Our Entryway & Guest Bedroom Decor Refresh Ideas Made Easy

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of High & Mighty. All opinions are 100% mine.

We’ve have so many moments throughout our home improvement journey where we’ve stopped ourselves and come to the slightly jarring realization that we’ve been approaching a home improvement project or decorating task the same way for years simply because it’s the way we’ve always done it, not necessarily because it’s the most efficient or effective method. That moment when we realize we’d been making something so much more complicated than necessary, or so much more labor intensive than it needed to be. Today’s decorating projects – our little entryway and guest bedroom makeover – elicited one such realizations, which to be honest is kind of equal parts embarrassing and exciting! We’ve always been honest and open with you guys about our home improvement and home decor trials and triumphs, and we’re actually kind of excited to share this revelation, despite the fact that it may make us look like total rookies, because it’s been such a game-changer in our house in the very best way. Enter our new trusty decorating sidekick that we never realized we always needed, High & Mighty!

 

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I think it’s really helpful to give you guys the background here, so you can understand and maybe even relate to how this insanely exciting decorating revelation came to be. One serendipitous day not long ago, awesome, but admittedly new-to-us brand brand High & Mighty reached out and challenged us to put their products to the test in any room makeover or decorating projects we had in the pipeline, and asked if we’d honestly detail our experience, come what may. Bold! Color me intrigued. So just what was their product and their pitch? Their “About” page on their page actually says it all so perfectly, and as soon as I read it, it spoke right to my home improvement hack-loving heart:

“High & Mighty was born out of a frustration with other so-called hanging solutions, and a measly little goal of changing wall decorating forever. And we nailed it, or didn’t nail it in this case. We talked, and listened, to a lot of people, and it turns out our frustrations were the same as yours. Tools take time to gather and turn a simple chore into a project. While adhesive strips leave you worrying about when, not if, your wall décor will fall. That’s why High & Mighty is engineered right here in the U.S.A., to relieve your hangxiety and make hanging simple to D.I.Y. Everything installs into drywall by just using your thumbs, in three easy steps. Place. Push. Hang. And it’s not just picture hangers we’ve reinvented. Floating shelves, decorative hooks, key rails, and hook rails all go up in seconds and hold a gravity-defying amount of weight. The power to turn a space into your decorating dreams is now in your hands. Boom. Are you impressed? You will be when you try it.”

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Uuummm am I impressed? YES! Do I have major “hangxiety”? Yes. Am I shook that they’ve solved a decorating problem this big? Yes. Am I embarrassed that I didn’t come up with this myself? 100% yes. Mr. C and I have spent years, years trying every labor-intensive, tool-laden, sweat-inducing wall hanging solution under the sun, nailing hole after hole into our drywall whenever we wanted to hang a new piece or switch things up… which you know we do often. What’s more, we’re ashamed to admit that we never paused to think about doing it any other way. Which is why I say that this little decorating revelation was equal parts embracing and exciting – I’m embarrassed that we lived in inefficiency for so long, but was genuinely ecstatic at the idea that a more flexible, more approachable, all around easier solution for hanging things on our walls had possibly arrived.

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Right away two little room/space makeovers around our home that were about to get underway popped into my head, and because we’re always open to try something new and putting it to the test on the DIY home improvement and decorating front we happily accepted their challenge, though I’ll be honest and admit that I had no idea what would unfold. The two room makeovers at hand were a much-needed entryway makeover and a little refresh for one of our guest bedrooms that has never felt quite “finished”. Our entryway is a really tiny, narrow space, but for so long we’ve needed focal point, a “drop zone” of sorts and needed a solution for hanging coats, bags and other items that needed a place to land when we and guests walk through the door. For that, we fell in love with High & Mighty’s 18″ Beech Hook Rail with 4 Oil Rubbed Bronze Hooks. It was a perfectly petite size for the space (it also comes in a larger size and other finishes), the style fit right in with the rest of our cottage-cozy decor and it had uber functional hooks that were perfect for hanging all sorts of things. For our guest bedroom refresh we’ve decided to forgo a headboard in this tiny space for now, but we felt like the wall above the bed still really needed some interest and a focal point to frame the space, like decorative objects or artwork that would make it feel a little bit more grounded and cozy. For that we knew that we needed High & Mighty’s 20lb Wall Hangers, which would help us almost effortlessly hang a few new pieces above the bed without making a huge mess or leaving an unnecessarily nasty footprint in our drywall or spending hours on the project (like it usually would). So we had a plan, and a plan that would hopefully make the process so much easier than our previous wall hanging projects. But the real questions was… would the plan work?

