Time to move on to the hallway.
So, following on from my previous few threads (kitchen, glitter wall in dressing room, and conservatory) it's time to press on with the hallway - oh joy!
Time is an issue, as we've order the carpet and it's getting fitted on 1st August.
We've had the electricians around to remove the old pendant lights, and replace with 4 LED downlights in the downstairs hallway, and 4 upstairs (2 over the stairs, and 2 on the landing)
(wow that ceiling looks manky - I'm sure that it doesn't look like that normally)
The spotlights have been left out like this as we're getting all the ceilings skimmed to remove the horrible swirly artex.
Last night I made a start on the stairs by removing the old carpet, underlay and grippers and sanded them down. The new carpet is a 'runner' so I need to prep, and paint the edges before it's laid.
(I'm leaving the upstairs hallway for the fitters to remove as it's just a relaying process)
the plasterers came this morning and did their stuff, so now it looks like:
(is it wrong that I REALLY like the dark brown ceiling?)
(oh, and that 'orrible brown handrail is definitely going!)
So hopefully by the weekend (Sunday) it'll be dry enough for a mist coat, then next week at some point get the final coat on.
The stairs need to be done, the banisters, and all the other woodwork - in white.
I'm off to Homebase tonight to pick up a tester of 'Farrow and Ball - Mouses Back' which I think is what we've decided on (going on pictures). I was going to wallpaper but doing the small conservatory soon put shot to that idea.
The carpet that we have chosen for the stairs and upstairs hallway is Westex Rum and Raisen Boucle Range (Carpet)
The carpenter should be around one evening this week as we're changing the skirts to larger ones like we did in the kitchen.
I think that this chapter of house decoration should be pretty drama free - but I'm sure that we'll see about that.
Also, I did initially set the Mrs a budget for everything - which she has inevitably more than doubled already (without paint etc) ....... or the carpenter for that matter, but that's a £100 cash-in-hand job so I won't include that, so there may be some trouble ahead (as I'm already estimating 3x budget as a final figure :)
Comments (19)
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Daisy England
6 years agoTim Summers
6 years agoJuliet Docherty
6 years agoTim Summers
6 years agoI get your point - however I don't know if I can handle another room with different colours - our lounge has 2 walls one colour, and the other two subtly different which you can just about make out in the old picture below:
And in the kitchen
And also in the kitchen we did the trick of using a block of colour to widen the narrow space, and to link it with the evergreens you can see from the kitchen window
Glad you agree with the ceiling - although to be honest I'm not all that confident of getting is past the boss.
You say "A dark wall looks fab with pale floors, matt with shiny, etc etc." completely agree, but we have dark oak floors downstairs - which is maybe why I'm not convinced about the dark'ish walls. That's why I'm thinking of something lighter - but in our old house, we had pale hallway walls and literally within a few months there was a visible line about a meter from the floor where the kids would ALWAYS rub their hands along it when they walked. That's why I thought of a darker wall.
Plus she trying to convince me of getting another dog, so that introduces a whole host of colour, messy, etc issues.
Decisions decisions.
Oh, where in Cambridge are you? I'm in Teversham if I look at what church parish, but Cherry Hinton according to the postman, and Fulbourn according to 'Fulbourn Tescos' which is pretty much on my doorstep. And just 'Cambridge' according to my postcode of CB1
Juliet Docherty
6 years agoTim Summers
6 years agoRight, we're pressing on. The ceiling has had about a million coats on it and now is soooo ridiculously white its insane. I couldn't get the brown past the boss so upstairs is also white. Doing the ceiling above the stairs nearly finished me off - climbing up a ladder, with a paintbrush in one hand, and a tin of paint in the other while precariously trying to balance was not something I'd do again in a hurry.
The stairs are almost completed ready for the carpet on the 1st August. This was pretty stressful and I had to do half-and-half so they could still be used. I had intended to do alternate steps, but that would have been no good for the kids - so it was halved. The first half was ok "Walk next to the bannister" they understood, but when the other side was painted I don't think that they understood what "Walk next to the wall" meant ! Luckily I only had to follow the little footprints along the upstairs landing (which the carpet is being changed anyway) rather than on the floor downstairs.
The banister side has had: 2 coats of white floor paint, then some standard white paint, and I'm planning on 1 more coat of high gloss. The wall side has only had 1 coat of the floor paint at the moment (something to look forward to when I get home tonight).
The dodgy white patches on the walls are me trying to cover up the testers that we used. And also I just slapped some white paint that I had left over as I don't like waste.
The main colour has now been decided as F&B Blue Grey (I personally think that it's green). Yeah, of course it was always going to be some sort of green. Everywhere else in our house is flippin' green so why not the hallway as well hey.
I'll put some more stair paint on over the weekend. The boss wants me to start on the walls - but that's not going to happen, I've not told her that yet though.
