Entrance renovation

Original link: https://blog.shuiba.co/house-entrance-reformation

The porch renovation is my first large-scale renovation since we moved into our new home. Seeing that I have used the word “big” in my title, it can be seen that the project is very difficult. Of course, this is not a one-step process, it is gradually formed in several phases. Through this renovation, I became more confident in my design and hands-on ability, and laid a solid foundation for future renovations.

Entrance floor

Front-to-back comparison of entrance floor
Front-to-back comparison of entrance floor

I once introduced the decoration of the entrance in “Our New Home (3)” :

Because we felt that the entrance was too narrow, especially the stroller with no place to put it on the slope, so we made some space from the storage room on the side. Because the exact same floor tiles were not found, the floor differences are obvious, and I plan to use soft decoration to solve it later.

So in August 2021, I started the porch floor renovation project. Although the construction started in August 2021, in fact, I was checking the information in March 2020. At that time, the house had just been handed over, and we had not yet moved in. It was a good time for soft decoration. In order to unify the color of the floor, I looked for special floor stickers, floor tiles, floor mats, etc., and compared the pros and cons of various materials. In the end, I couldn’t find a particularly satisfactory solution, so the matter was settled. After moving in for a while, I found that there was no inconvenience except that it looked bad, and I had no motivation to change it. Until last summer, I was unable to travel due to the epidemic. I wanted to take advantage of the long vacation to do something, and I found a new type of sticky floor, so I immediately put the renovation of the entrance floor on the agenda.

In addition to the inconsistent colors of the porch floor, the height of the floor tiles is also somewhat uneven, so I tended to have a thick floor at the beginning. However, most of these types of floors are relatively solid and professional, which is expensive and difficult to cut. As a replacement sticker, although the price is friendly, it cannot eliminate the height difference. I asked for a sample to try the sticker, and I can only say “too bumpy”. There is also a soft floor with a medium thickness, which is more like a thin layer of cushion, which is the kind of floor we used to lay in our old home. The soft floor has a certain thickness. It is not complicated to paste the fortification with double-sided tape. It is easy to cut and has many patterns. I originally wanted it or not. However, this kind of soft floor will gradually lose its elasticity after stepping on it for a long time, and gradually show the shape of the floor below, which may eventually be as “bumpy” as the sticker effect. Fortunately, technology is improving, and finally I found a hard floor that can be pasted. It is much thinner than high-priced professional planks and can be cut directly with scissors. At the same time, it has a certain thickness, which can well modify the height difference. Furthermore, because of its hard texture, it is resistant to wear and tear. I’m going to try a sample right away, it’s perfect!

Retrofit process
Pack up, clean up, put stickers on the kicks, and finally put on the floor

Because it is a porch, it needs a stain-resistant color, and the entrance door is dark blue-gray, so I chose stone gray. The texture of the stone is very natural, and the cool tones also match the color tone of our home. Since the baseboard is also the same as the floor tile yellow, I bought a sticker and put it around the baseboard, so that the whole is more harmonious. Although the sticker is also a stone texture, it is warmer and deeper than the floor. Even so, it is more convenient to stick the baseboard than the hard floor. And I also deliberately extend a part of the sticker to the floor, and then stick the floor on the sticker, so that the gap between the wall and the floor can be filled more effectively, and it is not easy to accumulate dust, this Virgo feels comfortable .

I stuffed Popo to Brother Dou, and I rolled up my sleeves for a while. According to the previous measurements and calculations, I pre-paved the floor to see the situation. It was also from this experience that I learned that there are several ways to paste the floor. For example, the current floor of our house is staggered. In addition, there are herringbone pattern sticking method, horizontal, vertical and horizontal sticking method, etc. (all the names I made up by myself). The neat sticking method is generally not useful, because it is too silly. Referring to the instruction manual on the seller’s website, I decided to stick it horizontally and vertically. Because the aspect ratio of this pasted floor board is 2:1, the horizontal and vertical sticking is actually similar to the neat sticking. It does not require too much cutting, and it will not look boring because it is too neat. After I decided on the sticking method, I found Popo’s picture book and watercolor pen as tools, measuring and drawing lines, cutting and pasting in one go, and I was sweating profusely. The area next to the entrance door needs to be very precise and meticulous. Thanks to the thinness of the floor, it is much more convenient to use scissors than a utility knife. Besides, I don’t have any cushions that can be easily scratched. After spending a whole afternoon, it was finally done. Thanks to Brother Dou for taking care of the baby, thanks to Popo for not making trouble, and thanks to himself for being heat-resistant and hard-working, and the sense of accomplishment is full of achievements! Po Po was also excited and joyous, and she was always in this state every time she laid a new floor.

hole wall

Day and night of the cave wall
Day and night of the cave wall

Referring to the suggestions collected on the Internet, a whole wall of the entrance is nailed with a large perforated board for various flexible storage. The perforated board in the picture is still the color of wood, and later it was painted the same color as the wall.

