Decorating challenge

[badkitty]

We rent. The stairway and entry area into our appartment is UGLY. The appartment itself is fine, but the approach is almost scary. So my husband's birthday is next week and since it is near the holidays, affoarding a good present is rough, but my landlady said if I do the work she'll by the paint, so I want to be sneaky and redo it next weekend. I need help though, cause I have trouble imaginining it being anything but ugly. I also have a specific area I have a question on.

First let me describe it. You go up a long UGLY stairway. with high high walls, that are plain and boring and did I say UGLY? At the top of the stairs there is a little rectangular room. The top of the stairs is on the same wall as the door to the appartment. To the right of the stairs are arts and craft supplies. Across from both doorways is a sloping celing. It goes down to about 3 feet (and had an UGLY pipe there), so though the room is about 8X10 you can only walk upright in a tiny portion of it.

The cats litter box used to be to the left of the stairs. They did some damage to the wall there. A coat rack and shoe rack is there as well.

I can change how I store what is in there but would like to try to leave it in the area.

I can invest about $100 tops next weekend (not counting the paint and supplies which will be free) but could add more.

Thoughts? Colors? Anyone know how to fix what the cat clawed up?

Please... please respond.... kind of desperate for help on this one.

[zehava]

my thoughts... PAINT! a LOT! lol. obvious, huh ;)

i'd keep it a pretty light/'fresh' colour though (it looks like there are no windows and a dark colour would make it seem closed in rather than cosy without windows). beige, light pale yellow...?

if you used storage that is all closed, not see through, not open, it would tidy the area up a lot. it doesn't look messy, mind you, but in such a strange space i think hiding any clutter behind closed doors/drawers is a good idea :)

eta: if you can't do 'closed' storage of any kind, matching shelves throughout the area would look okay too.

-z

[badkitty]

Yea!! someone answered, I was scared I would be on my own. Anyone with repair skills that knows what I need to do to fix the wall?

[zehava]

Yea!! someone answered, I was scared I would be on my own. Anyone with repair skills that knows what I need to do to fix the wall?

what's under the paint? drywall? it's hard to tell the building material from the pictures.

is it very badly scratched or just a 'surface' scratch?

from the pictures, i'd say a thin layer of drywall mud (or something similar) would do the trick to smooth the surface before painting (you have to let it completely dry before you sand and paint it).

-z

[BrigidMoon]

Yea!! someone answered, I was scared I would be on my own. Anyone with repair skills that knows what I need to do to fix the wall?
I'd through some puddy on it and sand it and THEN paint. :) That should do it!

As far as decor -- there are lots of things you can do depends on what you want or like.

[badkitty]

I would like welcominging and neat and not so plain. I am leaning towards painting light yellow, and than adding a blue curtain in the back(where it gets super short) that will cover the ugly pipe.

The long tall halls are another challenge. Can't figure out what to hang or how to hang it.

It needs something, but could look cluttered easily cause it is so narrow.

[zehava]

i had that 'tall hallway' thing happening in my staircase too. i happened across a silly LONG mobile from ikea for $10 that fits great in that space without cluttering it (it's a set of white open rings held together with thin rope)... here (http://www.ikea.ca/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10101&storeId=3&productId=13219&langId=-15&parentCats=10109*10250) it is.

-z

[-Ember]

With that long hallway: get a bunch of frames from a dollar store. You can frame anything and make it art. You can use many matching frames and mixed pictures/items or non-matching frames and a theme, or matching frames and a theme. At least one thing ought to be constant to keep it from being too scattered. By having many it makes the whole thing look important as a wall of art, without any picture by itself being a focus.

Ideas:
Collaged paper.
Fabric swatches in a mat.
Tissue paper.
Book pages.
Archetecual sketches.
Botanical images.
Scraps of lace or dolies.
Doll clothes.
Matted postcards.
Matted calander pictures.
Simple pattern sand paintings.
Anything you can think of.

For a faux antique look, tea stain things (gives it that faded yellowed/brown hue.)

[BrigidMoon]

With that long hallway: get a bunch of frames from a dollar store. You can frame anything and make it art. You can use many matching frames and mixed pictures/items or non-matching frames and a theme, or matching frames and a theme. At least one thing ought to be constant to keep it from being too scattered. By having many it makes the whole thing look important as a wall of art, without any picture by itself being a focus.

Ideas:
Collaged paper.
Fabric swatches in a mat.
Tissue paper.
Book pages.
Archetecual sketches.
Botanical images.
Scraps of lace or dolies.
Doll clothes.
Matted postcards.
Matted calander pictures.
Simple pattern sand paintings.
Anything you can think of.

For a faux antique look, tea stain things (gives it that faded yellowed/brown hue.)


Those are excellent ideas!

[Goddess Rhiannon]

What town do you live in?

[badkitty]

Enfield, wanna come paint ;)

[Goddess Rhiannon]

I was thinking just that....lol

[narleymarley03]

Fresh paint will be a great improvement. If you paint the pipes the same color as the walls they won't be too noticable. The ledge in the stairwell would look nice with some pots of silk greenery cascading down to soften the area. If you are worried about them getting knocked off use double back tape. Curtains would be nice to hide your storage and to bring some color into the area. And a nice area rug would bring it all together. Good luck. Let us see how it turns out.

[badkitty]

we started spackling last night. It fixed the scratched up part really well. :)

[LadyTrinity]

Quite a bit of wall damage! Gawd I wish you let me do your house! You would come back and cry. It would look that nice! I love to decorate and renovate! I see an ugly room and instantly I know what potental it has :thumbsup:

[badkitty]

So here is what we came up with, it started as me redoing the hall for my hubby and then ended with him deciding we could make the space into a reading/alter room for me. Since we don't have frequent company, and those that come are very close with us it works well.

Now that the holidays are done this is everything we can afford for a while, but there are still more ideas (specially for the stairs) in the works for when more funds are available.

[~*Ginger*~]

Wow!
Badkitty, you did very well!
Looks so much better!
Do you feel any better about it?

[badkitty]

Much better, though it makes me want to keep going and do more :)

[Suzette]

Ohhh, nice badkitty! I just found this section/thread. So much to surf at MW.. heehee.

My first thought with the entry staircase (and it looks like you could still do a bit of this) would be to go to craft store, purchase some really good quality silk fall foliage leaves and individually tack them to the walls in a 'tumbling' effect. Not that one would want someone to tumble down the stairs, LOL... But just a look like they were blown in... I think a few would look pretty against the yellow walls... :smile:

You did a lovely job!

OH, I should say I also rent and have a great relationship with my landlord and have converted a bland, generic apartment (with HUGE terrace for my garden!!) into what looks like a vintage, garden guest cottage. Lot's of little finishing touches you can do to make it a home, rather than a 'space.'

[Penguin]

What a great job you did! It looks beautiful !

[Ivy Artemisia]

It looks fabulous!

[SSanf]

Good I didn't see the thread. I would have said since it is so high to have silk plants hanging from gold chains and vines climbing up the pipe.

Honestly, it looks great!