There is something about a hallway which, I feel, pulls an entire home together. Perhaps it’s because it is the first room you’ll normally see when you enter a house, and let’s face it, first impressions count.
Perhaps it’s because it’s a space which joins multiple others, so when it looks as disastrous as ours has done over the past year, it reflects poorly on its adjoining rooms.
Either way, our halls, stairs and landing has recently been transformed, and if I do say so myself, it looks freaking awesome! Let’s see some pictures to see if you agree, but first, let’s take a look at what it looked like before.
In 2011 when we moved in, we immediately removed the era-confused carpet, as well as that horrible woodchip wallpaper. We installed central heating which exposed half of the brickwork, so Joe eventually removed all of the plaster taking the entire room back to brick. He then added plasterboard himself, and we’ve had the entire room re-plastered. We’ve also had a new front door installed which completely transformed the hallway, and replaced all of the internal doors to adjoining rooms. Phew! That’s a lot.
So what’ve we done since the last update? Let me show you.
(Please excuse all of the clutter under the stairs. It’s all our hospital bags ready for the baby!)
We’ve painted and carpeted.
Yup. Doesn’t sound like a lot but bear with me.
We chose grey and yellow as the theme for this room. Grey, because it’s my absolute favourite of all the neutrals and I think it looks so beautiful when sat next to the glossy white of the skirting board and banister. We chose the colour Bottlefly Wings from Valspar paint. It’s gorgeous and doesn’t darken the room at all.
On 2 walls, we’ve gone for yellow – and boy, do I love this colour. It’s Valspar again, but this time in the colour Oopsy Daisy. Cute name, right?
I’d not tried this paint before, but it’s the brand which has replaced Dulux Trade at B&Q so we thought we’d give it a go. The paint covers really well and you don’t need much at all to get a solid coat which made the project cheaper than expected (always a winner!) We went for a matt finish because, well, I just love a matt finish. Not to mention, with light shining in from all sorts of directions, I didn’t want to risk that sheen that you get with other finishes where you can see every single brush stroke. We made that mistake during our first attempt at painting the lounge and I won’t make it again.
We also added carpet. I bet you didn’t miss that though did you?
I FLIPPIN’ LOVE THIS CARPET.
It’s so soft and it’s really durable which is ideal for a high traffic area like a hall.
We bought it from SCS but we got a great deal because:
1. The carpet was a birthday present!
2. We bought all of the necessary gripper rods and metal thresholds from eBay because it’s cheap as chips to do so and carpet fitters will usually stick a huge premium on them which you can easily avoid.
3. We already owned underlay. We bought entire rolls from a site called Trade Priced earlier this year when we knew we’d be adding carpet to multiple rooms. Again, so much cheaper going straight to the supplier.
Upstairs the floorboards were pretty damaged, and we’ve even had to replace one or two over the years as electrics have been re-done. To even out the surface ready for flooring, Joe laid some 3mm hardboard so that over time, the dips in the floorboards won’t wear the carpeting.
The room is now warmer. It’s quieter. And it is significantly more welcoming. Yellow is supposed to be the colour of happiness after all, and I have a personal soft spot for yellows paired against monochrome. The perfect way to come home after a long day out.
There are a few finishing touches I want to add, of course. There is a picture rail we are yet to add onto one of the very high walls over the stairs. The 2 windows in here still could do with being double glazed (they’re the last ones in the house to need doing) and we also need some lampshades. The banister will one day have spindles and I can’t help but envision some beautiful fairy lights entwined around them going up the stairs. Most likely, next winter for this one. Apart from that, this room simply needs some pictures on the walls and it’ll make for a really welcoming entrance hall.
Whilst I had once dreamed of doing a fabulous feature wall using wallpaper, in the end we couldn’t resist that carpet, and even I’m not crazy enough to mix a striped floor with a heavily patterned wall.
So that’s our hallway and it’s much needed makeover! What do you think?
