Hollah for the Hallway

Let's knock off another 'room' in the house tour, shall we?  This one technically isn't a room, but it is an important space - the upstairs hallway.

A Little disclaimer....

I have been trying to photograph this space for over a week.  It's been too dark, too bright, too messy, etc, etc, etc.  I finally managed to snap enough photos over the course of 2 days, one of which I had a little girl who was determined to photo bomb.  The only thing that was keeping her semi-occupied was the ipad.  I finally relented and just decided that she was going to be part of the hallway that day.  So, this is a 'room' tour with some bonus blurry toddler shots (she's busy watching In The Night Garden...anyone else familiar?  Do you have the theme song stuck in your head all day long too?).

Our house layout is pretty typical.  Upstairs, the master bedroom is separated from the other two bedrooms by a little hallway, with a bathroom in the middle.

This is the view from the master.

*Mr. Swell calls this Fin's Ho Chi Minh pose - it's her fave.

It's not a huge space by any means, but at least it's wide enough that Diefenbaker can turn around without knocking us all over, and it gives me lots of room to stumble around while making my way to Fin's room in the middle of the night (usually at least a few times a night....sigh...).

This hallway has seen a few additions over the years.  At first, I just had some art hanging, but then decided that it was big enough that it could handle a piece of furniture too - enter the antique Singer.

The sewing machine was given to us by Mr. Swell's parents.  It's a family heirloom.  Apparently it even works, but I wouldn't know where to start.  When my mother-in-law asked if I would like it, I jumped on the opportunity, but had no idea where it was going to go.  I made Mr. Swell haul the thing up the stairs to see if I liked it in the hallway, and as soon as he reached the top he told me it was staying.  Since there was no way that I could move it down by myself, I didn't really have much of a choice except to leave it.  Luckily it totally works in the space.

Above it is our little happiness print that is from Urban Barn.  We have another similar print in our living room (the blue broken wings print), and I just love them both.  It's one of the pieces of art in our house that always gets lots of comments. You know I couldn't just leave an empty horizontal surface, so the little sewing machine received a bit of 'frosting'.

I found the one garden book at a garage sale earlier this year, and the other 2 books are ones that I had as a kid - the Wind in the Willows and Anne of Green Gables (a Canadian classic).

To the one side is a little bird cage holding a votive (from Urban Barn...yes, I have an Urban Barn addiction) and a little money bank.

I actually bought that little money bank for Mr. Swell while I was in Halifax for work about 5 years ago, while we were still dating.  I thought it was hilarious.  In case you can't read the small print it says "this jail hair has gotta go".  If you know Mr. Swell personally, you will get this joke.  Anyhow, it works great for us to toss our change in when we empty our pockets before bringing the laundry downstairs.

I picked up the little kissing dutch couple at the Salvation Army for $1.99.  I had planned to spray paint them white, but decided the blue worked on top of the green book, so I just left them.  I think they are so cute...although they periodically get rearranged by Mr. Swell to not be so cute.  The antique pulley is one that I also picked up at a garage sale (I have 3 of them scattered around the house).

Here's the view from the guest room towards the master bedroom.

I'm working on getting our master bedroom finished.  It's been in a state of disarray since before Fin was born!  You may notice a valance is missing....it fell off one day and I'm now terrified it's going to fall on our heads while we are sleeping and knock us unconscious, so I'm hesitant to put it back up.   

The wall just outside the master bedroom holds my newest Lucy Snowe prints.  

These 2 little guniea hens were a super sweet birthday gift this year.   I just love them!  They are framed in plain old Ribba frames from Ikea.  We also have 3 buffalo prints from Lucy in our living room - she does some amazing photography and is just the nicest lady.

And lastly, we have a gallery wall of sorts going down our stairs.

I've slowly been adding to this wall as we acquire new photos that deserve wall realty.  I've seriously considered spray painting all of the frames white, but just can't decide. What do you think?  Fin loves looking at all the photos as we go down the stairs in the morning just after she wakes up...hence why some of them aren't straight!

So there you have it.  Did you think there would be so much to say about a hallway?  Leave it to me to be wordy!  How about you?  Any cool hallways? Anyone know how to use that antique sewing machine and can teach me?

Linking to: