French Country Cottage Foyer Renovation

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Scroll through before and after photos of our French Country cottage foyer renovation with reclaimed brick flooring and a barn beam. 

Welcome to our third fixer upper – the French Country Cottage.  If you missed the before tour, then check it out here.  Let’s check out our foyer renovation!

Before and After French Country Cottage Foyer Renovation

Before Photos

Here is the original entry.  Basically a hallway entrance that lead into the family room and straight into the kitchen.

Here is the view from the family room.

Aside from the iron railing and the detailing on the stair trim I didn’t like much of anything about this entrance.

Here you can see how the entry way lead into the kitchen.

And one more view from the kitchen.

Before and After French Country Cottage Foyer Renovation

And so the deconstruction begins!  If you missed it, then check out our French Country cottage family “demo day” here. We knocked out the wall between the kitchen, the family room and the foyer.

Figuring out where to put the fridge in this kitchen renovation was challenging to say the least, but after hours of arranging and rearranging my design, I finally decided to wall off the entrance from the foyer to the kitchen, build a bump out for the fridge and create a more distinct foyer.

Ok, so we have the fridge framed out.  Now it’s time to build the foyer bench!

 

Before and After French Country Cottage Foyer Renovation

Built-In Foyer Bench

My favorite Dewalt drill and Ryobi brad nailer!!

I had a really sweet little helper the day I built the foyer bench, and she was cracking herself up in the video below!  Haha.

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Before and After French Country Cottage Foyer Renovation

Reclaimed Brick Floor

I finished the built-in bench and now it’s time for the reclaimed brick floor. 

If you missed it, we bought two skid loads worth of reclaimed brick from a local greenhouse, and we have gotten so much square footage out of these bricks. 

Check out our breakfast nook reveal with reclaimed thin brick accent walls here!

Another one of our sweet little helpers.  Hey there Caleb man!

Zach slaved over these bricks and for all of our projects cut them himself.  For this floor we cut the brick to approximately 1/2″ thickness. 

We got two reclaimed thin bricks out of each brick by cutting the face of the front and then the back.

Here we were laying them out to get a general sense of the spacing and look, but there you can see the thickness.

Go time!

Lastly we mortar-washed the brick!

Final touches included this 150 year old barn beam that we bought from a local barn (see how we created an open concept master closet with these barn beams here!) 

I was thrilled with this vintage copper chandelier by Quorom lighting.  Find it here!

 

Before and After French Country Cottage Foyer Renovation

After photos

Without further ado!

Come on in!

The pillows are from Pottery Barn – Cotton Basket Weave and a similar one is the Off white Willa Fringe Texture Cover and the floral one seems to be out of stock.

I absolutely love these coat hooks.  They open and close like a book, so every arm can swing from side to side. 

I found them last summer on our annual trip to the south to visit family at the Antique Tobacco Barn in Asheville, NC. 

A must visit for antique lovers!!  That wicker basket was part of a wedding present 8 1/2 years ago, and I still use it regularly.

And here it is dressed up for fall!

And Christmas!

Before and After French Country Cottage Foyer Renovation

Before and After Slideshow

Thanks for joining us!!  Follow along as there are still lots of reveals to come!!

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