Small Entryway Remodel in a Modern Classic Style

The front door of our Main House Fixer Upper here at One Hundred Acres home opens right into the living room. Ugh. I want to create a small entryway area and visually separate the space from the living room white still keeping an open feel. This post will show you a small entryway remodel in a modern classic style.

Here is the original front door with the original linoleum floors when we first moved in.

In the photo below, you can see the front door during the wood floor install. Details on how to install nailed-down hardwood floors are in the flooring post here.

Thankfully there is a small coat closet right next to the front door for storage. If you look closely, you can see I blocked off a rectangle of the floor near the front door. In a last minute decision as I started nailing down the wood floors, my husband and I decided to put slate tile in the entryway area. This will match the slate tile in the wood stove surround.

It rains and snows here, so I don’t want to worry about people tracking in some water on their boots and ruining the wood floors. The entryway tile will give people a safe zone to drop their wet and dirty outside shoes.

Here is a rough sketch of an early design option for the small entryway remodel. This is not what I ended up doing, but I thought you might like to see this version.

Small Entryway Floor Tile Prep Work:

First things first, before we tile we need to lay down cement board. I used 1/4 inch thick HardiBoard set with thinset and screwed into the plywood subfloor with 1 1/4 inch length rock-on screws.

The joints in the cement board are sealed with a cement board tape and thinset.

I had this thinset left over from the kitchen and bathroom tile that worked just fine for setting the cement board. I’ll use this for setting the slate tile later as well.

After the thinset dried, I applied two layers of Redgard waterproofing that I had leftover from the bathroom. It’s definitely overkill for the entry. But this way I won’t care at all if my husband leaves his snowy boots in the closet to dry.

Small Entryway Remodel Slate Floor Tile:

Here is the dry test fit for the slate entryway floor tile. We’re using Montauk Black slate tiles from Home Depot. It helps to use blue tape and label each piece to keep track of their places.

Here is the installed slate. The color is a little blue so I’ll intentionally apply the black grout to unsealed stone to give it a more consistent black color. I did this same unconventional method with the slate for the wood stove tile surround.

The tile area is almost level with the 3/4 inch thick wood flooring. This is a close up of the tile and wood floor interface. I kept a small 1/4 inch gap filled with black silicone caulk to keep the transition simple.

The slate had rough edges after being cut on the wet saw, so I smoothed the perimeter edges with a pumice stone to soften the transition.

Grout Entryway Tile & Install Closet Door:

Here is the black-grouted slate entryway tile. The black grout stained the slate to give it a more modern solid black look. I sealed the tile once the grout had dried with a natural stone sealer.

The closet door finally arrived from Wayfair! I splurged a bit and got solid wood doors. All the interior doors except the bathroom pocket door will match the two panel shaker style.

I’m a bit of a minimalist and wanted an entry mat that sort of faded into the background. I found the floor mat in the photo on a random trip to Costco and haven’t seen it again.

Small Entryway Remodel Shoe Cabinet:

The closet will hold all our coats, hats, and whatnots but we need a cabinet for more shoe space. Plus a drawer for keys and sunglasses would be great.

I found the perfect small entryway cabinet at IKEA. It’s the Hemnes shoe cabinet with two large drawers for shoes and a small upper drawer.

It comes with a white finish but doesn’t quite match the white walls or trim. So I’m going to be a bit picky here and paint this white cabinet a slightly different white so that all the whites match. A small detail that I hope will really elevate the look.

This is the best primer I’ve found to use when painting IKEA furniture. It’s the Zinsser BIN Primer. Both the shellac based and the water based versions work great.

Here is the painted IKEA hemnes shoe cabinet. I used Behr Scuff Defense in Ultra Bright White on the cabinet to match the baseboard trim.

The cabinet doors were painted as well.

Here is the entryway shoe cabinet secured in place to the wall studs.

The shoe cabinet comes with door knobs, but I wanted a more modern look. So I used IKEA Hackas 4 inch long handles. These are the same handles used with the bathroom IKEA Hemnes vanity.

Lastly, no entryway is complete without a mirror! A round mirror felt right here and IKEA has a gorgeous walnut veneer round mirror for a great price. This is the Stockholm mirror in walnut.

Now just let me clean this up and show you the fancy photos :).

Finished Small Entryway & Shoe Closet:

This is the complete small entryway remodel with new slate tile floor and a shoe cabinet. What do you think? Waaay better than where we started yeah?

I added a small stool to help when putting on shoes and a simple black door knob on the closet door. I do like the look of long door handles but I always get something caught on them. So knobs it is.

Here is a better look at the entry floor with the grout-stained slate and the simple transition between tile and wood.

This long view shows the sloped trim of the mirror that I thought was cool. Perhaps I’ll add more decorations or a wall hook, but, like I said, I’m kind of a minimalist so we’ll see!