Home update #1 - our hallway makeover

I've been teasing our home update plans for a while now. A couple of weeks' ago, we had a week off and we completely made over our lounge and updated our hall too. It's mainly been cosmetic, except from ripping out an old gas fire in the lounge, but the difference has been pretty amazing and we are so pleased with results.

We haven't spent a great deal really and have found some great pieces here and there at really good prices. Being the biggest change we've made to the house, and the biggest project we'll be doing for a while, I want to share our makeover in a few posts. I want to show you around each room and then go into more detail about how we created the look and also some key picks from the different places we shopped at - a mini haul if you like from IKEA and Wilkos in particular and finds from Wayfair, Primark, Next and B&Q too, so you can see where we got everything.

Today, I'm giving you a glimpse around our new hallway.

It's the first thing you see when you come in the house so a hallway should be inviting. Sadly ours has been a bit tired for a while now and whilst it's not a room you tend to spend a lot of time in, I realised it's actually pretty important as everyone is always coming to and from another room via the hall, stairs and landing.

It's a communal space and in our house, quite a narrow one, so I wanted to brighten everything up and use it as somewhere to stamp our personality.

It was a soft, satin yellow before and just looked tired. I'd never use satin paint again and I wanted a more modern feel and a sense of space as soon as we walked in the door.

We chose a palette of soft grey, with black picture frames and bright accessories. I wanted to have a few quirky touches and I was keen to keep the space feeling airy as this side of our house doesn't get sunlight until the end of the day.

We went for the Colours paint range at B&Q, with 'Chantilly' for the wall about the dado rail and 'Fog' for the lower half under the rail. With this divide to the walls, I wanted to create a contrast in colour but not go too dark with the grey.

The overall result was different to how I had planned but was actually for the better. The shades we picked have a slight blue tinge to them - there really are so many shades of grey and I think if it had been a flatter, slate grey it would have turned out very different.

As a note, we bought the one coat version, which you pay a premium for, but wouldn't recommend this. In hubs' words, no paint is one coat and really, the standard paint in this range does a good job so I wouldn't pay more again.

The big change to this space was also going to come in the form of the stairs. Hubs ripped up the old cream, worn carpet a while ago to reveal wooden steps with all different kinds of paint finishes applied to them. I actually like the rough and ready look, so a bit of a sand and a clean up was all that was needed before applying some paint; slate grey for the treads and white for the risers (two coats for the former, three for the latter).

So, may I introduce you to our new hallway... welcome, come on in...

Before the stairs were painted

What do you think? I don't have a really good before photo, but trust me, the space feels bigger, brighter and a sense of calm too. I am so pleased with the results and will share with you more detail on the bits and pieces we picked out for here too soon.