Hall Entry Makeover: Before & After

Every time I do a DIY project or room makeover, I think, "Never again." Because it's tough work. It can be exhausting. Even now, I have total sympathy for those homeowners on Trading Spaces who had to makeover entire rooms in 2 days! Yikes! I hate having my house a mess. I hate not having a place for everything and everything in its place. And when I finally do get my house back to normal, I say to myself, "That's it! I'm done."

Inevitably, though, a few weeks after I've completed a project I get the urge to do something else. Coming off my large Home Office Makeover, I wanted to do something small and simple, but that would make a big impact in our home. So I chose to tackle my Hall Entryway!

Let's take a look at what it looked like before:

Originally, I had intended to leave the wallpaper.  (Yes, there is wallpaper on those walls!) I thought after moving in that I could just cover up the walls with decor and pictures and that would be fine.  And since the wallpaper was mostly white (with tiny pink and blue polka dots), I had hoped this would work for a simple hall entry design.

But the more I decorated, the more I realized something wasn't working.  This small, narrow entry was becoming too Farmhouse Rustic for me.  I wanted a modern pop.  I wanted some Mid-Century Modern touches.  I wanted some old meets new in my entryway design.  However, I didn't want to spend hours of my life scraping wallpaper off the walls.

It was a Saturday morning that I told my husband I was going to start on the entry.  I had intended to buy some sealer and paint over the wallpaper, hoping the project could be done in an afternoon.  But as we investigated that morning, we found that we could easily peel off the first layer of wallpaper.  It came down in about five minutes.

I was excited.  Things were happening now.  My brain was churning.  Maybe I could get all the wallpaper down.  Maybe I should do this the right way.

[This is where future Jenny pops in and says to past Jenny, "Silly, Jenny. Trix are for kids."]

That Saturday afternoon I took the plunge.  I mixed equal parts fabric softener with hot water, sprayed the walls, and started scraping.  About a week later, I was done.  A week after that I had cleaned, sanded, and filled all the holes in the wall.  A week after that I had painted.  A week after that I still couldn't find a new light fixture that I liked so I said, "Screw It" and called this Hall Entry Design done!  I know I'll come across the right light fixture some day soon.  I just needed to mark this off my To-Do List.

My goal with the Hall Entry was to make it light, airy, and more modern.  The space is very narrow and gets very little sunlight so I wanted a bright white/grey color for the walls.  My inspiration for the space came from this photo which I found on Pinterest here.

However, painting my starburst popcorn ceiling wasn't going to work.  And I was afraid that painting the door and front entry wall dark blue would make the space too dark.  The inspiration space above has a window to let some natural light in.  My Hall Entry, unfortunately, doesn't.  So I looked around for some new inspiration and found this.

Problem solved!  I would do a striped navy blue accent wall for a modern pop of color.  You can read my adventures in painting perfect stripes over here.  That's a whole 'nother story!

What do you think about my Modern Hall Makeover Transformation? Would you be so bold to do a Striped Wall somewhere in your home? Tell me in the comments!

Sharing is Caring! Share this post with someone you love!