Our Staircase Photo Gallery Wall - Finally Complete!

Way back in 2011 (holy cow, was it really that long ago?), I shared the reveal of the gallery wall in our staircase. It only spanned one wall at that time, and I figured eventually I'd fill up the other wall but it's never really been a priority. To say we've had some other projects on our plate since then would be a severe understatement. 

Below is a quick reminder of what the existing gallery wall looks like. (If you want to see a blast from the past, you should check out the first reveal post to what the wall color used to be!) The frames are filled with photos from vacations, but they were starting to feel pretty outdated.

Seeing as how we've taken quite a few other vacations over the years, I recently decided it was time to extend the gallery to the opposite wall, down the stairs that lead to our basement.

I wanted to take the same approach, which was a variety of different frame designs and sizes that would all be painted white or ivory. A couple weeks ago as I drove by an At Home store, I decided to pop in to check out their frame selection. There was conveniently a clearance event taking place, so I ended up filling my arms with as many frames as I could hold — some of which weren't on sale, but still cheap. I bought 9 frames for a total of $58, which felt pretty reasonable.

Our Stairwell Makeover: An Evolution over the Years

You may recall that, during the process of all our renovations, I've been gradually painting pretty much all of our woodwork white. Last week, I finally painted the stair ledge, which was one of the few remaining pieces still stained Colonial Maple (i.e. "orange oak"). 

As I was going up and down the stairs for laundry this past weekend, I stopped myself and decided to take a few pictures of our stairwell. The transformation over the years has been pretty major, so I thought it would be fun to share. And also because sometimes I need to remind myself of how far we've come and how much we've accomplished -- especially when it seems like the renovations will never end.

But first... in order to really appreciate the end result, let's start with a look at the stairwell from when we first bought the house. The rest of our walls were a warm gold color, but the hallway/stairwell was a dark reddish color, maybe brick red? I admit that I liked these colors at first, but that was way back in 2008, so it just goes to show how times and tastes have changed.

Wow... warm tone overload!

(You'll notice that some of the woodwork in the hallway and stairs was already white, while the rest of the woodwork throughout the house was Colonial Maple. A precursor to the eventual identity crisis...)

Gray Matters: A Gray Paint Transformation (Part II)

So it occurred to me that I teased about my new gray paint job way back in November, and then never blogged about it again. Whoops. Bad blogger, bad! I'm sure you were all losing sleep over it, right? Not to worry, my friends. Seven months later, here is the full reveal!

You can visit Part I to see the 'before' pictures, but here's a little collage as a quick reminder. Our walls used to be a very warm beige (almost gold?), with a dark reddish hallway and stairwell. Those were the colors the interior was painted when we bought the house as the first owners. 

Ten gallons of paint later, the transformation was complete. I loved it then, and I'm still really happy with it. It feels fresh, modern, and airy. Because I've already drug this out long enough, here are the after pictures!