Hallways

I'm trying to write regularly each day because I know soon there will be a giant hole in my blogging as I struggle to get blogger unblocked in China. It's not just my blog I worry about, it's all the blogs I read on a weekly basis. There are plenty of bloggers in China so it's just a technical tweek but we won't be settled for a little while so I'll be blogging from the hotel and I know Google is blocked there. I think in that case I'll blog from Flickr for a few months.

Yesterday we had the mason here getting ready to lay the tile in our bathroom and apparently it will all be finished by tuesday, yay! Since we had to tear out our basement shower over a week ago we have been washing up in buckets outside so I'm really eager to get my bath. It's been two years now of dodgy bathroom-ness and I feel long overdue for the luxury of a real bathroom. The mason is great but my only problem is that he's always got these ideas. I chose a really modern tile for the bath and not only does he want to lay it in a staggered brick pattern, ugh, he has all these wild ideas like making little tiled boxes on the floor for hiding the pipes. I'm not sure what he's saying half the time. I just systematically negate all his ideas and I think it makes him mad but I'm not paying him to design the bathroom. He's nice and I think it bugs him not to contribute but I'm really afraid he's going to just go off and create something when I'm not looking. I just want him to lay the tile straight and not make a fuss. I want the bathroom to look sleek.

I've finished the hallway and I'm really proud of how it looks even if it is a boring white. I didn't feel like investing in the paint or taking the trouble mix it myself. The other day I glanced down at my color palette for the house and all my notes and threw it in the garbage. It was a sad moment but at the same time I guess I'll have our apartment to decorate and a new color palette to think about.

I bought a recuperated chandelier from the late 70's at a brocante, very mod looking, for lighting the hallway. The estate agent seemed to think the renters will want to do their own lighting and said they had the right to take it down and store it. She kind of crinkled her nose at it sitting on the floor so I thought maybe it wasn't in everyone's taste. And then I could just picture it sitting haphazardly on a shelf in the basement so I told Seb we'd leave the lights we already hung but this baby goes in storage. I've been bugging him to hang it so I'm disappointed. I really wanted to see the completed look but that will have to wait. I hate bare light bulbs so for now I'll put the Ikea melodi which looks nice at night all lit up and will at least make the atmosphere cosy. I really doubt the renters will take the time to change it.

Hallways in houses are really important to me. I love the formal entry way of our house even if many people have suggested we knock out the walls. We looked at a lot of 19th century houses like ours when we were house hunting and those with knocked down walls in the entryway were sad. It was as if the houses had lost all their charm. I like the pomp and circumstance of entering a mysterious hall with doors going different directions, the anticipation of where the rest of the house might lead you. My entryway decorating file is HUGE. There's so much you can do in that small inviting space.

I don't keep track of the sources for photos. Sorry for the copyright infringement.