Hallway Re-Do

We have a sort of awkward space between our kitchen, bath, dining room, and living room.  It's a very small hallway, and there are four doors coming off of the hallway.  We removed the door between the hall and the living room to open it up a bit more.  There's a built in storage area that has had several uses just in the five months we've lived here.  It's been a linen closet with a curtain hanging on it.  It's been an open shelving area that was poorly utilized and seemingly was always a mess.  It's been a bit of a butler's pantry.  It's been a waste of space.  It's not anymore!  Removing the door to the living room (which opened to block the shelving - what genius thought of that?!) made a huge difference.  Then I decided to paint it.

We painted the backs of the shelves the same blue as the dining room.  It looked great, and we planned to use this area as a built in bookshelf.  Then Chris decided he would trim out the shelving to make it more finished.  He did such a good job!

It's so difficult to get a good photo in this area, because it's so small.  We also painted the walls a khaki color (I think called stone.) and it looks great.  We replaced the weird light-kit-with-a-glass-shade that was hanging from the ceiling with a vintage copper light fixture that came from my great-grandmother's house in Green Pond, New Jersey about 50 years ago.  It originally had multi-colored glass panels, which we are replacing with frosted glass.  Chris used the ceiling cap from the brothel chandelier in the breakfast room and spray painted it copper to match the light fixture.

I love the light fixture, and am so excited to have it.   It was in scary electrical shape when my parents gave it to me, but Chris (who loves a project as much as I do!) rewired about 15 minutes after taking it out of the box.  And, I will add, when I walked in the house with the water-stained box that the light was in he looked warily at me and said, "What the hell is in that box?"  He was less than excited about it at first glance.  Maybe it was the exposed wiring that frightened him?  I don't know why. . .

I haven't decided yet what will go on the shelves, and I'm sure it will be a bit of an ever-changing space. I'm thinking some baskets on the bottom, books, photos, etc.  I'm excited to get it pulled together.