I think of Versailles every time I think about my upstairs hallway which is the location of my latest One Room Challenge, which is my 11th time to participate!
Versailles is very grand and one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited. My upstairs hallway is none of those things :) But I am going to use a collection of mirrors that I have on hand in this hallway and that is where the comparison starts... and ends - Versailles has a very beautiful, famous Hall of Mirrors. My hallway will be much less opulent!
So this is about as much of a before shot as I have. The hallway was dreary and dated with very old, poor quality beige carpet. I had done a few superficial face lifts over the years but nothing all that great, honestly. You can see the dingy carpet above left. We are ripping it up and replacing it with the DIY plywood flooring hack that has been around forever. The hallway is our first space to get new flooring upstairs. I just want glossy white painted floors so this was the most reasonably priced way to go. (FYI during this process - in less than a week- this type of plywood went up almost $20.00 a sheet!)
Oh boy. This is quite the uninspiring space to share on social media!
You can see the handrail (and dirty handprints) in the picture below. We come up the stairs from the lower level there and to the right is the laundry closet (more on that later.) To the left is a small landing area and doorways to two bedrooms. The doorway across from the top of the stairs leads into the hall bathroom. The black door at the end of the hall is a linen closet. At one point many years ago this space was faux painted and the attic trap door was painted to look like a skylight. Everything is getting a coat of glossy white paint.
In the picture below you are looking back toward the landing at the top of the stairs. The laundry closet is to the left. It is handy to have it upstairs but because the hallway is narrow it had to have bifold doors. They were the jankiest things in the world. I pulled them out and quickly hung a curtain in the opening moments before company arrived (obviously that was a few years ago!) Not great but anything was better than those bifold doors.
As long as I live here those janky bifold doors will be stored in a dark corner of the basement. I plan to hang another curtain treatment at the opening. I'm going to go higher and wider than the opening and it will camouflage the opening and the mechanics of the opening much better. It will also add a textural and warm touch to the bright white space and the "hardness" of the flooring and mirrors.
As for the mirrors I have a stack of thrifted bamboo and faux bamboo mirrors of all shapes and sizes. I'm going to use them in natural bamboo, gold tone and painted finishes. This hallway is dotted with annoying things like thermostats, switches for fans and lights and more. Hanging anything in a symmetrical or balanced way would be impossible so the mirrors will be a great solution. I love mirrors - I hung all 4 walls of the first bathroom I ever decorated on my own with a collection of thrifted mirrors. That was almost 40 years ago. Here I am doing the same thing again.
I literally have no idea how I will photograph this space with all those mirrors. It may look more like the mirror room at the circus funhouse than Versailles. We'll see!
I thank Linda for all of the motivation to improve our spaces each challenge.
You can check out my previous One Room Challenge posts here:
Fall 2020 - My Family Room Fluff which was a very simple, budget-friendly, shop the house "fluff" of this space.
Fall 2019 - I attempted to complete my kitchen. I had started it in the Spring 2019 ORC but life had other plans than a kitchen ORC!
Fall 2018 - I worked on our Screened In Porch. This was the second time I ORC'd this space. It was my first ORC I ever attempted and I never felt like I had really pulled it off so I just gave it another go!
Fall 2016 - Yes, There is a China Cabinet in our Bathroom!
The title is in reference to a lot of design hype at the time that 'black was back'
but it never left at my house!
Mollie was transitioning home post-grad and beginning a new job in the area. Her bathroom needed an update so we took it on together.
Spring 2015 - My first ORC and the first attempt at the Guest room. Looking back over 10 ORC's is amazing. It's a great opportunity to refresh, re-design, etc. any space in your home. It can be a gut job or a very budget minded project. I encourage everyone to give it a whirl. I have learned so much since this first, very basic attempt!
Be sure to follow along with all of the other ORC'ers here.
Also, the rest of my ORC posts will be shorter than this! Promise!!
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