Before and after transformations are always impressive and seriously motivating. We love finding amazing transformations, especially when we find them on our favorite blogs. Anna from Door Sixteen has been transforming her Newburgh, New York home since it was purchased in 2006 and one of her most recent transformations has been the upstairs hallway.
The initial hallway transformation started a while back with painting the stairs leading up to the second floor. The stairs were originally covered in layers upon layers of paint (the most recent layer — dark brown!) and really anchored the space and made it seem much smaller. With a coat of white and black paint the stairs were instantly transformed and make the space much more inviting.
Recently, Anna tackled the upstairs hallway. There's nothing wrong with a white hallway, but she wanted something more and knew that the addition of a chair rail, wallpaper and art would do the trick — and boy was she right! To start off Anna sanded off any lumps and bumps to make sure the wallpaper went on smoothly. She knew she wanted to use Julia Rothman’s Pieces wallpaper from Hygge & West and knew it would look best on the bottom half of the wall. She booked it in sections to ensure the glue didn't dry prematurely on pieces not yet on the wall. Anna used an off-the-shelf pine molding for the chair rail and attached it using construction adhesive, a few nails and caulked the top edge.
See more of the process at Door Sixteen!
Images: Anna of Door Sixteen
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amazing.
Love.
Wow! The paint job on the steps looks amazing!! It's like a new hallway. Shows how a little paint can make a huge difference.
hope you'll be showcasing some work from the other Homie nominations to keep things even-steven?
sweet!
The lighter "square" of wood on the banister is so cool! How can one achieve this effect?
Looks beautiful! I love what you did with the banister, and the wall under the chairrail :)
Thanks, Kristen!
Just a quick note that may be of interest to others: I actually did this with just a single piece of wallpaper, hung sideways. I had to get creative with the booking process, but it virtually eliminated any wasted paper (and meant that I don't have any seams).
@GreenLadyPants: That square on the newel post is actually a majolica tile (pressed and molded clay dust), and it's original to the house. There's a different one on each of three sides of the post--they were just hiding under layers and layers of paint! There's a pair of similar tiles here if you're interested...
Fantastic. Every aspect of detail, Great!
Cool!
Great job with the staircase. Love the wallpaper too!
<http://chiclittleme.blogspot.com>
great! looks similar to my house - and i used the same contrasting paint combo on the stairs
take it from somebody who knows: be careful on those stairs when you're wearing socks
I personally can't comprehend painting beautiful detailed old woodwork. To each their own.
ALL transformations from Door Sixteen are impressive.
Fantastic wallpaper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for the nice comments, everyone!
@sunan: I grew up in an old house, and believe me, I had my fair share of sock-footed stumbles down them! We've managed to go five years in this house without falling, though, probably because the wood under the paint is very rough and splintered.
@talktoearthworms: That's not wood you're seeing in the "before" photo, it's a million coats of paint! We actually completely stripped the paint off of the newel post and banister, not the other way around. That's the stripped wood in the "after" photo.
We did consider stripping the stairs as well, but the wood was too heavily damaged (very deeply splintered and gouged) to consider it. We opted to repair the wood as best as we could and then paint it.
I am lusting after your stairs. I want mine to look exactly like that. Maybe I have the stamina to do that... I'm feeling inspired.
This is fantastic!
needs more cowbell
I like the pattern in the floor in the hallway. I've never seen parquetry (?) done like that.
Did you use black floor paint on the stairs? I tried to get black and my paint guy said it didn't exist as floor paint.
@marid22: I used Benjamin Moore Metal & Wood enamel on the stairs. The color is Toucan Black.
When I painted the floor white in another room in my house, though, I used BM Floor & Patio paint, and our paint guy didn't give us any color limitations. I'm not sure why they wouldn't be able to do black, unless the F&P paint doesn't come in a deep base.
So much better and looks brighter, fresher and bigger - what a lot of work...
wow ! looks great !
Loving that wallpaper!