A hallway can be boring, especially in older homes. They basically just serve the purpose of providing access to the bedrooms of the house. In older homes they are usually very narrow and dark too. Updating a hallway in a older home can be a challenge. My own home is no exception. For nearly 10 years I couldn’t stand my dark narrow hallway with it’s worn and stained carpet. This year we finally tackled a hallway makeover in our home – or at least the first steps to a complete makeover.
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Below are some of the before and beginning makeover images of our hallway. Sorry that I wasn’t able to get better before pictures but didn’t realize this makeover was happening until I got home one day.
A couple of months ago I went out of town to visit my mom and came home to find that my husband and son not only ripped out the old carpet but also primed and sealed the sub floor – too many dog stains and smells – and installed new flooring in our hallway.
A new hallway makeover project was now underway in our house.
This flooring was actually the surplus boxes left over from our bedroom renovation after the tree fell on our house three summers ago. We had more than enough to do the hallway.
Removing popcorn ceilings is not fun.
The next thing we tackled was the dated and ugly popcorn ceiling. Who ever thought that was good look? It is so messy to take down too. But with a smoother ceiling and a new LED light fixture the work was so worth it afterwards.
The hallway is too dark and narrow to choose any other color besides white but I have always wanted a focal point of some sort at the end of the hallway. I just couldn’t figure out what exactly since the space was so small.
Then a few weeks ago I was contacted by Wikibuy.com to select a product from their site to feature in a current project in my home. It didn’t take me long to decide on this fabulous narrow white bookcase that is perfect for the end of the hallway.
I really wanted the bookcase to stand out so I took a chance and painted the back wall of the hallway in a nice grey color. And it was a fail!
I picked a shade a bit too dark. My daughter described it as walking in to a dark abyss and I totally agreed.
Another day of several primer coats of paint to cover the dark grey and I started over with the color I should have chosen in the first place which is Dove Grey by Behr. I already loved this shade of grey on the kitchen cabinets in our rental house and have found that it is also a good choice for the accent wall in the hallway. (This color may also show up on my kitchen cabinets too.)
The white bookcase, which stands at 46″ high, really stands out against the grey background.
I added mostly neutral and white accessories for the space. For now. I will continue to tweak the space several times until I find the combination of colors and textures I like the most.
I will showcase some of my other ideas for the bookcase decor next week.
My home was built in 1979 during a time that faux wood paneling was popular, and so was dark stained hollow core doors and dark stained wood trim. Not exactly the prettiest wood trim either. You have seen the type. As you can see, even with the new updates, the hallway is still very dark with lots of dark doors and trim.
As far as the hallway makeover is concerned – it seems we are not done according to my husband.
I have often talked about either painting all of the baseboards and door trim white and getting new doors but like most older homes there really isn’t a starting point or a stopping point of where you can leave up the older trim. It is continuous throughout the house leading from one room to the other and if you decide to paint one room you usually have to continue it until the whole house is done.
And let’s admit it – it is NOT a fun job.
So we have only tackled it in the front room that is an extension off the front of the house and doesn’t connect to another space. I really like it so much better with the white baseboards but we still didn’t replace the doors.
Imagine then my excitement that while we were painting the hallway my husband said that he thinks the old trim is too faded and worn and it was time we planned a full replacement of all of the trim and doors in the house. Score!
You will certainly be seeing some new changes in this hallway and throughout the house in the next year!
Until then, I will continue to enjoy my new updated hallway and new accent wall each time I walk down the hallway.
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