Entryways come in all shapes and sizes. From short and sweet to long and narrow, and everything in between.

After initially visiting my daughter’s house in Texas, plans quickly got underway to overhaul a number of spaces this past week. With one of my college roomies (and bestie) in tow, we got busy.

Now, college homes (and living in general) tend to have a ton of character and more personality (most of the time), then designing/decorating for traditional family homes. Typically you can have more fun with it, and implement items and pieces you normally wouldn’t.

I’ll be honest—when it came to this hallway, we had no formal plans…no vision board—nada. We definitely winged it but I think it worked out in the end.

But enough talk, let’s check out the "before” pics.

It’s hard to tell from this picture, but the walls were painted in baby blue, along with white chair rail height paneling that wrapped the entire entryway.

The tile floor (which is definitely different) takes on this aged, speckled vibe that just ends up looking dirty next to those walls. So even though we couldn’t replace it, the goal/challenge was to work with it instead.

We also had this former closet-turned-mudroom area to completely transform in addition to.

Now, here’s where the transformation takes place.

Originally, we were thinking yellow for the walls as shown below. However, after painting the first coat, it was apparent that yellow (or at least this shade of it) would not be the best choice. Instead, we opted for a deeper, more neutral color that you typically don’t see in an entryway, but also a color that would work well with the rest of the vibe of the home and the sweet-looking contact paper we picked up at Target.

Yah, definitely not it.

So I did what I never do—I went to Lowe’s and selected a color right from the display chips. Super risky but I went with my gut on this one, narrowed it down to two options, and had my girl make the final decision.

Here’s what we picked:

Again, super risky because lighting can and does affect every color—but I was hoping Valspar’s Grizzly would work out.

I went ahead and painted one side of the entryway/hallway only. By painting both sides with a darker color, it would feel closed in and even smaller (and narrower) than it actually was. Not ideal.

I also decided to paint the paneling all one color to make it less “choppy” and less dated.

R-I-S-K-Y!

To be honest, at this point, I was a little nervous but I regrouped (LOL), got the stockpile of decor items I had previously shipped, out…and got to work.

I wanted this space to be cool, different, unique, and fun. Here’s how she ended up:

With one side decked out in Grizzly, and the other painted in Sherwin Williams Creamy, this hallway took on a whole new look and personality.

With decor featuring antlers, Goodwill frames, Hobby Lobby wall art, and a mirror that was left by the previous homeowners, this space came together in a funky fun way.

But I still haven’t gotten to the best part: the mudroom closet. Remember how it used to look? Here’s a reminder:

And this is where having an engineer as a bestie, comes in super handy. She got to work, cutting the contact paper to perfection, and then placing it as the backdrop for the mudroom closet.

My daughter and her roommate selected this cute print at Target and Kari lined it up perfectly (skills, y’all). Look at this:

Unique and fun, different yet tasteful…I really love how this space came together. The only thing left to do is invest in a runner rug and I’m thinking this option from Amazon may just be perfect.