MFH Home Tour: Staircase/Upstairs Hallway

Someone was vacuuming upstairs while I was working this morning. I didn’t give it much thought, until I took a break and discovered that the upstairs hallway had been cleaned. Miracles do happen! This has been a clutter hot-spot lately, so I figured I’d better grab my camera and give you guys a tour while it’s nice and neat. Up for a quick peek at our staircase and upstairs hallway? Follow me.

This scrolly letter H hangs above the entrance to our dining room (which is located directly across from the staircase). You see it when you’re coming down the stairs. I found it at a yard sale several years ago. It would have once been attached to a vintage screen door. My kind of wall art.

There’s a teeny tiny wall between where the dining room and living room entrances meet up. I have an old, rusty carport post hanging there. It fills the space nicely, and always gets commented on.

It landed in my friend’s antique store, where I promptly snatched it up. You may remember that we also used carport posts to build the grape tunnel in our garden.

This faux wood carved piece was a yard sale find.

I love how textural it is.

Now, allow me to turn your attention to the stairs. When we bought the house, they were covered in grungy carpet. Yuck! We pulled all of that up, yanked up a billion carpet tacks, and then sanded and refinished the stairs. It was a major undertaking, but so worth it.

Fun Fact: this isn’t the original location of the staircase. It used to come out in the kitchen. I can’t even imagine it that way, but it’s true nonetheless. It was moved two owners back. Just one of those interesting things about owning a 96-year-old house.

We had all the walls in the house replastered a few years ago, which means we’re now reluctant to put a bunch of holes in the walls. I knew I wanted to rehang our family photos on the stairs, so I bought a gallery system to mount there. The picture frames attach to the gallery system, rather than the walls, so I can change or add pictures without making any holes in the plaster.

To make sure I’d be able to continue adding to our gallery wall even after the system was discontinued, I bought extra hardware and frames.

Our house didn’t have electricity when it was built, so it has lots of big windows throughout, including these two on the landing. They let lots of natural light in.

That little plant stand that you can just barely make out in the bottom right-hand corner of the photo is a curb find from almost 14 years ago. I was a nice piece, but it hadn’t been assembled well, so when we found it, it was in pieces. My husband put it back together, and we’ve enjoyed it ever since.

This rooster weathervane will eventually live on top of our garage. We bought an antique cupola for it at Brimfield three years ago.

But for now, I get to enjoy it every time I go up or down the stairs.

Another half-flight of stairs takes you to the upper level of our house. Here’s the view looking back down the stairs.

And here’s the first thing that you see at the top of the stairs. It’s a Victorian ceiling tin that’s been stretched over a canvas frame. I bought it at the World’s Longest Yard sale three or four years ago.

I love all the rust, chippy paint and embossing. Such a fun piece.

And here’s your first glimpse down the upstairs hallway. There are three bedrooms and a bathroom off of this hall. I gave you a tour of our master bedroom, but I still need to show you the rest of those rooms. Stay tuned for those.

I bought this rug three years ago, and I’m as happy with it now as I was when I first got it. It’s an indoor/outdoor rug from Ballard Designs. It was cheap, and it’s held up beautifully.

I added this dresser to the upstairs hallway about two and a half years ago. It given us some much-needed storage space.

I bought the dresser at a flea market for $12.42, and repainted it. This is what it looked like when I bought it. Sturdy, but in need of a makeover.

Want to see what I keep inside it?

The top drawer holds all of our medicine. This keeps it handy, but away from the humidity in the bathroom. Our kids are older (almost 12 and 14), so we don’t have to worry about keeping medication out of their reach.

We also keep our travel toiletries in this drawer.

The second drawer holds vintage pillowcases for the kids’ beds.

The third drawer holds pillowcases for our bed.

The bottom drawer holds things that the kids often need for school trips/camping trips/etc. It has beach towels, sunscreen, bug repellent, ponchos and swimsuit wet bags. Creating a space for these things has been such a game-changer for me. Now, the kids know where to look for these things without having to ask me.

You know what’s amazing? I haven’t had to reorganize/declutter this dresser once since I set it up. That’s how you know you’ve landed on a system that works. Wish I could say that for every part of the house!

And this is my beloved linen closet. I’m a huge collector of vintage linens, so there are some fun things in there. I’ll save that tour for another day.

The gray that I used on the walls is Anonymous by Sherwin Williams.

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