Decorating The Foyer

I put the finishing touches on my foyer a few years ago and I really like how it turned out.

If you have ever seen even five minutes of HGTV you have heard how important it is to have a good entry to your house.  First impressions are key.  So, I put a lot of thought into the foyer of my house.
The front entrance to my house is two glass doors, a tall glass panel on either side and another tall window.
Here is a photo of the front of my house before we moved in.  Even though how the previous owners decorated the foyer was not to my taste I still had a good first impression because of all of the windows.

Here is a photo of how the previous owners decorated the foyer.

I decided to use six huge, standard sized frames and do custom matting. Custom framing is expensive. It is a good bit cheaper to use standard size frames and have custom matting done. You can find large frames for reasonable prices if you spend some time looking.

Hobby Lobby is now my go to place for frames and matting. Every other week their frames are 50% off. I went to my stash of fabric and scrapbook paper.  I buy random fabrics that I love.  Same with scrapbook paper- if I am inspired by a design, I buy it and add it to my collection... which contributes to a very nice collection of cheap art.  I picked out my favorites.

I was going for a color scheme of blues, greens and yellows with whatever extra colors were thrown in.  I came up with about half of what I needed to fill the frames.

Next, I went to the best fabric store in the world- Mary Jo's fabric in Gastonia, NC (about 30 minutes from my house).  MOTHERLOAD... I was a fabric buying fool.  Just one more item needed and according to some online stalking Ikea had the perfect fabric to complete the project.  Only problem was, at the time, the closest Ikea was 4 hours away.  Luckily, I had a trip to Portland, Orgeon coming up and being the clever city that they are, they do in fact have an Ikea.  So, I made a special trip, had a lovely vacation, flew home and put the finishing piece in my art display.

Hanging the frames took me about about 5 tries each to make them look evenly spaced. I look forward to lots of patching when I move out (or, more likely, when I change my mind about what should go there).  The bookshelf is from Target and, even though it was only about $250, at the time it was one of the most expensive pieces of furniture I had ever purchased.  I filled the shelf with knick knacks that I was proud to display.

Here's a breakdown of how much the art display cost:
frames: 6 at $25 each= $150
custom matting: 6 at $11 each= $66
scrapbook paper: 8 pieces for 30 cents each= $2.40
fabric: 8 pieces (most were 1/4 yard)= about $20
total project= 238.40
bookhself: 250
knick knacks: already owned = free!