The entry: before and after

The House of Goodwill is basically finished (minus a couple more pictures to hang), but I realized it's been a while since I've posted some "finished" photos.  So I'll do a few more before & after posts, starting today with the entry at the front door.

When we bought the house, here is how the entry looked:

Because the front door is open, it's hard to tell how dark this entry way often feels.

The front and back of the house face north and south, so most of the windows don't get a lot of light.

At first, I didn't like this dark brown tile.

But it's kind of grown on me.  I don't mind it as long as there's a rug over part of it, and it IS very practical!

The corner of the hall has a spiral staircase.

Here is a close up view of the (likely 40-year-old) wallpaper.

It felt very formal.

My husband built this scaffold over the staircase so we could remove wallpaper and paint.

Because we spent so much time trying to find someone who could fix the walls after the wallpaper removal (chunks of wall came off in places with the paper), we had to use the staircase outside the house to go up and down for eight months.

After months of fruitlessly searching for a wall re-surfacer, my husband gave up, watched some Youtube videos, and did it himself (with my son helping).

The walls came out beautifully!

Here's how it came out; the light isn't great in this photo, so below is the room taken at night.

It feels so much lighter and brighter now.

All the dark molding was painted white; the blue paint on the wall below the chair rail is one shade darker than the wall above.

Here are a few of my favorite details:

one is this wooden duck that I found at a thrift store for $3, that my husband turned into a coat rack.

That's him above, in action.

He's a perfect place for me to hang my purse and the dog leashes when I come in.

This little toile chair for putting on shoes was free from a house that we bought some chairs from.

I think this puppy was $14 at a thrift store.

I hung this (from Goodwill) right by the front door.

Perfect for a guest house, don't you think?

Here is the $40 antique cabinet that I couldn't bring myself to paint.

So my son and I used removable wallpaper to brighten it up.

I keep all the thrift store vases I use there inside.

I ordered a stencil and painted these little ducks on the wall.

I loved how they came out.

It may just be a hallway, but it's a room I love now!  It's so bright and cheerful, it just makes me happy whenever I walk in.

There is only one little project left for this room - the curtains.  The two narrow windows had off-green sheer curtains that just didn't go with the new paint.  So I bought some regular-size sheer white curtains at WalMart, and I'm hoping to have someone cut them smaller and hem them.

It's a simple and small project (I think so anyway), but I haven't sewn anything in so many years I don't think I want to relearn on the curtains.  By the time I was ready to give them to the only person I could find in Lexington who does alterations, she was out of the country for a month.  So I brought them home with me and I'll take them down to the alterations place while I'm here.

And then it's done, all the way.

After 2+ years of working on the house, it feels great to have it done!