Crafting a Home: Our Journey Through DIY Hallway Updates

One of my favorite pastimes is to revel in before and after photos. There is something deeply satisfying about looking at a space that once was and seeing how it has transformed into something entirely different. Perhaps that’s why so many of us are drawn to home makeover shows on HGTV or those DIY gurus on social media. They show us a glimpse of what’s possible – how any space can be transformed in a few quick, well-edited minutes.

But as we’ve DIYed our way through our own home renovations, I’ve come to realize that crafting a home takes time and there is beauty in the space between the before and the after.

It is sometimes in the midst of the messy middle where creativity and inspiration decide to strike. And no where has this been more true than in the rear addition to our home.

Added on to our home in the early 2000s, the rear addition does not share the same architectural detail and charm as the rest of our home, which was built in 1938. As we renovated the original parts of our home, we knew we also wanted to update the addition in a way that would make it feel cohesive with the rest of our house, while keeping things fairly simple and budget-friendly.

Early on, I decided that a fresh coat of paint would go a long way, so I removed the existing wallpaper that bordered the space and got started with painting the walls. I opted to paint the walls Benjamin Moore’s Cloud Cover, a warm white with a hint of grey to it, to tie in with the walls throughout the rest of our home.

I also switched out the ornate chandelier for a more minimalistic lantern chandelier in its place.

Those changes alone made a huge difference to the space. This naturally dark portion of our home, now felt light and airy and more like an extension of our home as a whole. But we knew there was more fun to be had.

Several months later I was feeling bold and ambitious and decided to use some of the leftover paint from painting our laundry room cabinets to paint all the doors throughout our addition Benjamin Moore’s Boothbay Gray. I was not totally sure how this would turn out, but I felt the blue-grey would pair perfectly with the brass door hardware and be a nice pop of color in the midst of an otherwise neutral space. And sure enough, it made the space feel intentional, fun and oh-so inviting.

A few months later we decided to finish our basement. With the stairs open to the basement below, we knew this would also be the perfect time to give the stairs and railing a bit of a refresh. We painted the stair treads, risers and stringers Benjamin Moore’s Chantilly Lace and DIYed a carpet stair runner for the stairs using several of these runners from Amazon. We also painted the railing Benjamin Moore’s Kendall Charcoal to help ground the space and make it feel more cohesive.

Our final update to this space was to renovate our coat closet, incorporating some additional storage and much-needed organization. Check out all the details for this quick coat closet refresh by clicking HERE.

Then it was time to add the finishing details. We added artwork to the walls including some thrifted baskets for texture and this DIY Water-Colored World Map.

No entryway is complete without somewhere to sit, so we added an antique chair with some wall hooks above for added comfort and convenience.

We also wanted to make the ledge running alongside the stairs feel more intentional and add some visual interest to an otherwise awkward architectural feature. We realized that most of our books would fit perfectly along the ledge and we could create a little library on the way down to the basement.

This “extreme makeover: hallway edition” has certainly been a slow and steady work-in-progress, but the result has been far better than anything we could have conceived of from the beginning. The vision for this space has truly evolved over time, and while it may not make for a thrilling TV episode or viral social media post, the long journey through the messy middle has been more than worth it.