The Hallway Renovation- Part 2

My favourite part of any renovation project has to be the finishing touches; although it always seems to take such a long time to get there!

So after the walls were stripped of the wood chip paper, the walls were filled, smoothed and had 2 coats of white undercoat we finally got round to painting the walls in the top coat:

We then ripped up the patch of carpet in the hallway (which our lovely cats had also been using as a urinal) and replaced it with a very cheap pack of wooden flooring from B&Q- next year we will replace all the downstairs flooring so it's more of a temporary measure:

Next we wallpapered the wall behind the radiator- this wall used to be a doorway but was boarded over as a (very small and strange) door way was opened in the dining area instead. The wallpaper was a better option to try and smooth the wall out a bit. 

A bit more stripey than I imagined- but its better than before! The radiator cover serves 2 purposes- covers the horrible small yellow radiator, covers the premature wallpaper trimming i did around said radiator- oops! We also replaced the old light switch with the chrome toggle one, got some owl tea light holders in the M&S boxing day sale and of course a plant from Ikea - I love plants because they purify our air!

Then we ripped up the old carpet - re-painted the skirting boards and had a new carpet installed by the same people who did our bedroom. We got a good discount- about 35% through a) bargaining b) agreeing to dispose of the old carpet our selves and keeping the old gripper rods we already had

Then time to put the old dresser which was in the house when we moved in back into position at the top of the stairs- we also installed a new dark wood venetian blind

Another Ikea plant purifying our air!

In the frame is a silk picture of an Elephant which we bought in Jaipur, India. We also have a bigger one we need to find a spot for!

Last finishing touches- a new curtain pole across the front door which was much harder to put up than we Max imagined, as there is a concrete lintel above the door:

 

We added a large mirror onto the wall at the bottom of the stairs- i bought it a few years ago when it was half price and a bargain! Then a photo gallery of a mixture of white frames up the wall- there are a few more i want to add soon

W

 We replaced the old light fixtures with two new ones which we bought for half price in the boxing day sales; we fitted them ourselves (i held the torch) and it took about 2 hours thanks to a wave of problems to do with wiring (you should probably get a professional to do it to be honest if you're not sure). Max grandad used to work in electrics so we were ok - after switching off the mains!

Oh and at some point we painted the door frame to the kitchen white- it was originally dark wood stain and it took over 10 coats of eggshell white and a new door handle

 

Eventually we would like to replace the bedroom and bathroom doors upstairs as they are the original doors to the house and are a bit "hollow" and cheap. The door to the airing cupboard though is quite cute and has got the original little handle which is the same one as the hatch in our bedroom so that will be staying

The 8 is from Posh Graffiti- we like the number 8!

 So that's it- this year we need to paint the banister and replace the doors but aside from that we are quite happy with the whole job!