Uncovering our brand new kitchen recently was my favourite post to date. Talking about our hallway now almost feels like the day after Christmas. It all feels so flat and vanilla in this space. And for the life of me, I can’t figure out why? Is it the paint choice, or the lack of finishing touches? Or perhaps after showing off our shiny kitchen with all the bells and whistles, it’s hard to put a cherry on top of this Sunday?
On a positive note, compared to what we had this space has morphed into something bigger and more beautiful which now includes our laundry room and our linen closet. My apologies for rolling out this photo numerous times on other blog posts. It’s always a case of I wished I had taken more photos before Paul brings out the tool belt! As you can see the area was dingy and depressing. Our main hurdles were a lack of light and no personality for this thoroughfare.
Paul started with re-lining the walls and putting in a new laundry door to separate the area. We put up a fun decal on the door and found a retro-styled door handle – both from Etsy. The door was painted Stoninington Gray by Benjamin Moore. You might remember we used this colour in the bathroom as well. What I will say from a design perspective is when you paint a door a different colour from your other doors, or you put busy pattern tiles on the floor, these choices can dictate your future decorating options. If we are fortunate enough to go into another house renovation, I would keep all my hard finishings timeless/classic and bring in texture and colour with my soft furnishings, ie: wallpaper, curtains, cushions etc. That way if the trend changes or I get bored with the look it’s much easier and cheaper to change out.
The lovely French oak floorboards from Forte flooring was installed by Mr Wonderful. Can you believe that Forte has discontinued this line? For some reason, after the floorboards went down Paul was on a mission to get this room finished. So the pressure was on to choose a paint colour or wallpaper pronto! I think this is where the room and I became unhinged. We both wanted this area to feel light, airy and interesting. Initially, I thought a patterned vintage wallpaper would complement our sliding door. The only problem when you open the laundry door there was too much of a clash with the Morrocan tile floor.
I know there are many designers out there that can combine different patterns and colour – effortlessly. I am just not one of them. Nor do I think that is my type of aesthetic. I would say my design look has a non-cluttered casual elegance to it. Well, that’s what I am trying to achieve anyway…. 🙂
After numerous trips to the Resene and Guthrie Bowron, I gave up and decided to hit the walls with paint. My next dilemma was trying to find a colour that would appeal to both of our senses. I wanted to paint this room a light sage colour, but Paul said it reminded him of a Grandma’s cottage. Due to the door being grey with a blue undertone, it limited us to what we could put on the walls. We tried various shades of white, green, taupes, but ended up with a warm grey, Sea Fog by Resene. I love this neutral colour as it has just enough punch to highlight all the trim work, but it’s soft enough to blend in with other rooms attached to it. I guess for me, it felt like a bit of a compromise as I didn’t want to paint another room grey.
For now, this colour will do, but it’s something I might try to address further down the line. As Paul always says it’s only paint and can be changed, but I can sense that he doesn’t want to put his overalls on or pull out the rollers again. Anyway, I am hoping with a few accessories it might joosh this area up.
Speaking of which we got a new light from Shady Lady. It’s actually made from concrete. My other ideas to spruce up the walls include…
Putting up a textured mirror on the wall to enlarge this space. I just haven’t found a size that would work for the small wall yet.
I also found a cute shelf that would fit on the other side of the door from my favourite Designer Joanna Gaines.
Or a soft print with just enough colour and texture to make the grey walls come alive.
While I am deliberating on all the finishing touches, Paul was hard at work installing our linen cupboard. It’s a fancy cupboard with a louvre door, a faux crystal knob and inside surround lighting.
The crystal knob will have to be swapped out for a bigger one – it’s mighty small!
Our new sizzle rug from India. Another Etsy purchase.
Well, I can’t say this is a completed room reveal, although we are mighty close. If you have any input on how to take this space from vanilla to chocolate (my favourite flavour) please let me know. As always thanks for reading and I’ll be back next month with some further updates.
