Upstairs Hallway (mini) Makeover - Part 1 of 3

I have a problem with staying focused on just one thing… in pretty much every area of my life, but especially with home projects! That’s why (in the midst of my One Room Challenge) I’ve already started planning little makeovers for our guest room, guest bathroom, playroom, dining room, and upstairs hallway. They’re all just in the design board/ ‘dream of ideas’ phases though, except for the hallway. I already had a gallon of “Agreeable Gray” by Sherwin Williams, so I decided to paint a swatch on one of the walls to see what it would look like… of course the “swatch” turned into painting almost an entire section (whoops)!

Here is a “BEFORE” shot, taken from inside our master bedroom. You can see the large “swatch” of Agreeable Gray on the wall to the left!

Another “BEFORE” shot, this time with Nathan’s door closed. The open door to the left is the guest bathroom. The closed door on that same wall is a linen closet, then straight ahead is Nathan’s room, then one guestroom, in that little cutout is another guestroom, and the closed door to the right is another closet with access to the attic.

Nathan’s room and the two guestrooms. You can kind of tell that the hallway was sprayed with white paint pretty quickly when we first moved in. For some reason, the upstairs hallway walls are the only walls in the house that are super textured. The stairs and hallway are also the only areas (except the playroom) that have wall to wall carpeting.

This photo was taken standing at the other end (near Nathan’s room) to show the tiny little light fixture.

The hallway has always just felt very “blah”. The white paint on these textured walls really wasn’t doing anything for me. It felt very unfinished. Here is my idea for the space:

1.) Use the paint we already have (Agreeable Gray) for the walls, and also give the baseboards and trim a fresh coat of shiny white paint!
2.) I’m not 100% sure what wall decor I’ll end up with - but I thought it might be a good place for my thrifted wicker wall planter!
3.) I’d also love to find a vintage oil painting or a print of an oil painting. Nothing too loud, something with earthy colors. There is only one decent sized wall up here and I definitely don’t want it to feel crowded.
4.) I really want to replace the small light fixture with this one from IKEA. It’s only $19.99 and would really give the area an updated, more modern feel.
5.) This rug is one I found on Google, and most definitely not one that I could afford! I’m hoping to be able to either find a new runner with a vintage look or one that has the neutral, relaxed vibe I’m going for. The wall to wall carpeting that came with the house is in really good condition, so it would be a huge waste to rip it up or try to have it replaced anytime soon. I really am not a fan of the brown color though- so anything to help brighten it up would be ideal!
6.) I still have some paint left in the Cyberspace color that I used on all of our first floor interior doors, as well as our nightstands. Every time I painted one of our doors downstairs, I always regretted not doing it sooner! I’m hoping that I’ll feel the same way about the upstairs doors!

So those are my plans right now and I think it’s a pretty good starting point! There are a lot of doors up there, so there isn’t much wall space. Hoping I’ll be able to get the painting finished pretty quickly because of that.

I think these changes will help the hallway feel cohesive with the rest of our house! Plus with our master bedroom being updated- I can’t have the hallway leading up to it looking ugly!

I definitely won’t be finished with this space before my One Room Challenge reveal because I won’t have time to get to IKEA this weekend for the light. But I should be able to put up a pretty decent progress post by next week- so be sure to check back! And don’t forget that my Master Bedroom One Room Challenge REVEAL will be posted next Wednesday!!