Entryway

The entryway, stairwell and all of the upstairs hall used to be a chicken flesh pink.  That was what that horrid color always made me think of.  It was very pinkish peachy orange....wait....hold on, I'm nearly retching at the memory of that color.

This color with the wood tones and brass fixtures is even worse.

There is good bones structure here though.

This light fixture seems to be a good quality, but very fancy and so totally 80's.  The brashy brassy light is glaring, making strange shadows and lines on the walls too...much like the old dining room light did.  I feel like a chandelier in this spot should have upward lights with opaque shades that shine nicely, but shield your eyes from bright glares spots.

And the pink goes on.

Atta-girl!  Helping Daddy neutralize the pukey pink with a nice deep tan.

Making progress.

Love it!  That's what I call painting satisfaction....every roll makes the pink go away forever.

So serious.

Well, at least the bottom part looks good.

Scary, but he did a great job.  Again, that brass light is not doing much good at lighting that spot for painting.  We have a big work spotlight on the upstairs floor.

Cutting in up by the ceiling.

This sight filled me with joy.

The entry way wall still needed to be done.

That hall never looked so long.  My main job was to tape up all the trim and doorways.

Yay!  My eyes are much happier.

The long hall is done.

Much better.  Now, about that light.....

Let's pause for this not-so-subliminal moment:

Ok, let's move on now.

It's starting to look better.  The new entryway rug was delivered today.  7/15/14....I love it.

The evolution of the entryway continues today:  Dec. 7, 2015.

Got some painters' tape markings to envision adding a chair rail moulding.

We want to add some architectural interest to the boring stairway by adding trim and paint.

Lots of plain tan walls and brown, worn out wood.

The 1988 light is very bright and casts strange shadows and streaks on the wall...it's hard on the eyes too.

The chair rail is up...looks good on the first 8 steps, but after the landing, there was a problem...it was way too low for the top steps.

Gotta take it down and re-do it.  :(

Dan and Dad working on the angles.  It's more complicated than it looks.

They were either drawing spiderwebs on the wall....or doing angle figures.

This was a big deal and cause for celebration!  They got the angles right and now things started moving along much faster.

It's going to look so nice after we paint it cream from the rail to the steps...much easier to envision it now.

More figuring...

Now all the trim is tacked into place.  We'll paint it cream from the rail to the floor.  Eventually, I'd like to paint the spindles cream and take the stark white risers to a cream color too.  I think it will look very clean and classy.

Just brought home this lovely old oak secretary desk, circa 1890's, the other day.  I found it at a local antique store months and months ago.  It was recently marked down quite a bit, so I decided to use some saved up Christmas money, plus my bonus, to get this piece.  I just love it.  It'll be in the foyer near the stairs or other wall.  Still trying to figure that out.

We are starting to prepare to paint the stairwell wall and spindles soon.  Interesting fact:  Did you know that it is nearly impossible to NOT tear painters tape into the shape of Tennessee?  Seriously.  Almost all of the hundreds of bits of tape came out in the shape of Tennessee...check it out.

Got a long way to go, but it'll look nice when we're done.

(The secretary desk is under that canvas tarp.)

Molly helped Dan paint the wall.  Please note how much Molly has grown since this project began.  This has been a very slow process to say the least.

 

After the wall was painted, it made a huge difference.

Later on, I painted the risers.  They were stark white, so I painted them the same cream as the walls.

Getting ready to paint the spindles.  A huge task.

The spindles needed to be prepped by applying a liquid deglosser and sanding.  Then we needed to apply 3 coats of paint.

This was how it looked for a very long time.  I got tired of it and set it aside until a great friend from work helped me.  Dan was working around the clock and had little time for home projects.  My friend Lynnette came over and we knocked it out in no time, plus it was fun to chat and laugh the whole time too.  She's the best!  Wish I'd thought to get a photo of us working.

We finally hung up curtains and got a runner for the upper hallway.  So much cozier and inviting.

Now, I'm trying to get a nice photo arrangement to flow up the stairway.  I want just extra special family photos in here.  I'm also hanging blank frames that I'll fill in with photos later on.  Most of these frames are from second hand stores and garage sales.  So much fun finding treasures and bargins.

More photos to follow as we progress to the finished work.