The Back Hallway Progress

As mentioned, we found some extra budget and made all my back hallway dreams come true this month. 

This is where we started. Note the awful pink "terracotta" floor tile that was cracking in the laundry room. The door to the left is the garage, the powder room is to the right. And that door at the end is the coat closet. And the laundry room door is at the end to the right. 

Make sense? 

My beef with this poky hallway is this closet and this wall. It cuts the floor space into nothing, and if it was gone, it could be an awesome little back ROOM. 

Don't worry, this is one of three closets back here. Remember the coat closet at the end? And the laundry room has a closet, too, and cabinets. 

We need to remove this wall. And as much as I teased Dave about doing it ourselves, he wasn't buying it. So I made this little drop zone to make the best of it (here's the post here, for more details). 

So the simple PLAN: Remove the closet, retile the floor -- all the way into the laundry room. 

Here's an in-progress photo. You can see the demo is done, tile is in (and matches the powder room, so the entire space is the same floor) and the coat closet. 

This in-progress shows the hallway now that the hated wall is gone and it looks like a ROOM. We love it. We joked we could put a tv and armchair and use it as a den. 

And the coat closet got an upgrade ... moving the hanging rod UP about 1 foot, I was able to add these two shelves for shoes and hats below. Hopefully, it will help us keep the area cleaner and more organized. 

And the current view, with a little white Ikea bench we've been moving around the house for years. It fits perfectly! 

It's an indescribable joy to walk in from the garage (which we do multiple times a day) and not hit a wall. Or all put our shoes on in this hallway and not worry about getting hit in the face by the garage door swinging in as we're walking by with laundry. BEST decision to remove it. 

More to come on the FINAL look at this back hallway. I have some paint, hooks and styling to figure out. Nothing is ever done, amiright?!