The Little Hallway that Could

Ok - no judging allowed, but just wanted to share some updates on our hallway.  I swear I've been doing work on it, and not just having fun - this means coming home at 10pm, and working until bedtime.  It's getting old my friends... real old.

That said, I've made some serious progress!  You all remember these sad "before" pictures right...

Brown on brown on brown... GROSS.  I mean, it was just depressing!

There is still work to be done, but here is some preliminary "afters":

Actually, let's call this a "during" since we are still working on it...

The updates??  Most obviously removing all that was hideous and brown - repainting the console, and bringing in my new rug.  Love looveeee that rug.

It's a little hard to see clearly in some of these (sorry, iPhone pics in early morning light before work = grainy snapshots), but after painting the console, I roughed up the edges with some trusty sandpaper.  Focusing on the areas that would get the most natural wear, it made some of the details pop back out, and gave it a nice antique feeling.  You'll also notice that I decided to paint the top (instead of keeping the super shiny faux inlay), but before painting, I took a hammer to it, and really banged it up (aka took some aggression out on it).  Aside from being extremely fun and therapeutic, I think I succeeded in making it look genuinely old antique.  Kris said so himself, so it must be true :-)

I'm still going back and forth on spray painting the hardware a brushed bronze... the silver looks much better than I thought it would, so I think I'm going to hold off making any decisions on that for a few weeks - see if I change my mind.  Besides, my can of Rustoleum isn't going anywhere...

In addition to my freshly painted console (the least labor intensive part of this whole deal), the door, the built in linen closet, and the crown molding got a little makeover with some "Decorators White" from Benjamin Moore.  Trust me when I say, adding white paint to the dingy hallway, and defining the trim have made the largest impact of anything I could possibly do in here.  It creates some much needed architectural interest, and a point of reference for the ceiling - it feels taller!

The linen closet still has zero character, so painting it fresh white is probably the best I can do with it.  Some battles I'm willing to let go of... we are renters after all.

Let's do a side by side comparison for fun... shall we?

The light in this "before" photo isn't great, but you can see what I'm getting at - you couldn't even see the trim before! It totally blended in with the walls.  Woof.  Now the clean white is bright, and it just makes me happy...

The window is waiting on a new fancy treatment... another DIY on it's way with my new pretty fabric  (hopefully not an epic failure)!

Also, you can see that I'm now trying to decide where to hang things on the wall (thus, the lonely square of painters tape).  Last night when I was measuring out the tape, I felt that the 20"x16" filled out the space, and anything more would be too much, but now, looking at this from a distance in this photo, I'm wondering if it would benefit from a few more smaller frames on the side.

Also, I think this sunburst mirror is too small for the wall, and we need something larger to fill the space - especially next to the built in that goes up to the ceiling.  There is just a lot of wall, with a cluster of "stuff" down near the table, and in the small space, I want to draw the eye up as much as possible.

*Side note: this photo is really washed out from the direct light... 

the walls and linen closet are distinctly different colors

Right??  Lots of wall... that mirror will find a home elsewhere - not to worry :-)  Also... just realized that the rug needs to come closer to the entryway... easy changes...