Although it was written at the back, the renovation of the porch hole and wall was earlier. In November 2020, I felt that I couldn’t waste the hole wall that the designer tailored for me, so I decided to dress up. I went to IKEA to buy strings of lights, fake flowers and picture frames, to the convenience store to print out photos of the big moments, and to attach everything to the wall with wooden nails and rope from the hundred-yen store. Like the partition concept of the iPhone interface, the upper part is the display area, which is responsible for creating a warm and comfortable atmosphere, and the lower part is the functional area, which is responsible for storing keys, masks, umbrellas, schoolbags and other small items in the entrance. The “sag” on the left was originally used to put a baby carriage on a slope, but now she doesn’t need it anymore, and we put the baby carriage in the utility room on the side. In the empty space, I wanted to buy a chair with a hanger, hang clothes on it, and sit underneath to change shoes, but I didn’t find the one I liked. So I directly nailed the Umbra coat hook on the wall, and put the IKEA double-layer stool below, thinking that adults can sit on the upper floor and the slope on the lower floor. However, in our family, adults and children are all pedals and never sit on a chair while wearing shoes. When taking off her shoes, Popo is also sitting on the ground, just like in school. Therefore, the double-layer stool is now mainly used to put the arm lifebuoy on the slope, and the lower layer is used to display all kinds of pebbles, leaves, small flowers, chestnuts and other gifts of nature that she picked up from the park. The selfishness brought in by outside things will not hinder her collecting habit.

porch now
The current entrance in November 2022

Although the battery of the string light is quickly used up and is only used as a decoration now, Xiaomi’s night light can “glow and heat” when going to the toilet at night, which is better than expected. The photo on the photo wall is still on Popo’s first birthday, and the aurora photo was also complained by Brother Dou “it’s all black for unknown reasons”, please replace it when I have time. Po Po will be four years old in a blink of an eye, time flies! The entrance door is magnetic, and there were a lot of things pasted, but it seemed inconvenient, so they were all moved to the refrigerator. The black rectangle at the bottom right is for fixing the door, but it is too difficult to use. After the fall, the hooks are full of clothes and scarves. It turns out that it is really convenient to have a place to hang coats in the entrance. I made the best use of the holes and walls, and finally lived up to my (borrowed) idea and the painstaking efforts of the designer. The invaluable part of the hole wall is the variability. According to the lifestyle and habits, the hook can change the position at will, full of the luxury of private customization.

house number

house number
Popo’s name comes from my and Dou Ge’s surnames

When moving to a new house, there is still a sense of ritual, and the simplest and most rude may be to change the house number. Because the house number is still the name of the previous owner, I asked the administrator how to change it to her own name, and she said that everyone prints a copy and pastes it on their own. I thought this was too hasty, I asked her if there was a way to redo a house number, and she said no. According to my observation, the tenants who moved in later did print out stickers with their names on them as the administrator said. But how could I be so rough as delicate, so I thought of a good idea to make a handmade house number with the leftover white stickers at home. As soon as I said it, I designed the style and wrote it carefully. I found that a sheet was too thin to cover the original name. So I tried two or three before I could barely cover it. In fact, I also want to add more, but the difficulty is too high, and it will be too thick.

First of all, I pulled out a base paper for stickers, just as the stickers of Popo’s clothes were almost used up, I evenly emptied a piece of base paper and used it. Next, I put the white sticker on it flatly, and then I held my breath to accurately align the second layer, and then paste the third layer according to the gourd painting. Next I carefully painted the designed house number and very carefully peeled the sticker off the backing paper. This step is also very important, because if it is not torn properly, there will be air bubbles left by excessive bending between the layers of paper, which is really difficult! After trying a few times, I finally removed the sticker safely. I was suffocating again. I carefully pasted it on the position of the name on the house number, and I didn’t dare to take a breath. After the last sticking, I found that the three layers were not enough. If you look carefully, you can see that the bottom is faintly black, but it is not too serious. In addition, I found that the words were a little crooked after I put them on the wall, and I didn’t want to rewrite it. It was too tired, so let’s just do it. Since I was a child, I have shown the strongest strength, and I may be out of the sky for Brother Dou. After PUA myself, I went back to the house with satisfaction. In the evening, Brother Dou was very happy when he came back, and the feeling of home became stronger.

On the eve of the Spring Festival in January 2021, we went to Chinatown to buy a big blessing and stick it upside down on the door, and then left a precious photo of the door. At the end of the year, we hung up a bunch of Christmas decorations, combining Chinese and Western styles.

This article is reprinted from: https://blog.shuiba.co/house-entrance-reformation
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