Before and After: A “Cold-Looking” Hallway’s Colorful Glow-Up Only Cost $100
In terms of home projects priorities, hallways don’t often make the top of the list. After all, you usually pass through them to get to a room you’ll spend a lot more time in. But that doesn’t mean they should be completely ignored. Adding a pop of color to a hallway can give a home the energy boost it was missing. Take it from these stylish hallway redos that make the most of pass-through spaces.
This boring hallway needed a dose of color.
This hallway, in Tracey Varndell (@fray_at_home)’s house, “was very cold-looking,” “wasn’t inviting at all,” and “was a cold taupe color,” she says. (For anyone not counting, that’s three strikes.)
In a nutshell, “I decided to change the hallway because it was uninviting and boring,” Tracey says. “I wanted to bring warmth into the hallway and did this by using paint and texture and with accessories.
A terracotta paint effect adds color and old-world texture.
Tracey knew she wanted to incorporate a terracotta pinkish orange color into the space, but she also liked the earthy, clay-like texture of terracotta and wanted to mimic the look on her walls. Enter: a painting technique in which she applied a base coat with a roller brush and then a second coat using a criss-cross brush stroke technique to create a mottled, hand hewn effect.
She used Rustoleum’s Terracotta Chalk Wash paint for this and says the DIY process was easier than expected. Before painting, Tracey fixed all the holes in the walls and old damage.
And the after? “It’s an amazing pop of color which really brightens up the dark end of the corridor,” she says. “My cabinet is also a winner. It’s got wonderful texture and brings everything together.” (Her cabinet, shopped from another room in her home, is from Homesense in the UK.)
The black and white artwork is a DIY, too.
Tracey says on Instagram that all the little hallway needed was a bit of TLC in the form of paint, a plug-in pendant, an oversized vase, and artwork. The artwork is a DIY; she painted it on canvas using leftover black paint. All together, her hallway revamp cost £80, or about $100.
“Paint your own artwork!” Tracey advises. In fact, she advises giving painting a go in general. “Try using different paint effects, and step outside your comfort zone,” she says. “You get an amazing sense of achievement when you do, and it saves you a fortune.”
Inspired? Submit your own project here.