Hallway Makeover Reveal With M&L Paints — MELANIE LISSACK INTERIORS

AD / This post has been sponsored by M&L Paints. However, all colour choices, opinions, painting and decorating has been carried out, as usual, by me!

This hallway reveal is really a tale of two designs. The upstairs landing is pretty, pink and floral as planned (you can read more about that and see all the ‘before’ pictures here). While the the lower floors are more contemporary and the colour choices were only decided on halfway through the decorating process.

For this project, I decided that the skirting, doors, windows and coving would be made key features using colour, while the walls would simply be the backdrop. This is in reverse to how the hallway looked before, which was the traditional ‘colour on the walls + white woodwork’ look. The main aim of this makeover was to add some much-needed interest to the space and while I had considered adding mouldings and panelling, I felt it would be too imposing on the narrow area. The period doors and original coving were already great features, so it was these that were to ‘sing’.

All the paint used in this project is by M&L (previously know as Marston and Langinger). M&L paint is a thick, chalky interior matt, which plays an important factor in how the hallway now looks.

I know these ‘reveal’ posts are all about the pictures, so here are the main shots of the two conjoined spaces and I’ll talk in detail about each area further down:

Before, the top of the landing was the area that really suffered from the previous bad choices in colour and design. The light that shot up the stairs made the former green paint colour look shiny and more lime-coloured throughout much of the day. This was why a really matt paint from M&L would work as I was not looking for a glossy sheen here at all. Hallways can be really difficult spaces to decorate due to light coming from different areas and just the actual scale of them. Each room off the hallway was also quite a riot of colour and pattern and so to create a better flow between them, I knew I wanted the hallway to be neutral. If the woodwork was also going to be the ‘hero’ in terms of colour, a white base was a great canvas to work from.

All the walls across all the floors are painted in M&L ‘English Plaster’. While I didn’t want a pure brilliant white, I also did not want a white with coloured undertones. A white with yellow undertones is not to my taste; a white with blue undertones would be too cold for this style of house. While pink undertones would work, I felt it would be too much pink with the already pink woodwork. Instead, I went for English Plaster as it is a clear white but is very shaded. Imagine a white within a shadow -that is English Plaster. The thick, chalky make-up of M&L paints I think worked particularly well with this white. It has a beautiful, rich, dead-flat finish which suits my Georgian home perfectly.

When I previously painted this hall in a different brand of paint, it took three coats on the walls to get a decent amount of coverage. As you can see from the images, this hall has some very tricky, high areas that are not exactly fun to paint. I was delighted to find that with M&L the walls only required two coats, which I was surprised about considering I was putting a white over a darker colour (which can require a bit more effort to erase).

*The hallway walls with just one coat of ‘English Plaster’ by M&L Paints…*

What I also loved about M&L Paints was the complete lack of splashing and spotting. The paint is thick and creamy so you do not get covered in paint spots on your arms, face and floor! It was so drip-proof I actually became quite relaxed about even covering the floor while painting. I’ve used a lot of paint brands and I have to say this was the least ‘drippy’ I have ever used.

One of the things that happened when decorating this hallway was that each stage was a deciding factor for what happened next. On the landing, I knew I wanted the skirting and the doors pink to complement the vintage feel to the new floral curtains and the artwork that I wanted to hang. I was going to decide whether or not to paint in the window pink once the doors and skirting were done as I didn’t want it to be a ‘pink overload’. However, the pink I chose, ‘Plaster Pink’ (you can read here my choices of M&L pinks and why I went for this colour in particular) was so delicate it almost acted as a neutral rather than an ‘in your face pink’. I thus painted in the large window and I am so glad I did. Everything just ties in together so much better up here now. In fact, I went even further and created some corner picture shelves using cheap IKEA ledges and painted them Plaster Pink also. I love how the shelves match the skirting so it all looks a bit more bespoke. On the shelves, I grouped some vintage floral art and hung my large piece of abstract art gifted by Abstract House.

Once the landing was complete, I had to decide if I was going to bring the pink all the way down the stairs or go for something completely different. When I was perusing the M&L Paints colour chart, out of the 120 hues available I was so drawn to their ‘Bolds’ collection. Poppy reds, vivid oranges and deep peacock blues are all options from M&L. When testing out a few samples tins I fell in love with 'Niblock' an intense turquoise/teal that looks more green in dimmer lights and bluer on brighter days. The cornerstones of quality for M&L Paints are the intensity of colour, strength of pigment and opacity, which is evident in the ‘Bolds’ range. I knew I just had to have Niblock in my home and thought that making a feature out of the back of the front door was the perfect place for it. I loved my panelled front door and I knew it was being wasted just being cream. I also knew it would be even more of a statement if I created the illusion of it being larger with the paint, so I marked off 7cm around the frame and painted over the frame and onto the walls:

To complement my Niblock door I chose ‘Hessian’, a caramel-coloured neutral to paint the interior doors, windows and skirting on the lower floors. Hessian can seem grey in some lights, but it has a brown base making it much more on-trend than standard greys. It was also a good match for the pink as on the corner of the stairs the two colour met and had to be joined on the skirting. Plaster Pink and Hessian matched together so nicely, the paint join is barely visible. I loved Hessian so much I decided to take it up and over into the coving. Back in January I wrote about how painting the coving a separate colour to the walls was going to be a paint trend for 2019, so I thought I would give it a go in my own home. I’ve got to say I am delighted. It really looks effective and highlights a feature that would otherwise have faded into the ceiling:

As the focus of this area is the Niblock door going and up over to the Hessian coving, I needed to update the light fitting to something more suited to the colours being used. This LED chandelier is by MADE.com and is called ‘Wanda’. As it is LED is requires no bulbs! I also think it is great value at £169.

So that’s my huge hallway makeover! I have to say I’m really happy with how it worked out. I avoided making bad choices by waiting to see how one area worked out before planning the next stage. I also used the colours I loved and wanted to include such as Niblock and Plaster Pink and chose colours that complemented those to work alongside them. I really hope you like it too. Let me know what you think via the comments box below….