Hallway Makeover: Colour After Magnolia

Hallway Makesover with B&Q and Valspar at Housewife Confidential

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Do you remember back in the summer I shared our plans for decorating? Well the decorating has been completed and gradually we are getting the house back in order. Today I’m showing the smallest room which has possibly the biggest impact: our entry hallway.

As our home is an Edwardian workers’ terrace our hall is very narrow and only as wide as the front door. It doesn’t take much for this high traffic area to feel crowded. I would love to have somewhere to store our shoes but the position of the radiator and electricity meter make it impossible.

When it came to banishing the beige in our hall I knew I needed to keep in mind that it was North facing. With this in mind, one side of the hallway has white walls to bounce light. The main wall which runs all the way up to the top of the house is where we concentrated the colour. I chose a shade of blue a touch darker than that on our front door and had it custom mixed at the Valspar desk in B&Q.

An aside on colour mixing: my decorator, Jake (who is incredible, if you’re near Winchester get in touch for his number) was really sceptical about colour mixing, insisting it would only be approximate matching. We took our samples and before we went for the full pots the woman who mixed our paint let us test and dry them all to check they matched. I’m pleased to report that they all made a perfect match and he had to eat his words!

Hallway Makesover with B&Q and Valspar at Housewife Confidential

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As Jake was painting the first coat I got the wobbles. I suddenly felt that it was too dark and looked way too strong. It took a few days of living with it to get over the magnolia and settle into the colour. And what a beautiful colour! We have loved this on our front door and extending it into the house feels great.  Don’t you think it looks fantastic?

I wasn’t going to do the woodwork but Jake convinced me that if we left it the whole space would feel shabby. He was totally right, the fresh white paint makes such a difference. You really don’t notice how yellowed (and chipped) paint gets over time.

Hallway Makesover with B&Q and Valspar at Housewife ConfidentialHallway Makesover with B&Q and Valspar at Housewife Confidential

Thankfully there wasn’t too much purchasing to be done as it’s such a small space. The box shelf and mirror are Habitat pieces that we’ve had since our first home (we’ve had a lot of small hallways!).

This lampshade was my one buy for the space. We used to have a paper globe here which was very bashed about thanks to it hanging at head height at the bottom of the stairs. I spotted this simple lace shade on the Rice stand at a trade show and headed to Sisters Guild to make it mine. It works so well in this spot. The plate & cord need to be replaced and I’m thinking of buying some yellow flex to tie in with the front door – what do you think?

You can wash Valspar Premium Wall & Ceilings Paint Easily - great for those muddy finger prints!

Of course when living with children it is impossible for such a busy space to escape grubby hands and this weekend a trip to the river resulted in a set of muddy handprints. Knowing that this was inevitable we used Valspar Premium Walls & Ceilings which cleans very well and is staying strong following my scrubbing. It’s nice to have been able to make this investment in decorating without having to worry about it looking trashed after a few months.

Of course now the walls and woodwork are freshly painted the scuffed orange floorboards are crying out for some action. I’m yearning for white, what do you think?

Hallway Makesover with B&Q and Valspar at Housewife Confidential

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The migration from magnolia has been a happy one. The bland familiarity of lightly yellowed walls can be hard to let go of but life beyond beige is so much more cheerful!

This project is a supported by B&Q and Valspar who provided the materials we used for the makeover. Labour and additional materials model’s own.

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7 Comments

  • Reply Elinor Hill September 29, 2015 at 6:30 pm

    I do love a pop of yellow. Loving the hallways, so fresh and vibrant! Elinor x

  • Reply Sarah September 29, 2015 at 6:45 pm

    This looks great, love the colour! Have you thought about something like this for your shoes? They don’t have to be stacked and you could probably fit them above and around your cupboard
    http://m.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/art/10031987/

  • Reply Jen September 29, 2015 at 8:44 pm

    Yellow door, be still my heart. I am working on the fella, so we can paint the inside of ours yellow. He said no to outside!
    Jen recently posted…Nasi Goreng – Indonesian Fried RiceMy Profile

  • Reply Kelly September 30, 2015 at 6:10 am

    That inside yellow door is the thing of my dreams. Hallway looks fab, can’t wait to see it in real life. Was the white just white white or a particular white? (I ask because I want to paint our hallway white. Although I love the idea of one wall of colour.

  • Reply Lianne September 30, 2015 at 5:43 pm

    it looks wonderful and so happy! Perfect choice of colours I would say. Bet you love going outside and coming back in a few times a day just for the sheer pleasure of it! And personally I think magnolia should be forever banned from any colour card…our whole house downstairs was magnolia when we bought it…not good!

  • Reply Laura January 22, 2018 at 7:29 pm

    Hi there,

    I love the yellow on your front door. Can you let me know what paint you used? I want to replicate in our small Victorian Hall!

    Many thanks, Laura

    • Reply Kat January 23, 2018 at 10:17 pm

      It’s Valspar mixed to match my phone case on the mixing desk in B&Q. Find something that’s your perfect shade of yellow and they’ll scan it and turn it into paint!

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