and lead tests before we felt ok with them being in the property. I actually can’t wait to get in there and work hard on this house! As you can see in these pictures, it’s a TON of dirty, hard work!