See How We Saved $2000 by updating our Foyer Entrance Ourselves!

Take a peek at these Foyer Entrance Ideas we implemented, and find out how we saved $2000 by doing it ourselves!

Goodness gracious, I cannot begin to tell you how important it is to try doing a few things yourself! 

I’m not going to do a complete update of my husband’s foyer project, but goodness, just last week in 8 hours he saved over $2000.

And all of these foyer entrance ideas and quotes didn’t include any of the trim work. 

Several years ago, he decided to add to the trim work in our foyer, and after a few weekends with an air compressor and nail gun he was almost done. After that, I was determined to have things looking a little more put together before Christmas that year, so I called a painter to come tackle the paint job.

We’d budgeted money for the project, and as it was crazy time of year I knew I wouldn’t have time to paint, and felt like James really didn’t either. 

Until the estimate came back at over $2300. YIKES.

The estimate did include painting and sanding the trim work several times (to make it look like real wainscoting), and it went the entire length of our hallway upstairs as well as on the stairwell. So, in fairness to the painter, it was quite a job, but he estimated it would be done in 3 days.

So we did the math:

24 hours of work ÷ 2300  = $95 per hour

$95 per hour? For painting? Even if that estimated for two people working, it still would come out to $47 per hour.

We just couldn’t justify that.

S0 my sweet husband set out to start painting (which is his least favorite DIY project ever. He’d rather build a fireplace any day.) 

And after about 8 hours of work he’s primed, sanded and painted the entire project.

Success.

I think he’s still got another 8 hours ahead of him, but 16 hours of work to save that much money was the best choice for us! 

If you’re looking to hire something done for you that you can realistically do yourself, before hiring it out make sure to just do the math on the hourly rate! Sometimes it’s well worth it hire help for certain projects (I’ve shared before that we have housekeepers who come every other week and I. love. them. They’re worth every single penny to this way-too-busy-working-mom.)

But sometimes the math just doesn’t add up, and if you have a few hours of free time doing it yourself can be oh so worth it. For James it’s meant giving up a few nights of watching football on the couch (he’s been listening to it instead .  . . ) and we’re thrilled to have it almost done.

The best part? I didn’t have to wait for a painter to fit us into their schedule ~ as soon as we decided to start he picked up the paint. I love having control of our DIY projects, and never dreamed it would be almost done before Christmas!

So for us it was worth it on this one. 🙂 Have you tackled any DIY projects in your home? I’d love to hear what you’re up to!

The foyer is now almost done ~ check out the (almost?) completed project with new foyer lighting.

Looking for more penny pinched projects? See how we saved $10,000 on our outdoor fireplace.

UPDATE: here’s a peek at the finished foyer. We love it!