My hallway reveal!

Quite possibly my favourite room in the house right now, okay the only one that’s actually finished, is my hallway. Hallways can so often be overlooked, and kind of just painted out in some neutral shade of white at the end of a renovation because you’ve simply run out of money and inspiration. For my own renovation, controversially I decided to decorate the hallway first. The very clever builder husband was quick to point out the folly of my ways, as the hallway should on a practical level be decorated last. This is because it gets wrecked while you are trying to finish the other rooms in the house. Which this hallway did indeed get scuffed and battered as iron beds were carried up the stairs, dinging the paintwork and builders continued to get dust everywhere. Well, it had its second coat and paint and is ready to be revealed to you in all its glory.

But before we do that, we all love a good before and after, so let me tell you the full story behind my hallway reveal

The house when we moved in was a horror of magnolia. There were design crimes at every turn. The beige carpet, the short curtains, the fake brick slip wall, the naff black beams… the list goes on

Everywhere you looked there was fake character and no real character. And for a busy family home set in the countryside, the carpet was a nightmare. I’m completely baffled why anyone would want carpet in a hallway wherever you are. It’s really impractical and just wrong!

The original bread oven, from the early 1900s, was the first victim of my redesign. Cute detail it might have been it was pointless, hidden behind an open door most of the time and we needed the location to house the new underfloor heating system. So it got sledgehammered.

Next the staircase was up for the chop. The previous owners had bought an off- the -peg staircase, but didn’t seem to matter to them that it didn’t actually fit the house! Shall we add that to the list of design crimes!

Because we found rising damp throughout the ground floor of the old part of our house we had to hack off all the plaster. This meant all the radiators had to come off too. However, this did give us the idea to put in retro fit overlay underfloor heating, which wasn’t in our original plan. To read more about our underfloor heating system, which I have to say a year on is the best thing ever, then read my post here.

Where do I begin! Well, I began with the wall colour. Zoffany sent me their latest paint chart and collection of colours and this Lazuli just leapt off the colour card. At the time I was designing my mum’s house but I banked it and just knew I had to use it somewhere in my house. It has ended up being the perfect choice for my hallway, as I wanted something dramatic, that said “HELLO AND WELCOME HOME”  as you walked through the door and I find this colour especially spiritually uplifting. Notice too how lighter the hallway feels since we painted out the black beams.

You can also see our new staircase in this shot which we had built, designed and fitted by a local staircase joiner. It cost us around £3000 but we feel it’s a real investment in the house and my husband loves it. He worked with the carpenter to design the oak handrail, the newel post and the extended sweeping first step. Nothing off the peg was going to be right and Tom really enjoyed this design process. Which was fine by me as it left me to choose the paint colours!

From this view, you get a real feel for the luxurious cement tiles. Again I agonised over these as investing in a patterned floor tile is a big commitment. However again I think a hallway is a great space to be a little experimental. This beautiful tile, called Old Havanna Bauta, fitted in so well with my scheme. I sourced them from Claybrook Studio and found their prices to be massively competitive so do check them out. Cement tiles are a labour of love to lay and need plenty of sealing while you are laying them, so they don’t go down fast. However, I think they are worth it and give an old house a feeling of provenance, which was important to me. You can read more about the pros’ and cons of cement tiles in my blog post here. I continued the classic blue and white story by painting the ceiling and staircase in Perfect White by Zoffany.

Create a pretty display

This cabinet is an absolute favourite, and I sourced it from Rockett St George. However, I don’t think they are doing it anymore. You could easily get this effect by painting an old piece of furniture in chalk paint and adding decoupage flowers to the fronts of the drawers. If you aren’t crafty then I’d recommend Muck N Brass to make one for you. The Artur large table lamp in turquoise, with Empire gathered shade, is from Pooky and the framed March to the Beat Picture is by one of my favourite artists, Alex May Hughes

Factor in plenty of fitted storage

So now to the pièce de résistance, my show storage! There comes a point in your life where nothing can make you happier than a bit of well planned storage, and I am at that stage! After three years of living in a house that’s upside down in renovation, it makes me so happy that I am no longer tripping over shoes and boots. We asked our joiner Huw to make some storage to fit under our stairs that would fit all our shoes, boots and coats. The hats and scarves and dog leads etc all live in the chest of drawers.

I worked with Huw to design this piece of carpentry. We worked out what would fit neatly under the stairs, also housing the underfloor heating system, and yet at the same time I chose not to block it all in, so the hallway still felt spacious. I painted all the joinery in the same colour as the walls so that it merges into the back ground and used the simple tongue and groove motif on the doors and drawer that I’ve also used on the kitchen cupboards, living room cupboards and internal doors. It helps to make a little visual link throughout the house which I enjoy. Its the white painted stairs and the pink runner which is the main focal point in this room. The cushions were very serendipitous. I owned a sofa once upon a time and had these covers made for it out of scarps of fabric remnants. Long after the sofa died, I kept the cushions, thinking they would be useful one day and here they are! This would be very easy to re create though by having foam cut to size and covers made by a seamstress.

The stair runner in this amazing Bright Rose pink is the absolute show stopper in the room and gives me squeals of delight. Getting a good strong colour in a floor covering isn’t easy but Roger Oates have the best selection of stripes and plains. As I’d gone for a patterned floor tile it wouldn’t have worked with a contrasting patterned runner, so the plain Hadley stair runner is just perfect. I particularly love the gentle weave detail. So it’s shoes off going upstairs in our house now! The blue continues up te stairs and wraps around the landing. I’m still finishing off hanging our epic family gallery wall up there, so as soon as that is finished I’ll get it photographed and share the full reveal with you here!

Lazuli Elite Emulsion and Eggshell paint, Zoffany

Perfect White Eggshell, Zoffany

Light Rose Eggshell on door,  Sanderson

Old Havanna Bauta floor tiles, Claybrook Studio

Hadley stair runner in Bright Rose, Roger Oates

Artur large table lamp in turquoise, with Empire gathered shade, Pooky

Framed March to the Beat Picture, Alex May Hughes

For similar chest of drawers try, Muck N Brass

Thank you to Alun Callender for the photography