Makeover - The Hallway
November 02, 2015
It's been a while since a proper Makeover Monday post! But finally I've put together a post on our hallway from start to finish. I can't believe we've lived in this house for over three years already now. Looking back at the old photos again feels like it was a lifetime ago. But at the same time it's flown by too. Funny how time and life goes by!
Before/During:
The hallway was an uninspiring bland yellow colour when we first bought the house. There was a blue carpet - the whole house had weird carpet colours - which we ripped up immediately. The house had an ugly white front door and unnecessary picture rail and architrave on the walls which didn't actually add any character. There's a big radiator as you come in the door which was crying out to have a cover added to it to pretty it up a little. So first of all we set about removing the wood on the walls, filling it and then getting ready to paint.
We decided to do two colours to add a bit of interest, a darker greeny colour at the bottom and a cream on top. So we measured and drew a line, going all the way up the stairs and marked it all out before painting. On the line we'd fit a dado rail to add a bit of character back in. It also had that ugly white light on the wall which we removed and had spotlights fitted in the ceiling instead. There was a piece of wood for coat hooks which was good but some were broken so we replaced them all with Victorian acorn hooks instead.
The stairs used to be closed in with some ugly pine panelling. One of the first things we did was rip it all out so we could have open stairs with banisters instead. Until we did our extension, it was open into the dining room. Check out my sexy painting clothes..
We replaced the front door {would you like a separate post on that and the window sticker above?!} and ordered a radiator cover from you guessed it.. eBay! It's made from MDF so we could paint it to blend in but solid wood can look good if you've got a nice spot for it. We painted the main part the same green and the top shelf and the criss cross hatches in cream. This photo shows just how narrow our hallway is. Think we'll have to use our backdoor when we have to think about buggies! Radiator covers are good for circulating more heat around, hide the ugly radiator itself and give a handy shelf.
During
After repainting everywhere, adding the dado rail, the radiator cover and changing the front door over we then set about painting the steps on the stairs and fitting a stair runner. {We ordered a carpet runner from eBay to match the rest of the carpets, you need the edges of it bound to stop it fraying so you have to buy a carpet runner - either pre-made or one made to order. The stair rods we also got from eBay and then got a local carpet fitter to fit it all.} I love the look of stair-rods and carpet going up just the middle of the stairs, it suits Victorian properties like ours too. We got it to this stage, with new coat hooks and put these DIY bus blinds up. At that point we were waiting to start our kitchen extension which would change the whole of the layout downstairs and add in a stud wall to create a new part of the hallway. So we didn't bother changing the floor for about four months until it was all finished.
After:
As I've explained a little better in this kitchen extension post, this stud wall got added in to separate the dining room off and we also created an under stairs cloakroom and cupboard. With the new wall we had extra space for photos and another set of coat hooks and we added a shoe rack in. We then laid the same oak flooring from the kitchen throughout the rest of the hallway to the front door.
I've talked about creating this DIY Family wedding gallery wall before here on the blog and so many people still comment on it when they see it.
And likewise, there's a whole post on these DIY bus blinds here.
A hallway needed to be a practical space for us as we have no big coat cupboards for storage. As such, the area to the right of the stairs has now become the main coat area where I hang everything and anything so that it's easy to grab when I'm rushing out the door. We copied the original coat hooks from the original hallway so got a piece of wood that a carpenter chamfered into shape and stained darker for us and then added some Victorian style acorn hooks that I got from eBay. I have a lot of coats, scarves, hats and capes - this is only half of them! The rest are stuffed into wardrobes and behind doors upstairs. I try and swap things around seasonally so these are the things I'm using most right now.
The antler hooks are a new addition that we picked up on our trip to Rye back in the summer. When I bought them, I didn't have a clue where they'd go but I knew I'd find a home for them. I've gone a bit antler and stag mad recently {in case you hadn't noticed from my Insta posts!}. Now that they've been fitted to the wall they feel like they've always been there and fit in perfectly.
Underneath the coat hooks sits a shoe rack that we up-cycled from wire pigeon holes - we picked it up at an antiques shop nearby. We bought them for our flat originally, they were painted bright red when we bought them but Ben stripped them back to bare metal with nitro-mors and lots of sanding. He then put a piece of oak on top to make it more of a bench. It now, unglamorously, holds all of our shoes. Well I say 'our', I mean mine. Ben has like three pairs of shoes, I have about ten million. Another 25 pairs in my wardrobe upstairs.. Oh to be a man.
On the radiator cabinet sits a wire Mail box I got from Cox and Cox about three, maybe four, years back now. It's handy for chucking post in that comes through the door and holding catalogues etc. {side note - I hate post. Unless it's something pretty or nice. But most of the time it's either boring, mostly junk mail or those crappy free papers that don't even burn well and just makes a mess. I get in trouble from my husband a lot for throwing letters out as soon as they land on the letterbox. But our loft is just full of pointless post, bank statements, ugh paperwork}.
I tend to keep the rest of the radiator cover quite clear as our hallway is very narrow when you come in the front door so it doesn't need anything to make it feel smaller. Especially as visitors hang up their coats above the radiator cover too. There's a mirror, not sure if it shows in any photos, by the front door which also makes the space feel a bit bigger.
Sorry the light is terrible in these photos as it was flooding in through the front door but you get the idea! My wellies sit on a mat next to the radiator cover which protects the oak floor from mud and the wet.
Think that's pretty much it! A functional space that I've we've personalised as much as we could whilst still keeping it practical and as light as possible.
R <3 xx
3 comments
LOVE! So glad you are back on the 'makeover Monday' posts as they're definitely my favourite :) x
ReplyDeleteWhat a transformation. Can i ask where you got your dado rail from? Thanks
ReplyDeleteThanks Mark. Wickes x
Delete