We're going on holiday on Monday for 5 days - I say 'holiday', but it's actually 'a trip' to Ireland to visit the in-laws and the other side of the family. A holiday is usually fun, I doubt this will be. Oh, that's why the boss seems to get everything green somehow :)
10 minutes before we go, I'm planning on getting everyone downstairs, ready, and probably buckled up in the car, then run in, start at the top and get a final thick layer of high gloss on the stairs, shut the door and leave. No chance of it not drying before we return.
Tim Summers
6 years agoWell yesterday was the big day, the day that the carpet was coming to be fitted (stairs and upstairs landing).
This morning it looked like:
Yeah no carpet !!!
So - after waiting in ALL DAY, the fitters finally turned up at 16:45. They grabbed the runner from the back of the van - stood at the bottom of the stairs - looked confused - said, hmmmmmm did you really want it this narrow?
They roughly laid it, and it looked like a strip of kitchen towel running down the middle. EH ???? WHAT THE HELL IS THIS ?!?!?!?
I asked for 10cms / 4 inches gap either side, this was more in the 20cms region. It looked bleedin ridiculous so I told them that I'm not accepting it (durrr, obviously), so this morning I've been having it out with the shop as it was blatantly measured up wrong !!
They're also saying that the next available slot for fitting would be 22nd of August.
I've had a nightmare of a morning already and this didn't really sit well with me.
Now I need to wait for the Mrs to finish work at 12:30 - I unfortunately got a teeny bit cross with them (whoops) and after the poor fella at the other end of the phone said "Please Sir, there's no need to swear" - I ended up putting the phone down. The wife can take this on now
innovation999
6 years ago
Carolina
6 years ago
PROOnePlan
6 years agoWould you consider trying to fit the stair runner yourself ? I had mine fitted ( as tartan carpet and two winders ) but it was soooo easy - in hindsight I could have done it myself !
Tim Summers
6 years agoWell, still nothing to report, and we are absolutely no further forward on deciding the paint colours. Last night I went into Homebase after work yet again for a couple more testers - put them up, nahhhhh.
This hallway has been a complete nightmare from start to finish and I wish that we'd left it well alone. I suppose in the long-run it'll be worth it, but I'm finding it really hard to muster up any enthusiasm on it now - it's been dragging on for months.
@OnePlan: Yeah, I would consider laying the stair runner myself for sure, it's not the laying that was the issue, it was the fact it'd been cut wrong that's the problem, and it looked stupid. However, at the moment, the sooner this room is done the better, I just want to see the back of it, so as the carpet place do the service, I'll happily pay a professional to do it in an afternoon, rather than me spending any more time on it. Also, I have a terrible terrible habit of injuring myself whenever I come into contact with Carpet Grippers. No matter how long or short, removing them from the floor, moving them from the floor to the rubbish container, or even from the rubbish container into the dustbin - my hands always look like I've been attacked with a cheese grater. Seriously, I am 100% certain, that at some point in time when carpet grippers are involved I will need a plaster!
@Carolina: Oh don't you worry about that, I've got some scrap paper and a head-full of ideas. Another project is forthcoming (may start this weekend actually) involving an area to the side of our house currently used for dumping things (1m.80 across the back and 2m.24 to the front)
Separate thread incoming :)
Tim Summers
6 years agoWell the carpet has finally been fitted :
But we've still not painted (obviously). We're really _REALLY_ struggling to find a colour. Usually we are ok at deciding, but we can't find anything. The Mrs threw out a 'baby pink' idea yesterday which I shot down instantly! I think that we may end up going 'grey' again - but I just think that it's a bit dull. Green is also quite a possibility, but there are so many shades.
We've got to get our rear-ends in gear - as we have a big party at ours on Sept 16 - friends and family - so that's the deadline.
Tim Summers
6 years agoTim Summers
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoUpdate time :) Absolutely NOTHING had happened ............ until last night that is.
Even though I didn't want anything more to do with this hallway, I'd finally had enough of the random testers everywhere upstairs and downstairs. Even me and the wife had finished talking about it, and I think that we had resigned ourselves to having a rubbish hallway.
So yesterday, before I went to work, I grabbed a tin of white paint out of the garage and covered all the testers with the intention of picking up some paint on the way home from work.
Much to my surprise, I did exactly that.
Stopped in Homebase, went to the Dulux Paint Mixing area, chose something that I liked (Caramel Sands 3), got myself a 5 litre tin and a couple of brushes.
I don't know if I'll just get the lot done in the same colour (I think that I will as 5 litres is surprisingly A LOT of paint).
So, after one coat downstairs this is what it was like:
Tonight I'll do around the front door, and up the stairs.
To be honest, I'm pretty pleased that this is finally getting done.
(door handles, and probably sockets/switches will be changed to silver screw-less like the rest of the house)
Carolina
6 years ago
Juliet Docherty