Bedroom Hallway Spruce-Up

It's been a while since I've posted, and that's because I somehow contracted the cold of death (or the flu, not sure), which knocked me out for a good week and a half. It was super fun, complete with not being able to do anything (including watch TV or read) last weekend because my head and body hurt so bad that any sound or movement or noise agitated my entire well-being. In addition to that fun, I also had a 102 degree fever, a cold and congestion, extreme fatigue and a general sense of "I want to die." These days, I don't get sick very often, so this just totally knocked me out and I wasn't prepared for it.

Anyhoo! While I was writhing in pain on the sofa, wondering if I would come out alive, Josh went between taking care of me, and finishing our bedroom hallway last weekend. This isn't the most amazing transformation ever because it's not actually done-done. In a few years, once we start our master bathroom renovation, the bathroom entrance from the hallway will go away, and we want to get a really nice antique armoire to store all our towels, bedding and extra blankets in. But that's a ways away, and this is what we have for now. So, let's start at the beginning.

When we moved in, the one wall adjacent to our closet was covered in a blue butterfly wallpaper (which, honestly, I maybe, kinda, sorta could have worked with if we were going for a more victorian/antique look in the house). But, we took it down. Thankfully, it came off in huge pieces, and ended up being a fairly easy process that took like 20 minutes. Small victories - savor them, my friends.

The best picture we have of the old wallpaper. 

Next, we took down the old brass light fixture, all the floor trim and started to paint the room. We went with the same color as our closet, which is Bunny Gray by Benjamin Moore, and painted the trim in White Dove, also by Benjamin Moore. Because this little hallway area isn't the most exciting room ever, we decided to keep the original doorway trim for the bedroom and closet entrances, but had to remove the trim from the bathroom door in order to put in the new floor.

We also installed a new light fixture from Birch Lane in a bronze finish. In our post about our closet, I mentioned the amazing deal we got on the light we purchased for that space, and thankfully, we got the same kind of amazing deal for this light, too. It was so cheap, I can't even believe it. It's also the light I had picked out for about three years for our master bedroom, and since we won't be able to use it in there (long story), we got it for our hallway.

Finally, new ceilings and floors, exactly like our closet. We were pros this time around, but the oldness of the house and its asymmetries still made this project a challenge. But, we kind of knew to expect it going into the projects, so we were ready for wrong measurements and the dropping of F-bombs all around. Good times!

And here she is, all done (save for some floor trim that we haven't yet installed).

Such bad lighting in here! But you get the idea :)

Over the next week or two, we plan to move my dresser in, restore an old door we had in the house to put up in the bedroom entrance, and hand up some photos to make the room a little more cozy. In a few years, I have a goal of finding the most beautiful armoire to store our towels and extra bedding/quilts in to have on display.

Armoire goals. L-R, photos courtesy of Farmhouse 5540 and Facilisimo.

And now, we're knee-deep in our master bedroom remodel. Josh has been spending the week removing all the paneling from the walls, and the old, gross carpet from the floors. So, all we need to do in joint all the drywall pieces, sand them down, put in a new ceiling, fix our hardwiring for a ceiling light, install a new plank ceiling, install new floors, paint the walls, and I'm sure about 50 other things I'm forgetting! Easy, right? We've got this.