HOW I DE-CLUTTERED MY FOYER

I recently upgraded the foyer in my small NYC studio.

The existing shoe cabinet was too small for my purposes. I never used the cute bentwood style bench for putting on shoes. (It ended up as a repository for clutter.) And the wall above was filled with wall-of-fame and memorabilia items. It was starting to look junky and driving me kray-zee!

So I sold the shoe cabinet and bench on Craigslist. I filled that entire space with one larger shoe cabinet from Wayfair that holds 12+ pairs of everyday shoes. It includes a drawer for "stuff" - gum, pens, laundry card, flashlight, post-its, cash. (Wayfair has many nice styles of shoe cabinets.)

I hung a simple rectangular silver mirror from Home Goods above the cabinet to give the room height. The mirror replaced all the memorabilia. Whew. What a nice clean look. So calming.

To warm up the cabinet, I made a light grey runner from a remnant I found at Mood Fabrics in NYC (where the Project Runway contestants shop!). I added a large tassel on each end from M&J Trimmings on 6th Avenue (NYC).

For soft lighting, I added a very sweet round cherry-blossoms white table lamp from Ikea. (I know. But some of their products are actually quite nice.)

I found a wonderful bust from CB2 but it turned out to be too overwhelming so I returned it. I replaced it with a small plant.

The apartment door area and ceiling were already painted a semi-gloss dark grey. Coats are in the coat closet in the foyer. A while back, I removed the awful sliding doors and replace them with a heavy light curtain, trimmed in grey, that hangs almost from the ceiling (again, to add height).

Scarves and light jackets are on an over-the-door hook system on the door leading to my dressing room/bath. My foyer is now more organized, less cluttered, "quiet", moody, and a real joy to enter.

Total cost: Approximately $215 (plus Task Rabbit handyman to assemble the cabinet and hang the mirror).