Have you ever wanted to tidy-up and reorganize your entryway? The entrance of your home really sets the tone for the entire space from the moment you first walk in the door. Our entryway, is currently a work in progress. We have tackled organizing the space, which I find is a really good place to start. We are still on the hunt for a fabulous piece of art to make it feel complete. 

Today, I am going to share with you some ideas about how you can make your entryway feel absolutely organized and perfect as you walk in the door. This is a space that I worked for a client, a few years back when we were designing her living space.
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Here are 5 simple steps to make your entryway more appealing as you walk in the door, so you can take a deep breath relax and enjoy your home more! 

 Follow these simple steps to add function to your entryway. 
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1.Organize shoes with a storage cabinet, baskets or shoe rack. 

2.Create wall storage with coat racks or hook to organize, hats, scarves, backpacks and bags. 

3.Decorate walls by adding a mirror or floating shelves. It make the entryway feel larger and more inviting. 

4. Address the floors, by adding carpet runner or doormat to keep floors clean plus add texture or color. We cozied up the wood floor with a long denim rug runner- like this one. 
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5. Accessorize with trays, bowls, and baskets. ​

Bonus points, if you add a vase with fresh flowers. At the moment, personally like to use a woven storage bowl for keys. We added in a long basket below the bench too. ​

I loved the challenge of organizing her entrance because it led me to design a range of walnut coat racks and floating mirrors. The walnut coat rack was designed around our need for a wooden piece that felt organic, modern and had a variety of tonal qualities. In this way, the coat rack pulled the other wood pieces, the bench and the shoe storage together for us. 

Here is the complete shopping list of the pieces that we used. 

• Shoe rack, IKEA (client's own)- new model in white
• Teak bench: Nadeau
• 5-hook Walnut coat rack
• Round floating mirror: similar here 
• Accessories: Felted storage bowls and modern vase 
• Denim and jute runner: similar here 

Below, you can see how the whole space came together with their front door and existing architecture. I promise to share how my own entryway redo is coming along very soon!

I hope you have enjoyed seeing how I organized her space. I'd love to hear from you. What are some of your favorite things to place in an entryway? 

Please feel free share any tips or ask any question in the comments below! ​If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy following along the One Room Challenge with me, as I transform our spare bedroom into a Boy's Nature Bedroom over the course of 6-weeks.   

Would you like to learn more about Shibori? I bet you might already be familiar with some of the beautiful tie and dye patterns that you can achieve from rings to lines. Many of these gorgeous shape-resist patterns can be achieved in an afternoon at home. Today, I will share 3 amazing Shibori techniques that I highly recommend to enhance or begin your textile design practice. Whether you are just starting out or an experienced designer, I think that you will find these techniques beneficial. 

My favorite Shibori techniques to teach at workshops and in my Natural Dye e-course are Kumo, Arashi and Itajime. I learned about these through reading, lots of experimentation and practice. In this article, I will share my top 3 techniques pictured below with you.

Before beginning, I gathered all of the supplies that I needed for this project, which included rubber bands, beads, twine and wooden geometric shapes. I will share a more detailed list of all supplies alongside each method and I now offer a free checklist, that you can download:)

It took me time and effort to pull together all of the supplies when I first started. Below, you can opt-in to receive my downloadable list of Shibori supplies!

Arashi supplies:

• Indigo dye kit
• wash basins
• wooden dowel 
• twine 
• silk pocket square 
• fabric remnants for practice

A 3rd method is Itajime Shibori, using various folds to pleat the fabric then securing it with shapes. Then shapes are applied to resist the dye leaving the space where the shape is placed in white. Shapes can be cut from a variety of materials including wood, cardboard and plexiglas. 

In the first example, you will see how I folded the fabric, using a basic accordion fold shown here, to make it long and narrow, then I folded a right triangle back and forth. Once it was all folded up, I clamp it using 2 wooden triangles and secure it with rubber bands. 

Please note: I cut these triangles by cutting a rectangle (or square) diagonally in half to form 2 right triangles with 30 and 60 degree angles. 

Itajime supplies: 

• Indigo dye kit + wash basins
• Tea towels 
• cotton fabric remnant
• rubber bands
• clamp 
• Laser cut itajime shapes: full set, triangle set, circle set, or square set

For the fabric below, I did the same long accordion fold then clamped the individual squares with a rectangular shape. This allowed more of the fabric to be exposed to the indigo dye, thus more of the fabric became a deep blue, leaving only the rectangle pattern in white. 

• Simply Shibori by Fiona Fagan 
• Stitched Shibori by Jane Callendar
• The Inventive Art of Japanese Shaped Resist Dyeing by Yoshiko Wada
• See the full Shibori Resource Guide

I hope you have enjoyed learning a bit about these 3 simple Shibori techniques, you may wish to see a few more posts on Shibori: 

• Shibori Basics 
• Shibori Workshop Recap 
• Hira Nui stitching and Indigo on Procion Dye​

Last Sunday, I hosted our first Summer Workshop in a series and I can't wait for you to see everyone's awesome results! Our small group of participants created a collection of beautiful and original textiles for their homes. I provided 2 tea towels and guests brought in additional items to dye. 

The 3 hour workshop began with a short lesson on Shibori folding techniques and culminated in a creative burst of energy! 

 Lucky for us, the Sunday afternoon was memorable and inspiring.  Read on below to see the event pics, learn more about the process and all the stunning results!