Our Hallway Glow Up
If you’ve been following my stories on Instagram, you probably would’ve seen bits and pieces of our hallway glow up.
Hallways, corridors, and passageways are often afterthoughts in the design process unless they affect function or are eyesores.
Our hallway wasn’t so much an eyesore as it was dark, meh, and impractical. The sliding doors to the water heater closet were far too big for the closet opening, making accessing the closet a pain in the neck. Plus, the walls were painted an off-beige-green—something felt missing.
That something was colour, texture and art. It needed a bit of pizzazz.
As fairly newbie DIYers, we didn’t want to go all out with the makeover, so we opted for simplicity and affordability.
We started with the water heater closet, removing the doors and the oddly placed internal (wobbly) shelves. We needed the extra space to store our tall and larger home appliances, such as our standing steamer and ironing board.
Instead of replacing the sliding doors with new ones, we chose to go with tab linen curtains for a more European vibe (also allowed us to access our appliances and the water heater without having to contend with small door openings).
The hallway was too narrow to install a standard hinged door, and bi-folding doors exceeded our budget. So, curtains were the next best thing. I found a gorgeous pair of linen tab-tie curtains from a store on Etsy with a subtle salmon-stripe pattern (a steal for under NZ$100). We installed a wooden pole at the top of the door opening, on which we attached the curtains. Voila, instant charm.
For the walls, we installed simple board-and-batten (thin and narrow strips of plywood from our Mitre 10 Warkworth). We attempted, with great difficulty and math, to even the space between each vertical panel despite the uneven floors.
To finish, we colour-drenched the walls and ceiling in Himalayan Salt by Porter’s Paint. It’s a subtle shade of pale pink clay that looks more pink in shadows and off-white in direct sunlight.
The fun part was styling the walls with art. I love the large-framed painting by Mongonui Artist Rachel Barber and the vintage conical rice hats I found at our local thrift store. It’s the beginning of another gallery wall!
See more of our house reno HERE.
