What to do with my hall and stairs
Sat, 11 Jun 2011 32 Comments 
I'm happy with my colour choices for the living room and dining room (not telling yet) but they are dark and they have thrown my entry hall, stairs and landing plans into disarray. I want to paint the walls white with black trim and black doors. I have always loved black gloss doors in an old house. Having said that I mean the upstairs doors that are already painted. If they were still in their original shellac finished cedar like the downstairs doors I'd live them natural. Don't get me wrong. I don't mind painting wood but the downstairs doors and some trim have survived 150 in the original state and I get a kick out of that.
My problem is that you will be looking from a dark room through a bright white hall into a dark room. Solution ... paint the hall dark. Yay! Problem ... there is no real "end" to the wall. No obvious place to stop. The wall continues up the stairs and then up a double height to the floor above because I have a floating landing. Hope you understand the pictures. I've included my original video of the house as we moved in to give you another perspective.
If I painted the hall dark where do I stop? I had thought that I would colour block up that downstairs wall and across the ceiling while the white started at the front door wall and continued up the wall along the long flight of stairs up to the top landing and along the "Mary" wall until it met the block of colour coming up from below. Then I thought that would be just strange and contrived. I could be dark all the way up. A grey or brown or blue but that would spoil the drama of individual rooms if everything was dark dark dark. Or maybe not. My bedroom will be dark. LOL. Dark is my darling at the moment. Was thinking black but now I'm leaning towards the indigo in the previous post. Across the hall is my office/studio and this is the room I want white with a scandi boho feel. Open the black door and bam! bright and white and colourful with art. This is the room that gets the morning sun and leads out to the front veranda. A beautiful place to create and blog. I'm so lucky I know. Don't you hate me!
So back to the hall and stairs. My solution at the moment is to wallpaper the bottom hall. Book wallpaper is tickling my fancy. Here are some examples.
Seen here in Lyn Gardener's Daylesford house.
Library by Andrew Martin
Young & Battaglia's Vintage Bookshelf and White Bookshelf that I have found online here.
OK now it's your turn. Go for it. Pull no punches. Give me your two cents worth. Paint or paper? Dark or light? Where do I stop? How do I stop?
Reader Comments (32)
For inspiration, you might want to check out http://whitehaveninteriors.blogspot.com/ - dark and light rooms with natural and painted trim in an 1800s house.
Take a look at the entry of this house http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/house-tours/al-marks-colorful-eclectic-penthouse-148213
At first I thought it was wallpaper but I'm affraid it's a mural painted by the owners. Eventually you may feel brave enough to try it yourself or be inspired by it.
Good luck!
I'd paint the hallway dark turquoise almost teal and keep the red/brownish on the floor and doors:)
My preference is to never paint nicely stained/varnished wood like this. Well, I'm making an assumption that all of the wood trim and doors look as beautiful up close as they appear in these images. If that's not the case, that might change my opinion. And of course, it's your home and you should do what makes YOU happy, not me. I'm just stating my own preference and making a plea for preservation, if it's feasible.
The problem with painting stained wood is that no one can ever go back and get that glowing stained finish look as good as it once looked again. I know, paint strippers and all, but paint stripping chemicals are among the most toxic and dangerous of all household products, and they never really remove all the paint so that you can stain it and have it glow again as it once did. Stripping without chemicals is even less effective. Believe me, I've had to try when I've inadvertently painted the wrong side of some removable window muntin trim that was to be stained on the interior side and painted white on the exterior side, to match existing trim. It was never the same.
One idea would be to do a chair rail that sections off some part of the wall. That way you could do paint below and wallpaper above or paint one color below and another above. If you are strategic about the level at which you hang the trim, you could probably get it to section off your stairs pretty easily. You could probably do something along these lines with other types of trim too.
I have a similar thing as you going in my stairwell and I have it all painted the same boring tan color. It works, but it isn't that unique or showstopping.
A totally wild idea would be to do some type of fade from one color to another, with a blend between. You can get this effect in photoshop pretty easily but I've never seen it on a wall using paint. That would solve your transition problem.
Thanks again everyone! Cathy that house is amazing! Central-Portugal I had thought of painting something myself but I have NO time :) Laura wouldn't it great if I could just photoshop it! David the wood is beautiful and there is no way I'm painting over it. The doors that will be painted are upstairs and already have several coats of paint on them. One day I will get them stripped ... then probably spend all my time trying to age them again :) Sarah just wallpapering that landing would be much cheaper! Anika I'm not sure if I'm brave enough for turquoise LOL.
The good news is that the plasterer has finished repairing all the damaged plaster and things are almost "go". Excited!!!!
I like the space as is. I like the stripped off wall stripe, the chipped thin coat of cherry (?), the scuffed cream stair runner. I like the revealed layers and intriguing visible history. It's invaluable and adds that intangible charm and character that's unachievable through intended "distressing". I wouldn't change a thing.