We had a great weekend, including a quick trip to New Jersey for my cousin's wedding. It was a lot of fun hanging out with parents, brother, and cousins for an evening, but then we came right back home yesterday so we could attend an event at Elizabeth's school, a birthday party, and squeeze in some pool time as well. Wow, I'm still tired! I'm really looking forward to the 4th of July long weekend!
It's Monday so it's house tour day again! This time we're touring your front entries, stairwells and hallways. These spaces are often ignored so I wanted to give them the attention they deserve. After all, you pass these spaces many times per day so it's a great place to display items you love to look at.
We don't have a front entry but one of the best features of our house is our stairwell. Before we renovated, our stairs were one of the better features of our house. They ran up the back of our living room. We installed a runner to cover their imperfect finish but they still were very fitting for our colonial.
We wanted to keep the stairs where they were or modify them in the renovation process but ultimately our architect convinced us that moving them to a new location opened up so many options for us (including making a useless 4th bedroom into a perfectly sized room). Thank goodness she was persistent!
Here's how our stairwell looks now...
The stairwell goes up four stories - basement to attic - with no interruptions. My kids often eat a snack sitting on the bottom step. That step is also our time-out seat.
We originally planned to have a short banister to the right of the refrigerator but then our builder asked whether we thought we needed it because we all loved the open look. We did not need it for code purposes since we had the other handrail and it was less than the minimum drop off. We decided to leave it off knowing we could add it later, and we never looked back. Also, one other fun fact - the newel post at the base of the stairs in the picture above is actually our original newel post from our old stairway!
We have this small wall gallery of family pictures started on the first flight of stairs but we hope to extend that up the stairs as the years go on. I found the M at Ross for about $6 a year or two ago. They often have them if you are looking for something similar.
I also love how it's the centerpiece of our house both inside and outside. Here's the view from the driveway which gives you an idea of the height. It almost looks like a tower on the side of our house but it's so pretty in the early evening with all of the lights on.
This door off the driveway is the one we use most frequently now. Our tiny
mud area is right inside to the right under the window.
Your turn! Please link up any post about your front entry, stairwell, or a hallway in your house. Did you do something fun? Do you have big renovation plans? Let's hear it (and see it!). Feel free to link up to 3 separate posts.
