Ready 4 Summer Blog Party - Day 4 - HOME DECOR plus linky!

6.21.2012
Today is DAY 4 of our awesome summer blog party! Thank you so so much to everyone who has linked up! I have found so many awesome ideas in the linkys...and next week I'll be sharing some of my favorites with you! 


Do you have a project you want to share? The themes for the different linkys and blog posts are below... add your project and check out all of the rest of the amazing inspiration!

SUMMERTIME FOOD & DRINKS
SUMMERTIME CRAFTS & PRINTABLES
SUMMERTIME KIDS' ACTIVITIES

Today's theme is HOME DECOR!

I'm so excited to show you my project today...I actually started working on this back in February, but because of, well...life...I'm still not quite done. So today I will give you a quick little glimpse. I'll go into more detail a little later...

So here's what I started with...this was our front hallway...


This is the angle looking towards our front door from our kitchen.

And here is the view from the front door into the kitchen...


As you can glean from the photos, this is a pretty small area. And it was soooo dark. My husband replaced the old tile floor with gorgeous slate a few years ago (I LOVE the slate...but it didn't help lighten the area up much). The only light in the area comes from the front door...

The brown door on the left up there (1970s builder's grade...lovely) leads to the garage...

OH...and here's a small glimpse of what you see when you walk in the front door (I could not find the right camera lens for this photo, so you'll have to use your imagination)...


We have this wall just right there...right when you walk in...we used to have a table under the mirror, but it was always sort of in the way, so I took that out a while ago...now there's just a mirror (which I love). Plain wall...nothing special.


And these lovely doors are our pantry (the single door) and a coat closet (the double doors).
The faux wood-grain on the doors is really classy, don't you think?


There's the wall and the garage door again...


And this is what we saw every single time we came in the house from the garage...the lovely pantry door...oh, and the side of the refrigerator.

Soooo, one cold day back in February I knew I had to do something about this...and quick. I had wanted to paint a room white for a long time, but I was a little shy about painting an entire room... soooo, the hallway could be my white room...and that should lighten up the area! 

I grabbed a few gallons of bright white paint in Satin (I didn't even bother looking for the "perfect" white...I just went with bright...). I have been slowly painting the trim in the house white, too, so I grabbed some trim paint as well...

The process was sort of slow...and I think it took about a week to get the whole area finished (the walls took about 3 coats of the white to cover completely)...but here is my new hallway. I think the new lightness & brightness is just perfect for summer. And it really gives my home more of the feeling and look I'm going for (I don't what that look is called exactly, or I would tell you...I just know I like the way it looks...).



Here is the view from the kitchen again...I also painted the far wall the same color as the living room (Martha Stewart's Tobacco Leaf)...I love the contrast...and now the color just leads right into the next room. I hung that big mirror on the wall above the bench and it really reflects the light and makes the room feel so much bigger. I've been thinking about dressing it up a little, but I'm not quite sure yet. For now it will stay plain white.


I replaced the builder's grade doors with new white 6-panel closet doors...and I painted the pantry door (I LOVE this door now...MUCH more on that next week).


And remember that plain old wall that you saw as soon as you walked in the house? Well, it's not plain anymore...I used the Tobacco Leaf & White and painted this stencil on...I ADORE this wall. And the coolest thing? The stencil is almost the exact shape as the mirror (from Home Goods)...isn't that cool? I bought them at two different times...never intending to use the stencil on this wall (it's the one I used for my little computer table), but I love it here.

Now I love love love the contrast of the dark slate against the bright hallway. When I walk into my house I'm so happy...I just love what I see.

I'm so looking forward to sharing some of the details with you!!! I hope you'll love them as much as I do...

For more ideas for SUMMER DECOR, make sure to visit these amazing blogs today!


My Fabulous Co-Host!

Our Lovely Guests:

NOW, are you ready to share some of your ideas for summertime decor? I sure hope so!

Link up any time this week and be sure to check back for even more summertime inspiration!

Here's how it works:

Link up your summer decor post(s) below. Your links will appear on both of the host blogs! That's it!

Please be sure to link to the hosts with either a text link or by grabbing a button




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Thanks for partying along with us!



Come back tomorrow for SUMMER ENTERTAINING ideas!

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