One of the first things (okay, after the dining room wallpaper removal) that I wanted to do in the house, was repaint the entry way, stairs and upstairs hallway. The above photo is the way the upstairs hallway looks now.
This is the way it looked when we first moved in:
I chose to paint the wall with the windows a funky 70’s pea green and repaint the rest of the walls upstairs an off-white — they were looking fairly dingy. Now, there’s still work to be done, of course. I hate the plain white, metal curtain rods. I bought new ones a while ago that jwa has yet to put up. Pretty soon, I will have to drag out the drill and do it myself. Maybe if he’s reading this today, he will be reminded to put the new ones up. A girl can dream, can’t she?
Hmm…it’s somewhat sad that I dream of curtain rods, huh? Yeah, I agree.
Still on the topic of the upstairs hallway, another project for this area that I am currently working on (but is not shown in this photo) is a large mosaic on the top of the counter. It’s about 3/4 of the way done and now it’s just a case of being un-lazy and un-procrastinate-y and finishing it. Pictures of that will be posted soon.
Moving on, here’s a shot of the old stairway color scheme, looking up:
I guess there is no accounting for taste, but I really don’t get the old taupe and dusty pink combo throughout this area of the house. Talk about no contrast — one light, dull tone right next to another light, dull tone.
In contrast, here is the way it looks today:
The banister and woodwork around the stairs is a dark, dark purple color that I love called, “Merry Cricket”. I love this name — it reminds me of Chester and The Cricket in Times Square.
The stairs themselves are lavender color and the walls are now a pale yellow. I am very pleased with the way it turned out. It almost looks kind of Parisian to me. No doubt the people who live in the house after us one day will hate it but, hey, I guess that’s part of the fun in buying a house!
Although I don’t have an old picture of the door and actual entryway, it used to be the same taupe (door, moulding, woodwork)/ pepto dismal pink (walls) combo of the rest of the area. Here it is as it looks today:
Yeah, we still need to replace the stair carpeting (yeah, that has definitely seen better days) but this part of the house is getting there!
Tomorrow I will probably post about food again…oh! Here’s something quick to include a food-item in today’s post. Last night jwa and I watched Emeril’s Salute to Artisan Cheeses and uh, yeah, that looked gouda. Hee!
In as thuper-thownding jubilent voice as possible…”i absolutely LOVE the pea green and purple cricket colors together! WOW, i now have my new office/guest room colours, IF i can get christy to concur. i love your moldings and woodwork. the contrasts of dark and light, and the choices you have made should make the next future owners VERY envious and spendthrift! thanks for inspiring me today.
p.s what paint company did you use? Ben Moore? Behr?
Glad to inspire! I love painting — or rather I love the fact that it’s pretty much instant gratification, in the way that say, re-doing a floor really isn’t. (Two-week gratification?)
Anyway, all of the paint for the stairs/hallway project was purchased from Do It Best, for us, locally, it was the one on SE Division St. at 37th. All the colors were (I’m pretty positive) their brand of paint. Although, I think they carry Ben Moore and another couple of namebrands there too. But regardless, I got everything there, so whichever state you’re in, if they have that chain of hardware stores, they should have it!
Not that it matters much, but I think I got all the paint in the “eggshell” finish (not quite flat, but not quite glossy either)…