Sherwin-Williams Anchors Aweigh in the Entryway

See how gorgeous the paint color Sherwin-Williams Anchors Aweigh is in our entryway!

Sherwin-Williams Anchors Aweigh in the entryway

I’m so excited to be sharing some of my entryway makeover progress! Today I’m going to chat about the current state of the space, share some inspiration about where I hope to take it, and show some painting progress. Here’s a quick peek of the space as it was at the start.

Yeah, it’s tiny. There really isn’t that much to it. And it’s really, really nonfunctional right now. Just piles of shoes and nothing hung up yet. No rug. No hooks for purses, bags, or coats. We’re going to fix that. But we’re going to start with painting!

My Inspiration…

First let’s talk about painting inspiration. I knew I wanted to incorporate some navy walls into the space, and I decided on Sherwin-Williams Anchors Aweigh. For the rest of the entryway, I chose Sherwin-Williams Repose Gray.

It provides the perfect complement to the navy! Here is a picture of Repose Gray in my office/dining area, where I have it paired with a black accent wall.

My Black & Gray Dining/Office Area

Here are all of the entryway before photos

It’s a great little space, but it’s just that: little! It’s quite narrow with no coat closet, so I knew we needed to work in a space to hang coats. We also take our shoes off when we come in the front door because of the carpet in the house, so we needed a space to store shoes. For a while we’ve been using a little old Ikea TV unit, but as you can see, that wasn’t cutting it.

I also want to hang a mirror on the wall that has the paint swatches in it. I’m planning on that wall being navy, but I don’t want it to continue down the entire hall. I’m also planning to put down a big jute rug to cover the floors, and maybe even a matching runner for the long hallway.

As for the rest of my plans, I’m hoping they fall into place as I work. 🙂 This project is a bit fluid! So for now, let’s chat about this paint.

Painting with Sherwin-Williams Anchors Aweigh

I tried out quite a few paint colors on this accent wall, and ultimately I decided on Sherwin-Williams Anchors Aweigh. I sued Emerald Interior Acrylic Latex Interior paint for this project. This is a paint and primer in one and is the most top-notch paint in the Sherwin-Williams lineup.

It has fantastic coverage and washability (I’ve already had to test the latter!), and comes in flat, matte, satin, and semigloss. The Emerald line is designed so that even the flat and matte finishes have the same durability and washability as the glossier sheens, which is something I’d love to test in the future. I typically use eggshell or satin, which is what I used in the entryway, for the washability.

I will say, though, that if you are sensitive to smells, this paint not be for you. Honestly, I did feel like the Emerald line had a much stronger chemical smell to it than other Sherwin-Williams paints I’ve used. I think you have to actually visit a Sherwin-Williams store to get the Emerald line paint (instead of just a Lowe’s).

Here is the first coat of Anchors Aweigh on. I have to admit, at this point, I was a bit worried. This did NOT look like the beautiful navy color I had been pining over for weeks. But I pressed on, hoping that the second coat would deepen the color and make things look more like the sample had.

First coat of Anchors Aweigh and Repose Gray

I also decided to continue the navy into the space around the door frame, as well as on the little diagonal wall you can see in the right-hand side of the first photo below. I did the wall on the left of the navy using Repose Gray, which I continued all the way up the stairwell. This transitions well to the next floor’s Repose Gray walls and looks great with Anchors Aweigh.

…And the second coat!

Thankfully the second coat of the navy did the trick. It really deepened the color and the coverage evened out completely. It’s a really gorgeous, rich color that is exactly what I was looking for. I was terrified of it looking too “royal blue,” and it definitely does not. It’s a very solid deep navy.

The only thing I hadn’t finished in the next photo is continuing the Repose Gray all the way down the hallway you can see on the right. I hadn’t originally planned to do that during this round of painting because I didn’t think I’d have enough paint, but it turns out I did. I’ll share that in the coming weeks!

Update: Finished Entryway with the Anchors Aweigh Accent Wall!

Popping back in to update this post with the finished entryway pics! (See the full entryway reveal post as well.) The Anchors Aweigh and Repose Gray look great together. I ended up also painting the coordinating DIY shoe cubby I built using anchors aweigh as well. I’m sure we’ll get a lot of use out of this! And I built a DIY mirror frame you can check out the tutorial for as well.

Pin my Sherwin-Williams Anchors Aweigh entryway!