From Rags to Riches: The story of a hallway

In yesterday's post, I gave you a little hint as to what I was going to reveal to you today. And let me tell you, this as been a long time coming. This project actually started last year - about 1 week after we bought the house on May 27th. *Gasp*

The project is in fact the Hallway/Stairwell of our house. Let me tell you, I thought this thing would be the death of me.

It started out looking all 70's but do-able. Here are 2 pictures I took on our initial walk through of the house.


I thought to myself - "Oh, it's just some shag carpet and wallpaper. This will be easy to fix." I laugh at those thoughts now.


We went through the process of stripping the wallpaper and came across the pink plaster walls underneath. This is where the term "wallpaper" turned into "wall-devil".


It was a complete nightmare. A second thanks to the many, many people who helped scrape wallpaper for endless hours.


Once the wall-devil (er, paper) was removed, the next step was to rip up the shag carpet and paint the trim white. The brown-ish/gray-ish pickled stain wasn't doing it for us. My parents helped with all the painting, including painting the bedroom doors and built-ins in the upstairs hallway. We put a coat of white primer/sealer over the walls to keep any leftover wallpaper glue from bleeding through the paint.


After that was complete it was finally time to paint the walls. The upstairs and downstairs were getting 2 different colors. The downstairs is the same shale blue we used in the Kitchen and the Back Porch. Since the Porch, Kitchen, and Hallway are all adjacent to each other, this leads to a great flow of the rooms instead of making it feel choppy.


But the upstairs hall area was supposed to get a more neutral color of paint since the bedrooms and bathroom had a lot of color in them.


I chose the color "Divine White", but after rolling half the walls with paint, I hated it. With a passion. As I said at the time, "it looks peach" (click here for those details). I immediately knew it was wrong and had to be changed. So, I stopped painting and went back to the drawing board. I actually picked out a new paint color pretty quickly, but we moved on to other projects and my poor upstairs hallway has been sitting in this partially-painted state ever since...


... until last weekend when my parents arrived, and my dad lifted this hallway from the depths of despair by painting it the newly chosen color - MANCHESTER TAN - by Benjamin Moore!


He started late at night - cutting in around the edges of the walls and ceiling. I was giddy seeing it unfold. And the next day, he had rolled on 2 coats of paint. I loved it. I did the happy dance. I stared at it. I thought about bringing out my sleeping bag and parking it in the hallway for the night.

Benjamin Moore - if you're out there and can hear my voice - I LOVE YOUR PAINT!

The color was tan, but had a golden tint to it such that it looked perfectly beautiful next to the blue color we were using on the downstairs hall - including a wall that connects to the upstairs.


It always fascinates me how lighting can change color so much. During the daytime, especially bright sunny days, the color looks very light and on the brown side of tan, but during the night under incandescent light, it's darker with a more golden glow. And I like it both ways.


Now that the walls had paint (and dad put an extra coat of white paint on the wall trim), we could FINALLY hang some sort of window covering in the hallway window. Our neighbors will thank us now that they can no longer see us running from our bedroom to the bathroom in our pj's or undies.


I ran to Lowe's and picked up another one of their on-clearance-roman shades (like what we used in the bedroom). We actually have this exact same shade in the upstairs bathroom. It blends in with the new wall color perfectly. It's easy to open and close. It provides privacy without blocking all light during the day. Perfect.


In addition to the upstairs hall, dad rolled one final coat of shale blue on the downstairs hallway and a fresh coat of white flat paint on the ceilings. Whew! Good work, dad!


Here are a few extra pictures, just to tickle your fancy.


Dad did a great job cutting in the corners where the 2 colors meet.


The attic door (in the ceiling) needs 1 or 2 more coats of white paint too. But the built-ins and bathroom door are looking mighty fine against my MAN(chester Tan)!


What progress...

Before, During, After



But the story doesn't end there! Oh, no! The banister and spindles of the staircase need 1-2 more coats of white trim paint. Then we need to get new carpet down in the upstairs and downstairs hallways and on the stairs. And of course, there's decorating those big walls. I'm scheming up that part now. But at least I can walk up and down those stairs every day and take in the sight of painted walls. It's the simple things I tell ya.