Spring Cure foyer style file

So much has happened since Apartment Therapy's Spring Cure started seven weeks ago - a trip to Maui, swine flu, Queen's Day in Amsterdam. So I haven't exactly been keeping up.

My goals were to do a deep treatment of my closet and kitchen, and do a one-room makeover of our foyer. I got my closet and half the kitchen done, which, following the law of entropy, has since reverted to chaos. When one is discouraged by one's own clutter, there's no better solution than to go day dreaming on the Internet. So here is my style file for the foyer makeover.

The image up top is my inspiration photo. Alert readers may observe that this is not actually a foyer. What I like here are the photo gallery and the bookshelves.

Below is my actual foyer. I give it high marks for tidiness. However, it is also dark, stark and boring. I feel like Igor shuffling to the entrance to greet visitors.


I want to create a photo gallery in the foyer, improve the lighting and add a soft, welcoming rug - all for almost no money. Future improvements would include adding bookshelves.

Here is another photo gallery inspiration. This is from a Banana Republic store display. I like the mixture of frames used.


These bookshelves ($330) are from The Door Store. They come in two sections, which allows you to change the length of the shelves, which is handy for folks like us who seem to move every other year.

This Ikea Barometer track lighting is only $50.

Here's a selection of rugs from about $20 to $50 from Urban Outfitters, JCPenney, World Market and IKEA.