Hallway Renovation in a 1930s Art Deco House

So I’m back with another interiors post! I know, I am on a roll right? I shared our 1930s living room renovation last week, and so this week I am going to focus on our hallway renovation.

1930s Hallway Renovation

This is actually the last of our home we have renovated thus far, but it feels like the most ‘finished’ compared to our other rooms currently. I have some styling, cleaning, tidying and odd jobs left to sort before sharing some of our other interior spaces.

However as this leads to our living room and of course is the entrance to our art deco house, it feels like a good place to focus on next. One thing we really could do with updating in our hallway is our understairs cupboard/cupboard door. But that’s something to think about in the future.

The Build

We had a lot of wallpaper to remove in the hallway, including on the ceiling! I know, fun times. It’s easy to underestimate a hallway as if feels like a small space, but when looking at the length of the walls, it can really add up.

We then plastered all the walls and ceiling, before we painted the walls in Dulux Easy Care Brilliant White. It’s a dark space as we have practically no natural light, due to the extension taking away the landing window. Something we have been dabbling with is installing a light tunnel (we have one successfully used in our family bathroom), so we may do this in the future.

We actually painted the hall in a grey tone, but it wasn’t successful and we repainted it white to maximise the light. I also wanted something easy to clean as it gets a lot of footfall.

It’s really stood up despite my scrubbing here and there at stubborn marks. We also replaced our radiators to match the living room with column radiators from the Acova range as well as changing the sockets and adding a couple of new spotlights near the door. I only wish we added a couple more spots as it really makes a huge difference to the lighting.

Before Photo

1930s Front Door

One of the biggest decisions for our hallway renovation was definitely the front door. We had an old porch on the front of the house, which we took down and a white UPVC door. Neither of these added to the 1930s house style, so it was something we wanted to change pretty swiftly.

I would have loved a salvaged and restored original 1930s wooden door complete with stained glass window. But, I knew it wasn’t going to be very cost-efficient let alone energy efficient or as secure. So we started an extensive search for a suitable replacement. I wanted to make my heart sing every Christmas when I hang my homemade wreath and every time we pulled up to the house.

In stepped Rockdoor, with their Newark style, which we personalised to suit our requirement exactly. We chose black for a classic style with a red and green stained glass window. It’s handleless on the outside, with a centre knob and low letterbox.

We are so pleased with the door and it really fits in well with our exterior and interior. We chose for the inside of the door to be white to allow as much light as possible and I just love when the sun brings in the stained glass window reflections.

We have also changed our garage door, but I will cover this when we get to the exterior of the house when we have also changed all the windows (another job on our to-do list!).

Herringbone Parquet Floor

We wanted to continue the solid oak herringbone parquet floor from the hallway into the living room. So at the time of ordering the wood from Direct Wood Flooring we ordered extra for the hallway too. Just in case it was no longer stocked or a different batch had a slightly different tone.

I was worried about it getting worn out being in the hallway, but I think it adds to the charm and character over time. Our fitter came back after we completed the build to install it.

Carpet Stair Runner

In our old house, I loved the feature carpet stair runner we installed. It was something that I felt definitely needed to be added into this space too, with a couple of changes. Firstly we sanded and painted the stairs in a different paint, a diamond tough paint as our old stairs chipped quite a bit.

We painted this in white, again to maximise the light in the space. For the carpet runner, I researched quite a bit, but came to the conclusion to go with a wool carpet. This is a contrast to the carpet upstairs, but a fluffy thick pile carpet I felt wouldn’t work so well.

Our carpet fitter came right at the end of the renovation to fit and it looked great in the soft grey we plumped for. We were warned that our cat may scratch at the carpet and yes she has! However, she has done so at the top and I think it’s holding up OK so far. It really makes the perfect period statement upon entering our home.

Peg Shelf & Bench Seat

For storage and seating in the hallway I really loved the idea of a bench seat and peg rail shelf for the shaker style that’s really on-trend at the moment. After much searching online I found a local furniture maker who made the bench to size and we painted it in a dark grey we custom mixed.

I found our peg rail shelf on Etsy, again it wasn’t painted so we painted it in the same colour to match and installed it above the bench. It was really cost-effective for the end result so I was super pleased. The bench is a great spot to sit and put shoes on and the school bags fit in there a treat. I then added a belly basket from eBay, for which I handmade wool pom poms to add to it and a barn star completed the look.

Antique Pine Chest of Drawers

I found this gorgeous antique pine set of drawers at a Spring fair and I fell in love with it at first sight. I never purchase big items on a whim but I couldn’t let it go. It’s been altered over the years but it has a lovely aged and quirky feel to it.

The artwork above was gifted by Rise Art (you can see the unique wedding gift feature here) and is by Magdalena Morey, I just adore it. The lamp I went on a hunt for and came up trumps in Matalan, which I think really adds to the art deco vibes.

Our budget didn’t stretch to my dream ceiling light fitting just yet, but the lampshade I chose fitted in really nicely and added some warmth. The pampas grass is from eBay. I also must mention my love for the curved wall, which you can see from the photo below.

 

Internal Oak Veneer Four Panel Doors

A particular headache for us has been the internal doors. I would have loved to have had original 1930s internal wooden doors. However, we decided that to add them in would be impractical.

So instead I chose a traditional-looking four-panel oak veneer door. But they have been really hard to fit as our doorways have proved troublesome. We have fitted four so far and love them, but we have another five to fit and I haven’t quite braved up to invest in them just yet.

I also love the knobs, however, they have proved tricky to use so I may have to rethink the handles upstairs, unfortunately. It can’t all be plain sailing mind due!

Nest Thermostat & Fire Alarms

We had a rickety old thermostat here and although we haven’t replaced our boiler, we really wanted to incorporate this technology. I am happy with the Nest thermostat as it looks so much smarter in the hallway, but it’s also great to control on your phone!

We also have their smart smoke alarms installed! These give me peace of mind that they will wake us as they ‘speak’ and alert via your mobile phone too.

Column Radiator & Vintage Oval Mirror

As previously mentioned we changed our old radiators to column radiators. I popped a vintage oval mirror right near the entrance, which I picked up many years ago. I now need some additional bits for the walls which I am looking forward to adding over time. More mirrors and artwork I think.

So there we have our hallway renovation in our 1930s house, with a slightly modern touch.

You can find our family bathroom makeover, our garden patio renovation and our colourful kitchen renovation on the blog too.