Now that we’ve tackled most of the big spaces in our home, we’re moving on to the smaller spaces and finishing touches. So next up, our nautical colonial hallway design for the upstairs landing. The hallway in our home is a small, dark, square landing with many doors and very little light. It serves it’s purpose but just needs a little bit of work because we have constantly been creating problems in this space with our other projects.
Problems to Solve
With each space redesign, there are always problems for us to solve since no space in perfect. In our hallway, we are going to attempt to solve a number of design and storage problems.
- Gape in the hardwood floors: You can see where we removed and backed up a wall to create hallway in front of what is now our laundry room. (You can see a post about how we did it here). We never repaired the hardwoods since we knew we could tackle that further down the line. So now is the time.
- Wallpaper on stairway: We also have a wallpaper problem from our downstairs. Because we wallpapered our entryway, we have to incorporate the Laurel print in some way into this design. We don’t have any intention to wallpaper this space so mostly we need to create cohesion.
- Very dark space: Marcus is caping for a skylight or sun tunnel but I am not entirely convinced we need one. We’ll start with beautification and adding different light fixtures to replace our boob light and come back to this idea later.
- Many doors: Our landing is truly all doors. While that’s a great thing for the occupants in the rooms, it doesn’t bode well from a design perspective. Especially since for some reason, there are four different shades of white and some doors are different colors than the others. I want to unite the doors with color and give them a fun hotel like feel.
- Slippery Floors: We love the hardwood floors in our home but they are incredibly slippery for our aging dogs.
- Zero Style: Last but not least, there is zero style in this hallway. It is very much a landing pad for things that need to be transported downstairs and things that need to go into the laundry room.
Befores of the Hallway
Inspiration for our Nautical Colonial Hallway
Before we ever saw this house, we knew what this hallway would look like. Marcus has had the fourth picture saved in his phone since 2015 just waiting for us to own the perfect home to do this in. The time (and house) has presented itself at last. We want to add a touch of colonial charm back into this little hallway. By bringing in appropriate colors, seating and storage, we will be able to spruce up this area with very little change needed.
Plan of Attack
Here are the key things that need to happen in this space to make it both functional and stylish.
- Patch hardwood floor gaps
- Paint the walls one color
- Paint the trim a contrasting darker color
- Add a runner
- Add seating
- Change the light fixture for one with more bulbs
- Add wall and table lighting
- Add brass numbers to the doors
- Paint railing
- Cover the light switch with wallpaper
- Possibly Add a second light fixture to the hall
Mood Board for the Hallway
Brass Light Fixture // Wallpaper // Brass Numbers // Whale Runner // Paint // Doorknob // Bookshelf // Picture Light // Blue Lamp //
We own many items in this picture from time and our personal hoard so mostly it’s a matter of sprucing them up and adding them to this area. As long as we can find a vintage set of chairs that fit in this space and art that we love this should be a quick weekend project. Wish us luck,
XO Prepfordwife