Back Hallway: After (part 1)

How's this for a quick turnaround? It was a short and easy project that we took to the next level and made it much more complicated. As usual!

We used the same wall and ceiling color as the other hallway, the same trim color we are slowly working through the whole house, and the same blue door color we used in the other hallway. Same light fixture we put in the other hallway as well.

I would have loved to continue painting the back door; there's a small nook to the left of it that we plan to make into a small mudroom area. But the wall the door sits on runs up the whole flight of stairs and has very tall ceilings that still have popcorn, so we are going to wait on that. Baby steps!

The big addition to this area is this custom built by Bean barn door. We considered a pocket door, but didn't want to deal with all of the drywall repairs. He came up with the design, shopped for wood, and put it together in just a few hours. I stained and finished it, and he hung it up. There's more to this story though! You might notice the large amounts of touch-ups needed around the wooden strip behind the hardware...but let's get back to that.

The previously shiny brush-stroked white door now matches our other fun blue ones, with the knob also updated in oil rubbed bronze.

We wanted to hide the light switch and alarm panel which are in the dead center of the wall, so we used this idea we saw on Pinterest to hang a piece of art with hinges on one side, and one command strip on the upper corner for support.

It works like a charm! Luckily, the art was sized correctly so that it looks good on the wall and you would never know it's hiding ugly but necessary things behind it. We are detail oriented, so I still spray painted the switches bright white, and painted the switch plate to match the walls. Have I mentioned that I also paint the top edge of every door frame? Nobody does that. 

So let's talk about the barn door a little more. We needed to install a strip of wood behind the mounting hardware so the door wouldn't hit the door frame when it slides back and forth. So the wood goes into the studs, the hardware and track goes on top of that, and the rollers glide along the track. Easy, right?

We had our helper do some measuring for us.

Bean installed the strip of wood, I puttied the holes and painted it. Then he installed the hardware and track, and we lifted the heavy door into it's place. Instantly I noticed it.

The door hangs 3 inches off the ground. 3 inches. Normal doors are about a half an inch. I notice it most from this angle, which is where I sit when I eat breakfast every morning.

Not sure if I've mentioned this either, but most all of our projects are done because whatever particular thing we decide to do is something I've spent a lot of time looking at and deciding how ugly it is and what we should do to change it. The whole house needs it, but which area we tackle next is directly related to how much time I have to spend staring at how ugly it is.

On a scale of 1-10 annoyance factor, re-hanging this door at the correct height from the floor is a 7 for Bean and an 8 for me. We are hosting a couple's shower at our house next weekend and simply don't have time to do it before then with the other projects we are working on. We will have it done by the end of the month and I'll share updated pictures so you can see the difference.

We love the style of our new back hallway, and even though it's a small space, it feels good to have it done the way we want it.