It's hard when you love the idea of something, and you put time and thought and money into making it a reality..... and it doesn't end up being as good an idea s you thought. It feels like admitting defeat to change it or even acknowledge that it may not be working. Such was the case with my apartments hallway. This is both a really cool space (how many San Francisco apartments have big wide entryway/hallways?) but also a challenging one (seven doors, all different kinds, and the big double open entry to the living room) and I had this amazing and fun and exciting idea to paint it this bright juicy melon color plus a pattern to liven it up a bit and make it bright and inviting.
See below:
Unfortunately this didn't end up working out as well as it did in my mind. With all the trim and doors, the actual wall spaces are few and small and separated by doors and so much thick bright white trim. It drove me crazy but I also felt awful that my initial idea hadn't panned out, and guilty about wasting time and money just to paint over it. But I decided it was driving me more crazy being the wrong color and all (and I remembered that the orange paint had been free) so when I found myself with a half gallon of clean bright white left after I painted the bedroom studio, and my roommate was out house-sitting, I figured why not keep this party going, it was only midnight and I still had lots of pizza left so......
It took four coats of paint to cover up the orange (and the hand stamped arrows liked to bleed through) but I perceived and when I walked through the hallway the next morning and it was bright and clean and the sun was bouncing around it I knew I had made the right choice. Even if it was fueled by frustration and paint fumes!
Of course that next morning the space didn't look quite like this, it was just flat white without the pattern. I knew I wanted to keep the fun element of pattern and the idea of wallpaper in that space, to make it seem less blank, but I spent a while debating different shapes. I had both the wood grain and black contact papers on hand so I cut out a variety of shapes which eventually boiled down to triangles and round medallions and then it was decided that the dots would be best, so I set to work cutting a bunch out......
...and sticking them to the wall. I tried being precise and accurate and using a ruler and marking the wall and all of that but after five minutes I realized even with all that it wouldn't be perfect so why not just eyeball the whole thing and it still ended up pretty even. The narrow spaces of wall made it easier to space out the dots than I imagine it would be on huge wide open walls.
I am super happy with the change. It was well worth the time, and a few extra hours of painting. As to the pattern, it used materials I had on hand and is very easy to remove and change down the line if I so desire so I feel like this will be a much better and more welcoming space in my apartment that it was before. I was also ale to squeeze in a bit of new show storage by switching my dressing room bench for the trunk! Cheers to that.
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