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I’m just going to skip to the punchline here because that feels like enough suspense for now and I’m too excited to withhold the good stuff – not only did the High & Mighty products deliver on promises made, I was genuinely shocked by how fast they made the hanging process, how easy they both were to utilize, how sturdy they are and how tiny the footprint is on the drywall. I’m still just reeling with excitement over how big a revelation it was while we were making over these spaces. Normally a little space refresh or room makeover would take me a couple of days to tackle in their entirety, but because the hanging process was so simplified and streamlined, I tackled both space makeovers in just a couple of hours… total! Can you tell my mind is kind of blown here? It was really as simple as their About page says. All we had to do to hang the hook rail and the art above the bed was just place, push, hang and BOOM, we were done. Not only that, but it required zero tools and I was able to do all of it on my own, without C’s help, which so rarely happens when hanging things around our home.

Below I’m breaking down what we added, swapped and updated in each space so you can see what we did and why, and how we made the most of both small spaces with minimal effort or dollars spent. I also detail how I quickly installed my hook rail and wall hangers so you can get a feel for just how easy they are to use! And just FYI, their products are available at our local hardware store (Home Depot, Lowe’s, True Value), at a retailer (Walmart, Michaels, Target), or on Amazon, which means when you need them, you have tons of ways to find them so you can tackle your project right away instead of having to wait, which for a weekend project warrior like me is huge.

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Our Entryway Makeover

• Added the High & Mighty 18″ Beech Hook Rail with 4 Oil Rubbed Bronze Hooks for hanging coats, bags and baskets. And as you can probably tell, the way they’ve set this up for super installation is so clever. It comes with a handy little level strip that includes pre-fabbed notches where your steel mounts sit, so all you do is get it level, stick it to the wall, push your mounts into your drywall and slide the rail onto the mounts and you’re done! I almost couldn’t believe how perfectly and quickly it worked. I had a level, sturdy hook rail ready to rock within minutes. And just as an FYI, the 18” rail that we used holds 30lbs and the 27” rail with 6 hooks holds 50lbs and it removes easily with a flathead screwdriver, leaving holes barely bigger than a pin. Even more awesome? If your decor theme is a little bit different than ours, it’s also available in white w/ white hooks, white w/ satin nickel hooks, black w/ satin nickel hooks, and espresso w/ oil rubbed bronze hooks.
• Brought in a woven basket for umbrella and other storage rather than a bench, which would take up way too much space in our narrow entryway. It provides just the right amount of storage and helps frame the space!
• I also added a woven hanging basket for citrus and pomegranate season, which is coming so soon. We’ll probably also use it for storing other little things when we come in the door, which is always useful. Since we don’t have a bench, the more function the better in this space!

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Our Guest Bedroom Refresh

• Added new artwork and a fun, cottage-perfect seagrass deer head centered over the bed and hung with High & Mighty’s 20lb Wall Hangers that are designed for use with sawtooth mounts and ring style mounts (we had both in this project). The art work had sawtooth mounts and the seagrass deer head had a ring style mount. So what else makes these amazing little hangers so awesome? They’re made from solid steel for a strong hold, you can quickly install into drywall using only your thumbs and they remove super easily with a flathead screwdriver, leaving holes barely bigger than a pin. All I did was push them into place on the drywall and hang my pieces!
• Introduced new coordinating white Jenny Lind-style nightstands, which used to be in the living room. They’re perfect for this space!
• Added new nightstand lamps, which we might swap out down the line for something larger (these feel a little bit too small on top of these larger nightstands), but they totally work for now.
• Added a cozy new green plaid throw pillow to add some color and pattern that coordinates with our new pastoral artwork.

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