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Center Hallway Improvements

As is common in these lovely old apartments, our front entry is a long, wide, central hallway with doors into the kitchen, living room, dining room and water closet. It's the lovely main artery of the flat with tons of vintage molding. And when once we moved in, it looked like this:
Center Hallway - With Light Bulb Hanging From a Wire! Charming!
I was planning for this hallway, of course, so I made sure to pack the navy Flor tiles from our foyer (and I'm so grateful we did), as well as the white Ikea benches. They look almost custom to the space and both are super-useful. The little shelf is also handy to hold keys, socks, grocery sacks and whatever else ends up there.
The Hallway Is So Big Rey Can Practice 

So really, there was just a few things that I needed to do to complete the hallway so it was most practical: hang coat hooks, buy inexpensive light fixtures and accessorize with some art.

We picked up some GREAT stainless steel lights from Ikea that were very inexpensive. And this weekend we finally got them installed.

BUT.

UGH.

The wiring must be bad in the ceiling because only one of them works. And it's NOT the one near the entry door where we need it most.

So, we get to have a nice conversation with the landlord about it and hope he can fix them quickly and with minimum fuss. We do need working lights, really.

(*This does ring very similar to the foyer light in our Ill. home that is also not working. Wish we had a landlord there to appeal to. Huh.)

Even not functioning, which is frustrating, the lights do look SUPER COOL.

We got the coat hooks at a cute Crate and Barrel-y store called Masions Du Monde, where I've found a bunch of fun decor items. And shop isn't too far from the apartment.

So it's all coming together nicely. And here's where we stand today ...


It's not a terrible beginning ... especially since we've only been in the apartment for a total of 19 days.

On Sunday I added a little lamp on the shelf, also from Maisons Du Monde, so we're not tripping over each other as we're pulling on coats, scarves and checking the backpacks have all they need for the school day.

I might add a few more hooks here and there. And that entry closet (which is HUGE) is going to get disorganized quickly, so I'll have to devote some time to tame the clutter ... but later.

And I have to keep in mind this is just a rental, so even though I'm itching to paint and hang shelves and big pieces of art, I'm restraining myself. There's no point in investing the money in an apartment we're eventually leaving.

Not to mention, there are other rooms that need some attention, too.

More on those later.



Related posts:
All the Paris Move stories
More about my Flor Tile Obsession

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