Saturday 29 January 2011

pale and interesting

now I'm not talking about myself!!.. ( at one point during "the sunbed years" my mum actually commented on how i looked like a carrot!) i let the Nivea false tan do the talking for me on that one!!

no I'm talking about my hallway...
the lovely Sadie from the lovely Cotton Rose blog was talking about painting her hallway Gustavan grey.. now this time last year i was having the same conversation with my hubby..i really wanted to paint our hallway grey .. and have accents of red.. - i think the country homes and interiors of December featured a Swedish house so i instantly wanted that look!!
anyway i did a post here


about how many different types of grey there actually was.. there were very blue tones and then almost brown tones... i wanted more of a white tinge to mine..

now because our hallway is narrow.. and then the stair well is very high it would have looked to depressing if it was very dark grey.. so i thought id opt for the paler end of the spectrum..
i didn't want it to look to cold either and because i don't have any plug sockets in the hallway there would be no chance i could have a lamp to soften the light.. big light all the way here girls!!

i put a period style wallpaper (from Wilkinson's of all places.. they don't do it any more..gutted actually because it was lovely and only about £6 a roll..) under neath the dado rail.. which i just painted bright white.. and then i finally opted for a dulux colour mix called Quartz Flint 6





i picked the palest of the colours because i thought on a big scale it would look darker than the tester squares i had painted on....it didn't!!

it is very pale , it is almost white.. i have tried to pick out the grey with the little cupboard on the wall which i painted a darker grey...

and the pewter of my mirror.. but to be honest i think after a year i could probably go a shade darker now!!!




so the problem now is to go for Quartz Flint 5 or 4 or a different make all together..

defo need to get a new carpet the one we have is absolutely wreaked its full of coffee stains, black unidentified marks and paint !!..i have seen one which is striped in tones of grey... think i will have to start selling on eBay again to get some pennies for it!!


9 comments:

  1. perfect! Thank you so much for posting the pics, it's EXACTLY what I'm thinking of and I know the husband will like it. I suspect in his mind he's seeing a battleship grey, but as you said in the looking for the paint post, there are so many variations on grey. And some are quite warm.

    And your hall looks perfect, lovely colour (love the shoes on stairs, we always have them there too!), lovely chandelier. Perfectly Gustavian. Just wonderful. J'adore!

    will show hubs once he's back from cinema with little lady (they've gone to see Tangled. I think that's what it's called. I'm home with Period Living and The English Home, so I can glean ideas!)
    xxx

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  2. I like your hallway as it is, but I'm sure it could stand going a tone or two deeper. I love dark grey furniture always look's great in Ikea, not sure how it would look in my home though. Have you thought about just painting the staircase treads? Have a good weekend x

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  3. I also commented on Cotton Rose's blog. We are just having an understairs cupboard fitted - as I type! Then once the weather improves a bit, I want to paint over our embossed wallpaper. But blue or grey?? Just cant decide.
    -x-

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  4. It looks lovely, i would love to have a long hall way. Grey is lovely and im sure it will look great. Dee x

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  5. Your hallway looks lovely, I always go for the safe colours apart from in my hallyway which i have papered with a raspberry O&L paper(only on two walls though!)

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  6. It looks really lovely and so clean and neat! Our hallway is a dumping ground for... Bella's towel.(needed every time we come back from a walk at the mo)....muddy boots,coats,etc.I wish we'd put down wood flooring instead of carpet,as it gets dirty so quickly!I love the period features in your hallway. :0)

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  7. yey! Me again. Got the hubs to take a look at your piccies, and he loves what he sees. He's realised now that I mean a warm, soft grey, and he's fine with that. So a big, huge Thank You for taking time to write this post, it has been a super help :o) xx

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  8. Am loving the look of your hallway and we have the same chandelier, mines in my bedroom. Need to decorate my hallway since having a wall put back up, as usual it's taking me ages to get around to it but you have inspired me to crack on with it! xx

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  9. It looks gorgeous! Our stairs are painted grey, too. We'd been arguing about it for ages but apparently grey is a Palladian colour and perfect for our Georgian house. It goes surprising well with gilt coloured frames. xxx

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