Framed

If you've been around for a while, you know there has been an ongoing, ridiculous process of figuring out what to do with our hallway.  It's too tan.  And it drives me craaaaazy.  I mean, it's more attractive than it was when we bought the house, but it's still not what I want.  So first, let's see where we started.

Paneling.  Always more paneling.  But it got a coat of paint and it was much better.  Sort of.  I thought it would be cute to leave the seams in the paneling black so the bottom of the wall was striped.  Turned out that was a bad idea.  That for sure is getting repainted so that the whole bottom of the wall is a solid color.  The wood chair rail is staying how it is.  I like that.  So, let's see what we have right now.

Okay, like I said, I'm painting the seams.  Because they look ridiculous.  I can't believe I've left it that way for so long.  I think that's going to happen this weekend.  We're getting our new flooring soon so I feel like I need to commit to something before we get the floors in.  I don't want to paint walls with new floors.

First, these two stupid problems have to be addressed.

1.  The thermostat.  I'm pretty sure that's the original thermostat.  Super attractive, right?  I think we probably need to replace it for a new thermostat, like a digital one so that it's more efficient.  Then I saw this on Pinterest and thought it was clever and could definitely dress it up a little.

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2.  That is the switch for the attic fan.  An attic fan which is not even hooked up to power.  Call me crazy, but I think an attic fan on a gravel road is a terrible idea.  I'm all for fresh air and everything but I don't want to intentionally pull outside dirt into my house.  I think the solution for this crazy thing is to at least pull the knob off, that way I can hang something big on that wall to cover it up.

I like the print at the end of the hall.  It's from my husband's parents house.  And there's a canvas on the left side of the hall I made.  It's just painted tan with a huge flower on it.  On the right side of the hall is one of our wedding pictures in a floating frame.  So I like what we have on the walls, I just think it could somehow be better.

That's when an idea came to me this morning.  I don't need to paint the walls.  Well, other than getting rid of my stupid stripes.  I just need to bring more color in on the top of the walls, but in a different way.  I'm thinking some sort of gallery wall.  Here's the thing about gallery walls.  My mom had one in her hallway at our old house.  It was fine.  I want something a little different than the wall of my childhood.  And I know I can't do a gallery on both sides down the whole hall, that would be insane.  

So, here's what I'm thinking.  A good mix of big and small pieces.  Maybe just on the right side of the hall.  On the right side, frame the thermostat with a fancy little frame and repaint the canvas on the left so that it matches better (right now the flower is burgundy).  And then do a gallery wall on the right side of the hall.  And use all turquoise frames.  Something like this....

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I couldn't find the actual link for the second one.  I just linked back to the blog.  Sorry guys, I tried!  I think both of these are gorgeous though.  And I love the variety in them.  But that they also very much go together.  I'm actually getting pretty excited about this project.  Hopefully it's the right way to add color and quit driving me crazy.

So, how about you guys?  Where do you stand on gallery walls?  How do you decorate your hallway?  Anyone else being driven insane by an inability to make decisions?