Room Makeover: Girly & Romantic

By Elle
Because I’m a romantic at heart, I needed a space in my house where I could just let it all flow. One would guess that space would have been the bedroom, but, alas, ’twas not to be. (The master bedroom currently is a lot of black and white, which I like, but we’ll visit that space another time, once it’s been redone.)

So where do I go when I want to feel all cozy and romantic? Why, the upstairs hallway, of course. Actually, it’s not as bad as it sounds. It’s a beautiful open space that I’ve managed to fill with all sorts of lovely girly-girl things. And I think the hardwood floor looks even richer now that the space has been redone.

Come take a look, and let me know what you think!

In this before photo, you’re looking upstairs from the front door. Most of the house was painted in neutral colors when we bought it, which was nice in a way, but we were eager to cover the fleshy tones as well as replace the dated foyer light.

 

Another before photo. The prior owners gave us the hallway runner, saying that it would be difficult for us to find another that length. Luckily, we like it.

 

An after photo. The Tiffany-style light was my birthday gift, and it was really quite by accident that the new wall colors complement it so well.

 

I wanted this space to be cozy and romantic, even if it is just a hallway. The raspberry paint on the back wall is Heart’s Content from Pittsburgh Paints. The paint on the side walls is Bamboo Shoot from Sherwin Williams.

 

We wanted the color of the upstairs hallway to pop when you walk through the front door, and Heart’s Content does the job.

 

Just a little girly touch that I added to the linen closet door handle.

 

The Victorian art on the walls belonged to my grandmother.

 

This was my mom’s telephone chair. It used to be bright yellow and had rocker bottoms, but my brother and I took care of that pretty quickly by standing on the backs of the rockers while my mom was in the chair chatting … and yelling at us to get off the rockers because they’d break. She was right.

 

I refinished this old dresser, which used to be my grandmother’s, and converted the bottom drawer areas into shelves. As you can see, I use the dresser mainly to store extra blankets.

 

The Rose Dreams artwork on the wall is from a book of sheet music, probably from the early 1900s, which was also my grandmother’s (her photo is in the back).

 

I bought the decorative birdcage from a thrift store, spray painted it, filled it with an artificial wandering Jew and stuck a clay bird inside. Done.

 

I can’t believe I’m in love with a hallway.

 

So I’m unsure about the hallway lights. I have one of these acorn style lights on each end of the hallway. I think they look fine and actually fit the decor, but the man doesn’t think so. Let me know what you think!