The Family Album Down The Hall

I think that Melinda is finally ready to declare our hallway renovation complete! Five weeks ago it was quite the deary cave, but has been transformed by my better half's artistic vision. We've posted about the project here and also here, and are currently on step 16 of her defined 17 steps - only stepping out for a beer remains!


Just as a reminder, here was the starting point - a hallway with bad lighting, popcorn ceiling, partially falling off where a few drops from the swamp cooler on the roof leaked through, and your basic off-white color scheme. The second pic shows the lighting fixtures and with the popcorn ceiling removed (squirt bottle with water and wide putty knife).















And now for the unveiling! She chose white for ceiling (flat) and trim (semigloss) and "Pale Butter" (flat enamel) for the color scheme (an all-Valspar project). Of course, as the 16-step plan called out, there was LOTS of prep work, but the result is quite spectacular.


I think after the color change, the lighting change was most spectacular. After asking me what I was thinking for lighting (we agreed!) we went with wall-mounted track lighting, some directed upwards for indirect lighting off the white ceiling, and some directed downwards towards anticipated photos and artwork. It was really straightforward to replace the 2 fixtures with 2 track sets. We tried replacing the original 50 watt lights (200 per track!) with compact fluorescents, but didn't really care for the color cast, so went back to 35 watt halogens. Still more power used than the original dingy lights, but we love the results.













For artwork and photos, Melinda perused the local resale shops for interesting frames, all of which she painted flat black. Some were really interesting, some with open screening and some she used glass panes as the matting to allow the butter color of the wall to show through. The pictures she chose were of both of our families, as well as first wife Vicki and her family. There is also a pair of pics of us from back in the 70's of me in my studly days in short-shorts, and her on vacation in her sexy bikini. Woo, woo! Down at the end of the hall are some wedding mementos, including good wishes written in the matting by wedding attendees, and a decorated version of our invitation by former co-worker Wendy.

In all, I think the overall effect is just stunning, and it almost makes me impatient to get to the rest of the house!