Our Hallway Update!

Hello World! I hope that everyone is having a great Monday! I am so much happier to get my week started when I know warmer weather is so much closer!!! It is so great to see the sunshine and getting a taste for summertime!

So, one area that has been pretty neglected in our house has been our hallway. We have one long hallway that leads to all three of our bedrooms, our guest bath, and 2 hall closets. It is pretty standard and has no natural light. Over the 2 years we have lived there it has been beaten up with moving furniture, our shoes banging up the trim, etc. So, I knew I wanted to liven it up a little bit, and Friday and Saturday I put my mind to it and gave it a little facelift. 

Let's take a look at how it looked before we closed on the house....

Notice the awesome light fixture, stark white walls trim, and awesome subfloor.

So, first thing's first. I decided to paint the white walls Friday. I painted them in Behr's Mineral which has become my favorite neutral. It is the same color my living/dining room and my den (which joins this hallway) are both painted so I knew I wanted to continue it through the hallway. I had about 1/2 gallon left over from painting the den, so I knew it would be plenty for the hall since I didn't have to cover up any bold color or anything.

It is a little hard to see since the lighting isn't the greatest, but here is a look at the painted walls...

Here is a better view at the end of the hallway of the paint new paint color. As you can see it is very subtle and greige as I like to call it (gray/beige). I have really decided to use this color in the main living areas of our house so that I can use accents to add different colors in because I tend to get bored and change up décor a lot. Also, when we sell the house it will be nice and ready for the next owner to make it their own...

After I painted the walls in the hallway, the dingy "white" doors and trim really stood out like a sore thumb. Look how beat up our poor master bedroom door was. And it was 10 times worse in person....

I used Behr's Semi Gloss Ultra White for my trim. I was a little worried about deciding to paint such large areas like the doors ultra white, but it was the BEST decision I made about this whole hallway update.

Here is a look at what a difference the Ultra White made. The "white"trim before was really hurting for a facelift...

This is one of the doors after the trim and door was given two coats of the semi-gloss paint. That is another thing that really annoyed me with our house when we moved in... I think that before we bought it they just took a huge 5-gallon bucket of white, flat paint and painted everything from top to bottom in this house. The paint on the doors and trim in every room has a flat finish, so it shoes the slightest imperfection and forget scrubbing it off. Having a glossy finish will make a high traffic area like our hallway function so much better...

I also made some changes to the details in the hallway. Our light switch covers both looked like this...

The dingy, dirty, off-white look is just not okay, so I decided to just spray paint it white. I know a replacement isn't too expensive, but I already had the spray paint in the garage so why not?

With the painted walls, the white really compliments the bright white trim and doors...

We have 6 doors in this hallway, and they have these I guess you could call them brass knobs...

I decided to paint the knobs and hardware with my Rust-oleum brand Oil Rubbed Bronze Spray Paint. I used two coats to paint the screws, knobs, and the little plate thingies (I have no idea what they are called haha). It made a huge difference and saved me probably at least $60 bucks by not buying new ones for all 6 of the doors...

Again, I apologize for the terrible lighting and the I-phone pictures, but here is a look down the hallway after the walls, trim/doors, and knobs were all done...

This gives you a better look at the end of the hallway how it looks. It is just so clean and modern looking now...

There's the new white plate haha...

When I got the big items crossed off the list, I added some color to two of the walls, and put the rug back down that I had there before...

Here is a look at the right wall "art" that I put up...

I took a 2-pack of canvases that I had from Hobby Lobby and covered it in THIS fabric that I absolutely LOVE! I love all of the colors in it, and the background has a canvas, burlap feel to it. I am obsessed with this fabric, and it just makes the hallway look so much happier. For these two canvases it took 1/2 a yard of the fabric to cover them...

 

On the left wall, I made a cute little gallery wall....

I am going to do a separate blog post on these later this week. I guess a tutorial really on how I made them. Basically, I got these $1 frames from Michaels, gave them a facelift, and added square pictures to them. These are all 12 pictures I have taken on different trips we have been on and I used an app to turn them into watercolors. I am obsessed, and they really add some great character to the hallway...

Here is a look at them from the entrance of the hallway...

And there you have it! Our quick, low budget hallway makeover! It ended up being even more beautiful than I anticipated. Now every time I walk down the hallway (which I swear seems like 50 times a day), I feel so much happier!

Be sure to stay tuned later this week on details about my gallery wall! I loved this project, and it is not expensive or difficult to make yourself!!

Thanks for stopping by guys!