Mum Creates Striking Black Hallway Using £1 B&M And Charity Shop Bargains
- Amber, 33, wanted to cover up her kids’ handprints on the hallway walls
- She painted the space in black using bargain paint from Homebase
- Other bargains include £1 and £2 photo frames from B&M and charity shops
- She got her brother to help out - he only wanted a bacon sandwich as payment
The hallway is often the first place people see when they enter your home, and parents may find themselves despairing at kids’ handprints on the walls. However, one mum has bypassed this issue by transforming her hallway with a daring colour.
Amber Theobalds, 33 from Richmond upon Thames who is a receptionist and has two children aged 13 and 11, told money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk: ‘I painted my stairway black about a year ago (even the ceiling) and loved it immediately! It’s not everyone’s cup of tea but the pictures don't do it justice and everyone who has seen it in the flesh loves it!
‘I had been looking at rooms painted completely black on Pinterest and instagram, and wanted to apply it somewhere in my own home as the style of decor I love is Maximalist.
‘I wasn’t sure I had the bravery to do a whole room so decided on the hallway as it had been the bane of my life with two children constantly leaving handprints up the walls and having to re-paint it white over and over again.
‘I was inspired by the photographer and interior designer, Pati Robins, who I came across on Instagram. I immediately fell in love with her home and the moody colours and opulent mixture of textures she used throughout. I then started following the tag ‘maximastinteriors’ on Instagram to get more ideas.
‘I love a home that has stuff to look at and touch and interact with rather than bare walls and minimalism. I don’t mind having things to dust.’
Once Amber had her inspiration, she began shopping for supplies and sharing her progress on her Instagram profile @_amber.theo_ . ‘First I went to Homebase to pick up the paint for the walls and stairs. I used their own brand, called Zebra Black matte paint, and it was £13 per 2.5 litre tub. I used two tins in total.
‘For the stairs I used Ronseal Diamond Hard black floor paint, which was a little pricey but worth the money. It was £32 for a 2.5 litre tub and I only ended up needing one pot and one coat.
‘I wanted to get some LED lights with black backing so they would blend in better, as most have white backing. I managed to find them on eBay for £15. Then I moved onto other decor. I got the vintage light shade from a charity shop for £5 and stripped it down to the wire. Then I sprayed it white and added a retro lightbulb I already had.
‘The plants and stands are all from Poundland and cost between £1 and £5, I didn’t spend more than £20 overall. As for the rug, it was on sale for £8 at TK Maxx. At this point I was ready to focus on the main attraction, the frames covering the wall.
‘I used the My Free Prints app to print off a number of pictures that I liked in different sizes, and collected frames from The Range, B&M and charity shops. I got about 10 frames from The Range which were either £2.49 or £4.59. Then I got a few multipacks of photo frames from B&M for £3 and the others were only £1 or £2 each. The charity shop frames were the same price so overall I would say I spent about £60 in total, including the Command strips to hang them up.
‘I initially got started by painting the doors and door frames black and it kind of escalated from there. In my head, the whole hallway was going to be black. I’m quite impatient and when I have an idea I just have to do it, which is why I went and got the paint and started on the walls.
‘However I found I couldn’t reach the upper half and the ceiling. Luckily, my brother is a painter and decorator, so I called him up and got him to complete the top section. He managed to do it with a roller on a longer rod as no cutting in was needed; it was all going black. It was a pretty quick job overall.
‘The stairs were a little trickier and the only challenge I faced. I had to paint every other one, making sure the kids knew not to step on the painted ones. I also had to shut my two cats out for the day until it was touch dry. Thankfully, it was nice weather so they lounged about in the garden.
‘I had to repeat the whole process the next day for the rest of the stairs, and now they were all black, the kids had no idea which ones they could step on! I ended up putting a shoe on each step that was dry so they could remember. It worked well in the end but I wouldn’t recommend painting stairs in a busy house!
‘The only thing I would have done differently is the stairs, as looking back I probably would have got them carpeted. Painting them was the most time consuming part of the project, but it saved us a lot of money and still looks good so I can’t complain!
‘I didn’t get a professional quote as I knew it was something I’d be able to achieve with the help of my brother, who only required payment in the form of a bacon sarnie and a cuppa! His professional opinion was that I was mad to be painting it black - but he knew there was a method to my madness and he agrees it looks really striking now. I’ve had nothing but great comments and compliments from people who have seen it.
Tom Church, Co-Founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, said: ‘Painting a room in black is always a risk but if you do it right it will look stunning, as Amber has proven.
‘If you’re thinking about a similar transformation then make sure you offset the dark tones with contrasting colours, such as cream skirting boards, white frames and light decor.’
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