It's a Christmas Miracle!

The entry way and hall are complete!

In the past year we’ve replaced all of the light fixtures, taken down the chair rail, added crown molding, added wainscoting, and painted, painted, painted to take the spaces from here:

To here:

Ahhhh. Much, much better.

Here are some close ups of the molding:

I love how it looks with the paneled doors.

I finally got a piece of glass cut for the top of the skirted table in the entryway.

I am in serious love with the entry way. Serious.

We even took the time to replace the old switches and outlets.

Odie The Cat can give you the gist of our home’s layout from this picture:

The partially opened door goes to the basement, and the opening that you can just barely see on the left (directly across from the table) in this picture is to our formal living room (that remains untouched), which opens to the dining room. Here’s a surprisingly blurry picture of the spaces.

Back to the entry, up ahead, you can see our family room which opens up to the kitchen:

In the kitchen, there’s a doorway to the right of the open shelving that leads to the dining room. So like a lot of traditional homes, the living space is essentially one big circle.

The bedrooms, bathrooms, and storage closets are all off of the long hallway. Here’s a super fancy picture of everything labeled:

There’s still a few things left to do in the hall. The attic door and stairs need to be replaced. It’s even more of an eyesore now.

See that sloppy coat of off-white trim paint? That covered every piece of trim in our house when we moved in. We’re very good trim painters these days.

We also need a runner rug for the hallway.

A 20 foot runner rug is hard to find. I knew it would have to be custom, and I assumed that having a piece of carpeting bound would be the way to go, but it’s turning out to be more expensive than I thought. Regular carpeting comes in 12 foot rolls, and since I need the rug to be 20 feet long, it creates a lot of waste that you still have to pay for (even if the rug is seamed in the middle). I’ve been to several carpeting stores and have been quoted anything between $500 and $1,700. Yikes. And way more than I was hoping to spend.

So this weekend I’m going to hunt for some carpet remnants. I’ve found a few places that will bind the remnant for you, but my dad has me convinced I can seam and bind a remnant on my own. Sounds crazy, but google and a couple of youtube videos have me believing this is a viable option. This sounds either really promising or like a total disaster, doesn’t it?

I also have a fun idea for the walls on the long hallway! More details on that, the runner, and some tips for DIYing wainscoting coming soon!

If anyone is interested, here’s some sources for the space:

Wall color: Sherwin Williams Pavestone

Entry Light: Pottery Barn Hundi Flush Mount

Hall Lights: From Lowes

Entry Rug: Pottery Barn Brandon Rug

Entry Table Fabric: Ikat Fretwork from Lewis and Sheron