Transformation Tuesday: Our Creepy, Red Hallway

Our hallway Transformation:

Sorry for the belated Transformation Tuesday post but better late than never! 

The very first walls we ever painted in our new old house were these red hallways. Like why?

You might not be able to see them from the picture above, but there were also these teeny tiny "baseboards" that were installed all over the house. I am not even exaggerating when I say that they were half inch baseboards...in fact, I don't even think they make baseboards that thin so they couldn't have been actual baseboards..

On top of that, I found out that they were just glued to the wall. I discovered this when my swiffer wetjet bumped against the baseboard and an entire strip literally popped off the wall! So then I proceeded to bump each length of baseboard with my swiffer and found that each of them would indeed just pop off the wall with a little nudge. 

Sorry, let me retract that last statement. There were a couple baseboards that would not just pop off the wall. After further investigation, I found that a couple pieces of baseboard were actually screwed, yes screwed...no, not nailed...screwed into the walls- just a few... possibly the ones that were in high traffic areas that would get knocked off occasionally more than the other baseboards? Ever heard of a finishing nail? That would be what normal people would use... *hint *hint.

On top of that, on top of that, the popping baseboards led me to the fireplace where I realized the previous homeowner had installed baseboard around the base of the fireplace... Is it just me or is that weird?

 

So let me recap, we had teeny tiny half inch "baseboards" that were just glued or severely, overkill-y screwed into the walls, which also wrapped around the fireplace. 

How did we fix this?

Well the gap between the wall and the flooring was pretty wide, so Derek and I knew we had to get a really thick baseboard. The baseboard that the previous homeowner installed turned out to actually be corner trim. He was obviously trying to find a cheap alternative to thick baseboards. This is what it looked like:

We also needed a cheap alternative because any baseboard that would be thick enough to cover the gap started at $4/linear foot. So for one hallway, that would have been over $200, just for the baseboard. However, Derek and I knew we wanted to do some wainscoting in the hallway as well. So we opted for our version of a cheap alternative to thick baseboards. 

Out went the corner trim and in went 2x6's. Derek was a little hesitant at first as he is with all of my crazy penny pinching schemes, but in the end, he saw the light! Oh! Speaking of light, we also changed out the gold light fixture, which made a world of a difference. I'm all for gold but tasteful gold!

Here is a picture of the finished product: 

We still need to do a few more things like adding trim to the end closet and finishing our frame wall but we're so happy with the way everything turned out.

Now when we come home and walk up our front stairs, instead of seeing red, we have a feature wall that makes a statement in a classier way than an explosion of shocking color =) 

Here is what the new view from our front entry looks like:

Baloo says welcome home =)