Foreclosure Renovation: Power of Paint
by
Jacob Ayres
1 Day
Easy
To the previous owners credit, I didn't see how they decorated this hallway so it's possible that they added elements to brighten this midnight blue.
But I did see that they painted over perfectly good pre-existing hardwood and laid down a very ugly blue carpet, so it's not likely.
There was a definite reason why this hallway was not included in the real estate listing. Walking through this part of the house felt suffocating. I instinctively kept ducking my head every time I took the steps even though there was more than enough headway. I tried taking pictures with my camera but I could not get enough light. Did I mention that there were absolutely no light fixtures when we bought the house? My little brother was able to temporarily install these cordless light fixtures so that we could work past four in the afternoon.
But I did see that they painted over perfectly good pre-existing hardwood and laid down a very ugly blue carpet, so it's not likely.
There was a definite reason why this hallway was not included in the real estate listing. Walking through this part of the house felt suffocating. I instinctively kept ducking my head every time I took the steps even though there was more than enough headway. I tried taking pictures with my camera but I could not get enough light. Did I mention that there were absolutely no light fixtures when we bought the house? My little brother was able to temporarily install these cordless light fixtures so that we could work past four in the afternoon.
Until this house, I've never seen trim painted any other color than white or wood-grain. And I think there's good reason for that. This dull color blue really dated the walls. Maybe white trim would have modernized the walls but I was way to excited to get rid of this color.
Even after just one coat of paint, these hallway walls seemed to take three steps back. After this, I wanted to just sit and bask in this dramatic change. But the floor was covered in nasty grime that probably should have been burned off, so I opted for painting another coat onto the walls.
The finished results! I love the darkness of the wood. It weighs down the brightness of the walls. I don't know if you can tell but we carpeted the stairs. It's a commercial grade carpet. It's pretty cheap and it's affordable to replace when it needs to be replaced in the next 5-10 years. The green may seem to be a weird color but it pulls in the linoleum and the kitchen flooring, oddly enough.
Just look at the difference paint can make! It's crazy to think that this hallway has transformed so much. Technically this entire transformation fell into the space of the five weeks but that was really just because of the flooring. The paint took a day to do and most of that was just waiting to dry.
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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2 of 7 comments
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Wowser! Isn't it just amazing what a little paint will do! Great transformation! Can't wait to see the rest of the house :)
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It wouldn't have been that bad if they had perhaps done the bottom portion of the wall in a white beadboard with white moulding, as you noted...but wow, what a transformation!!!! LET THERE BE LIGHT!!! ;-)
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