Is a hallway considered a room? Because if it is, our hallway is my favourite room in the house. I would happily sleep there, eat there and work there. It is beautiful.
Let’s recap. This is what our hallway use to look like…
Charming, isn’t it? This is what it looks like now…
Soooo…. you wanna come live in my hallway?
I kinda feel like I don’t even need to write anything. The pictures speak for themselves. But since this is a blog, and not an Instagram account, I will write a few words about how this heavenly “room” came to be.
When searching for our dream fixer-upper, I had my heart set on a house that had a hallway with arches and high ceilings. When we first bought this house 5 years ago, the hallway wasn’t exactly how I pictured, but I knew it had potential to be a star!
The photo above shows what the hallway originally looked like when we bought the house. It was screaming for a makeover! First of all it had soaring 3.3 meter high ceilings, original timber floors, plus an archway. So most of the changes we had to make were going to be aesthetic.
Once we finally started to renovate, there was one major hiccup. When the builder looked under the house, he saw that the bearers and joists (the timber beams that hold up the floor) were rotten. Which meant the hallway floor was just one heavy-footed stomp away from collapsing.
As with most renovations, this was one of those unforseen costs. We didn’t really have a choice in the matter, the old floor had to be ripped up and replaced.
Once the old floorboards were ripped up, the builder lay down new bearers and joists – which you can see in the above photo.
But before that could be done, the old skirting boards had to be ripped off. We were planning to do this anyway as none of them matched and we wanted taller skirtings so they would frame the floor.
In the photo below, you can see where the skirting boards once were. You can also see the new timber floors being laid. The colour of the boards look a bit funny in this photo – they look very red as there is a bright workman’s spotlight shining on them. You’ll see the actual colour in the following photos.
I went with hardwood floors. This essentially means the boards are made from solid timber as appose to laminate or engineered timber. Be warned – they are also the most expensive. But since we were already spending so much on a large renovation, scrimping on fake floors was a big no no.
I chose blue gum as I loved the warm tones in it. The hallway is at the south end of the home so it is quite cold and dark, and obviously there are no windows to let light in to it. Therefore I went with a lighter colour, rather than a dark timber.
The above pic shows an original sandstone step from the home. We kept this in place as I love an old house to tell its story. This door frame was actually the original back door to the little home, and that stone was the back step.
We also decided to sandblast the paint off the original bricks, to show how the back door used to look. This is Matt’s favourite thing in the house. For months, he would arrive home from work every night with one question: “Have they sand-blasted the old bricks yet!?” Of course it was the last thing they did. But well worth the wait!
The photo above not only shows off the back step and doorway, but it also gives you a glimpse of the old brick wall to the right. The builder reeeeeally wanted us to gyprock this wall as he thought the bricks would look ugly.
That wall was built onto the house in the 1970s when an extension was added, so the bricks were 70s bricks. But boy did they came up a treat when we painted them! I love the texture of a brick wall in a home. It gives it a rustic, almost industrial feel to it. I’m so glad we didn’t gyprock over it.
We painted all the new skirting gloss white, which makes for a really clean finish and allows the colours in the floorboards to pop.
We painted the doors and the architraves in the same gloss white finish too.
These decorative plaster pieces that appear underneath archways are called corbels. These little cherubs had been fixed to the archway at a later date and were way too small for this arch. I therefore had to go on a major hunt to find the perfect sized corbel to replace them!
And I found these beauties!
For those interested in paint colours, the colour of our hallway is Dulux ‘Buff It’. It’s a really classic colour often used in this era of home.
Earlier in the year, I spotted these stunning lantern lights at a small local store near us. As soon as I saw them I KNEW they were just perfect!
And no hallway is complete without ceiling roses. These stunners are actually of the art deco period – but I think they look stellar and fit perfectly with our more traditional style hallway. I’m not against mixing up styles from time to time.
FYI – anything made of plaster is super cheap! These ceiling roses were less than $100 each, as were the corbels.
So there you have it! Our completed hallway. I’m planning a hallway slumber party soon, so just RSVP at the bottom of this post and I’ll save you a sleeping bag and pillow.
– Penny xo
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