In Search Of Hall Doors

Our house was built in the mid 1950s, a time when Germany was still receovering from the second world war and when people had to make do with a lot less than nowadays. 

This house, like most of the houses on our short street, was built as a small house with a good-sized garden for growing fruit and vegetables. Attached to the house, when it was built originally, was a shed for housing animals. 

The previous owners of our house renovated the former animal accommodation and made a bathroom and two bedrooms out of it. The hallway was extended by about 90cm in length in the process. 

Where the front door was originally is now an doorway. The hinges and doorframe remain. For a few years we used to talk about putting a curtain across it but we never got round to it. The more I think about it, the more I see that it would block out the light that comes in from the windows in the front door.

Lately I have been thinking that what we need to finish off the hall is a set of narrow double doors. I'm thinking wooden doorframes painted white or a light grey and with bevelled glass panels to let in light but keep out draughts.

Photo Credit / Source

I really like the look of this set- shabby but incredibly elegant. I can imagine them opening inward, letting the sunshine our into my sparklingly clean hall, something like the scene in the picture below. 

Photo Credit / Source

As I say, in my imagination. My hall is never this clean.

For the moment I'll have to keep dreaming, of the doors, of the sunshine and of the sparkling hall. Glass doors and sticky toddler hands don't pair well. 

I've begun looking for inspiration on Pinterest, so pop over and take a look at my board to see more of what I'm hoping to one day have.

Folge Fionnualas Pinnwand „Hallway Double Doors“ auf Pinterest.

One of these days I'll be taking measurements and keeping my eyes peeled for doors to salvage or pick up at a flea market. Where there's a will, there's a way. 

Our Hall, Stairs and Landing Transformation

When we first moved into our house, we hadn't the time to renovate or decorate anything that didn't need immediate attention. That meant that the dark and gloomy but otherwise fully functional hall, stairs and landing was not a priority. The ugly peach coloured woodchip wallpaper was given a very hasty coat of white emulsion and that was it.  

The dreadful peach walls being painted over.

It was a year before we had time to set to work on it. What kept me going was that I knew it had the potential to be beautiful without costing us a fortune. When we first viewed the house, I fell in love with the old wooden staircase and the shape of the banister. 

The Stairs.

When we finally had the time and the inclination to begin renovating, we began to realise that it was going to be a bigger job than we thought. Stripping the old painted and re-painted woodchip wallpaper was a tough job. Underneath it the walls were a mess. Some were old internal walls, others were old external walls (the hardest to strip) and only one was plasterboard. 

The state of one of the walls when we removed the woodchip wallpaper.

But we'd statrted, so we had to see it through to the end. We got the hall and the wall along the stairs plastered but we decided to keep the woodchip wallpaper on the landing. Now I never imagined I would agree to woodchip wallpaper in my house. I really didn't. But it was relatively new, it came up nicely painted white and we really did not have the endurance it would have taken to strip it. *Maybe* some day. But, I mean look at the angles we would have been dealing with:

After the plaster dried, we painted the whole hall, stairs and landing area white and put in new pre-painted white skirting boards. We also had the stairs painted white with a pale grey handrail. 

 

White seems a bit mad for a house full of little boys but it was our only option to brighten the gloomy space up. I really wanted a bit of contrast somewhere, so we painted the wall along the stairs a very pale grey with a hint of lavender. Looking directly at it, it looks like white but when you see it against the white of the stairs, you notice the difference.

I was very keen on having a pretty wall-mounted light-fitting at the top of the stairs. I found this one at the online shop Mirabeau and in reality it was even prettier than it seemed online. I love how it finished off the top of the stairs. For weeks after we installed it I would come out to the hall, look up at it and smile. I just adore it.

Since we finsihed all the actual plastering and painting, I have been taking my time with decorating. The landing was particularly tricky because there are three doors as well as the stairs to the hall and another stairs to the attic leading off it. 

To make things even more complicated, there is a sloping ceiling. After much deliberation, we opted for a Hemnes chest of drawers in white from Ikea. It is the right depth and height for that space and offers a lot of storage. Above it we've hung some Irish art we got as wedding presents.

 I  am far from a collector of art, but I do like to have pieces around the house that reflect my/our interests. It gives the place more personality. I'd hate to walk into someone else's house and see that we have entirely the same furnishings, frames and fabrics. Here's a selection of what you'd see around our hall, stairs and landing now. 

A mirror I made from a cupboard door

One of three limited edition children ;)

A print of Pooh and Piglet

Part of Edward Lear's Nonsense Alphabet

My own left hand, painted by my own right hand

We had to take a few  short cuts along the way, but we are happy with how it has turned about. It may not be perfect, but it is comfortable, lived in and a damn sight better than peach woodchip.