Before I start giving you a tour of our hall though, I should explain that this makeover is not finished! There are still pictures to put up, and furniture to find and flooring to replace. But I'm starting to realise that houses are never done, so I thought I'd blog anyway, but remember: I have not staged any of these shots ( think you might notice the realism as you go through...
I don't have any proper 'before' pictures, only really this one:
It wasn't just the coral and peach wallpaper combination that cause me problems. It was the very busy texture in the wallpaper and the 7 large brass picture lights - now, I could understand one or two, but seven, really?!
It took Tall Man and I took a week off and worked solidly, stripping wallpaper, cleaning the walls, trying to smooth them and prep them for painting. After 7 days, we admitted defeat. The plaster was cracked everywhere, the walls were bumpy and no matter how much 'Smooth Over' we used, they would only get worse. At that point our hall looked like this (it was quite dingy, it's not just that my photographic skills have failed me again):
and this (we had Christmas like this, can you see the wreath on the door?):
We decided that it was time to call in the professionals, and I started testing paint colours (who knew there were some many 'neutral' paint colours?):
Finally, we settled on Dulux Elderflower Tea, which seems to manage to be neutral and a colour at the same time:
And then, one day we came home to this:
Phew, the Elderflower Tea calmed us down no end. We had all the picture lights removed and replaced them with cheap glass lights from B&Q. I did try lots of different, expensive wall lights from John Lewis, but they all looked cheap and nasty, whereas these cheap ones look rather elegant, I hope!
Now, I'm spending far too long on Ebay dreaming of one of these:
I'd really like to replace the cream carpet with a nice oak floor, just like the picture, but funds need to recover before that ever happens!
