Front hall makeover

My other little spring makeover was in the front hall. I'd already done a lot of work on this tiny space last year. First of all there was an odd curved panel at the top that didn't serve any purpose. Bradley removed that and I repaired the holes that were left in the walls.

This is the "before":

We replaced the light fixture with a little acorn light. This one had a long stem but Bradley managed to cut it shorter so that it wouldn't hang too low and the door could open.

And finally the walls and ceiling had bumpy stucco that I skim coated. In case you're wondering, that little step took forever and I wouldn't recommend it unless you really can't live with the texture. It's doable in a tiny space like this but I think you'd really want to hire a professional for a larger wall.

My only real tip is that I found it was easier to gradually build up coats and then fine tune at the end with very thin coats rather than relying too much on sanding. Sanding that stuff makes a big mess! In the end I think it was worth it. I painted the walls to match the living room pale blue grey colour, Benjamin Moore's Green Tint.

So this Spring there wasn't much left to do, but the space still needed a bit of decorating. I added some hooks on the wall that replaced the clothes rail that used to be there. Most of our coats stay in the basement closet, so we don't need to keep everything in the front hall.

Then I found an old shelf in our garage that was left behind by the previous owners. It was a dull brown, with a damaged area on the lower shelf. So I filled that, sanded, primed and painted it Cloud White.

Originally I was going to put the shelf in the living room, but then realized it fit the front hall perfectly. Yay! It's perfect for baskets of hats and mittens, stacks of library books and any things that should be heading out of the house. For a finishing touch, I sewed some basket liners with blue and white seersucker using a great basket liner tutorial I found here).

p.s. This coming Sunday you can find me here!