When we bought the house one of the first things that our contractor suggested was that we get rid of the vestibule. I am so glad that we didn’t. I love walking into the house and having a space to put my keys, hang my jacket and take off my shoes. The vestibule also has the added benefit of keeping out any cold drafts from entering the house. In the winter we shut the vestibule door which keeps out the cold air from the living room.
Since the vestibule is really small I opted to cover the walls in Moroccan tiles. I have always loved the designs of the tiles but it would have been very expensive to cover a large area with Moroccan tiles. We used Saltillo tiles for the floor. I bought the Moroccan cement tiles online. I wish I could remember the site but Berber Trading, Tazi Design and Casbah Decor all have similar tiles available. Here’s a close up of the tiles:
The lamp is a vintage Spanish fixture that I purchased on eBay.
The ceilings are really high and the space looked a little cold so I decided to cover the walls gallery style with mostly Kiran’s paintings and drawings. I put the pictures up in inexpensive
Ikea Ribba frames.
We have one rack for coats, scarves, and bags. We also have another small rack for keys, mail, sunglasses, umbrellas and other smaller items. These racks are for our everyday use. When we have guests we generally throw everyone’s jackets on our bed. My next project is to finish the stairway to the basement and install a long row of coat racks so that when we have people over they have a proper place to hang their jackets. Old row houses are notorious for having minimal storage space and ours is no exception.
This is a wrought iron coat rack I bought years ago at Anthropologie.
I bought the Triple Hook Up Strip in Olive (below) by Three by Three from Velocity Design a couple of years ago. It comes with four small magnets which hold notes, checks etc. The larger hooks are great for sunglasses and mail and we use the smaller hooks for umbrellas, Kiran’s sweaters etc.
In this picture you can (barely) see the floor tiles. It took us forever to find Saltillo tiles. Scott and I went to a dozen tile places and then we finally found a place on Washington Avenue that had these tiles. I think that they complement the Moroccan tiles perfectly.
The last thing that we need to do in the vestibule is to strip the varnish off the wood door, prime it, and paint it in Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace which is the same white paint that we have used throughout the house on the moldings and panelling.
When we bought the house the vestibule was covered in the ugliest brown, beige and cream tiles. Most of them were falling off and the space was just uninviting. Unfortunately I don’t have a great before picture but this is what the vestibule looked like a few days after we bought the house.
South Philly Renovation 