Come May, we will have lived in our house for five years, but somehow there are still loads of projects that have not yet been completed. It is the result of some sort of combination involving having two small children, little money, and me not being able to find exactly what I want, well at least not at a reasonable cost. But in 2012, I (well my hubby has to play along) have committed to finishing our house! There may be a lot of projects, but they aren’t all huge and so we’ll start with the small stuff. First up, the tiny downstairs hallway that connects my kitchen, bathroom, living room, and basement. There wasn’t really anything wrong with this space until we had a leak from the bathtub upstairs, and the ceiling and wall had to be repaired which meant they needed to be painted and we didn’t have any more of the original paint color.

Here’s a peak at what it looked like before. Well technically the light fixture is also brand new and recently replaced the one that came with the house when it was built in 1948. I was shocked and pleased to find this bubble glass hanging pendant at Home Depot and for under $70 no less. While their products are fine for quality I typically find them to be very run of the mill so I couldn’t believe my eyes when there were dozens of interesting pendants to choose from.

We’ve always had photos hanging in this space, but there were only three large ones. We’ve also long discussed creating a gallery wall, but I didn’t want it to take up a huge wall. One of my most favorite things in people’s homes it to look at all of their photos and especially when they span generations. I decided this was the perfect small space to create the gallery walls because everyone passes through this hallway when they come to our home and it would still allow for the house to feel uncluttered (at least on the walls) because it wasn’t covering a huge space.

The next step was to paint. I decided that I really wanted to photos to be the focal point of the space and so I decided to paint it white. Plus, painting it white really brightened up this small space. Before heading to my local paint store to agonize over which white would be the right white I checked the basement to see what white paint I already had. And can you believe I actually had a color that was just called “white.” It wasn’t “snow white” or “super white” or “white lily.” I went with it.

Next up were the frames and what went in them. I decided I wanted to keep things pretty simple and clean, but I also wanted to be easy to add more frames as we have more photos and artwork to add. So I decided to go with a combination of black, white, and silver frames. The contents of the frames would be a mix of photos and artwork from our kids and others. While it was important for me to get this done. It is not finished and never will be as I expect that it will forever evolve as we add more photographs and found objects. I set it up with blank spaces to fill in rather than centering everything that I had right now. One of the most important things I did (although I have to give credit to Pamela who put up with me through it) is to lay each grouping of frames out on the floor before hanging them. That way I could see which frames sat right together and which photos and artwork worked best together. That is the step that should most definitely not be skipped. And I’m quite happy with how it all turned out…so far.

So what else is on the list for projects to get done this year:

1. Paint and reorganize the mudroom.

2. Replace front door and front steps.

3. Dig up most of the front yard and re-landscape.

4. Renovate downstairs bathroom from floor to ceiling.

5. Replace original light fixtures in front hall and upstairs hall.

6. Paint staircase and replace railing.

7. New chandelier for dining room.

8. Refinish and reupholster dining room furniture.

9. Hang curtains, get new rug, and replace lamps in master bedroom.

9. Hang curtains, paint, and reupholster furniture in my daughter’s room

10. Put the finishing touches on my son’s room.

11. Tile and replace surround of fireplace.

Of course there are the other really important things that need to be done like replacing the roof and adding insulation to the house. Those sadly might have to get moved to the top of the list and then we’ll see what’s left over to try to accomplish the other things on it. But hopefully, having a visual list (and exposing it to the world) will help motivate us to get it all done.

If you like this post, then you might like these:
Our Picks for Pottery Barn’s Best of Summer 2012
Family Photo Gallery Wall
OPEN HOUSE:  Amy’s Greenhouse Conversion