The porch, hallway, stairs and landing aren't done, but have gotten to a point at least where I can share some good before and after/during photos!
When we moved in it looked like this, the front door didn't work and was covered in curtains. The porch is quite hard to photograph as its only 2m by 2m, but its a plain square room with a small window on the left hand wall.
This was taken with my back to the front door. Dark carpet, textured wallpaper on the walls and ceilings, and yellowed gloss trim all combined to make it seem pretty dark and dated.
The landing does have a window on the top of the stairs, it looks out into the trees in the park so its a nice view. Its currently much greener out there than in this photo!
Then into the ladder and multiple doorway situation that we had going on when we moved in. That's the bathroom on the first left, the spare room on the second left, the partially converted loft is up the large (permanently attached) ladder, and the master bedroom is on the right.
We anticipated these rooms would need little more than a coat of paint and new flooring to begin with (the loft hatch and doors are further down the line - you can see our plans for the slight upstairs layout change back on this post), but we ended up having to get the stairs and hall replastered as the walls were in pretty rough shape underneath all the wallpaper. The wallpaper was even on the ceilings.
Before we started actually decorating, even just pulling up the carpets and taking down the paper really made a difference. It looked like this for such a long time...
Once it was all plastered and whitewashed it looked better!
The new front door went in at the start of March, and the curtains were gone with the old door. Those are boxes of our laminate flooring stacked up waiting to be fitted.
On the landing we got the old loft hatch covered before it was plastered, Tom knocked out the trim around it then fitted a piece of plaster board over the old door. It was then all skimmed over. There is another larger hatch in the room next door (you can see it through the door below with the ladder going up to it) so we don't need two hatches about 4ft away from each other!
Once the walls were plastered we repainted all the trim and skirting in a white satin finish, which immediately smartened the place up. The photo below shows before on the right and after on the left.
For the walls we chose a light green called "Ocean Ripple" from the Dulux "light and space" range which is meant to be good for small spaces as it reflects light. The stairs are like a tunnel so we wanted to keep everything quite bright in here. The paint is a nice happy bright sea foam type green which I love, and which definitely reflects the light.
For the flooring we went for a light grey carpet, as its the stairs we had considered a darker colour to hide any wear but in the end went for a lighter carpet but in a more durable finish. It is bleach cleanable and is a lower pile than the bedroom carpet so I'm hoping it should clean up ok when needed.
The flooring in the hall and the porch is the laminate which runs all the way through from the living room. This visually ties these rooms in together with the living space rather than them seeming like little isolated areas, and also makes the whole downstairs look bigger (to me anyway) as it all flows through as one area.
We also moved the door in the spare room to the original placement, it was on the left of the ladder but we just put it back in the original doorway. It doesn't fit very well and doesn't close (it doesn't have a handle) but it means we don't have to look at the spare room and loft hatch and ladder all the time!
The loft ladder/hatch situation and the spare room are about 1,000th on the to do list so we just wanted to get it tidied up a bit for day to day living and not have to look at this every day.
There is still a lot to do in here, the to do list currently stands at;
Put up the smoke alarm (its currently wedged into the landing window handle).
Paint the porch (the same colour as the hall and stairs probably).
Put skirting boards on and finish the edges of the flooring around the doors and stairs.
Add in a light at the bottom of the stairs (hopefully the fixture works!) and sort out the light fixture on the landing and in the porch.
Box in the radiator pipes in the hall.
Strip the paint off the windowsill on the landing (there are original tiles under there) and tidy up the window.
Put up coat hooks, shoe racks, shelving etc in the porch.
Get a bench or seat for the porch.
Get a doorbell hooked up.
Hang art, photos, actually decorate with personal belongings like we live here...
Doors and trim - The doors in the entire house need replacing, so these will all be done together at some point and the door surrounds and trim will be tidied up or replaced then. We may get some reclaimed 1930's doors.
Just to save scrolling all the way up lets end with some very satisfying before and after photos!
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