Progress and problems...

Happy June, everyone. May just sort of slipped away from me there at the end as things got a little crazy here at home. As with any move, things go wrong. This move had gone pretty smoothly until about a week ago, when I discovered we seemed to have imported some bugs along with all of our stuff from storage. On top of the bugs that already seemed to be here, it was too much to deal with on my own, so that meant an exterminator. And that, of course, meant basically pulling out everything that had been put away and putting everything into the middle of the room so they could do their thing. It was one step forward, four steps back, if you know what I mean.
Things are looking up now, though. We seem to have conquered the bug problem and the house is slowly turning back into slightly more ordered chaos. I have been busy painting and putting away as time allows and have lots to show you over the next few weeks. I know I promised all of you some before shots, and you'll see those as we go along. Today I thought I would show all of you my purple/plum hall, which is located in the middle of the house.
This is the pass-through room in the house and the key to the layout, in my opinion, as it's a large part of what makes the house flow so well. The room has six doorways leading to six different rooms: the TV room, guest room/office, bedroom, bathroom, living room and dining room. In the photo directly above, which I took before everything arrived, you can see the dining room to your left (the french doors lead into the living room, which you can also see through the doorway to the right in the hall) and just a glimpse of the doorway to our bedroom on the far right. I painted the hallway walls this color about eight years ago; the ceiling is a pretty taupe. This room and my favorite bedroom are the only two rooms I asked my friend not to paint. (One of my good friends rented my home for the six years I lived in California. She now has her own old fabulous old fixer-upper.) She left the color as asked and the room looks as good today as it did when I first painted it (as it should since it took two coats of primer and three coats of paint to completely cover the yellow that was there before).

Since there are so many doorways and you must be able to walk through the room easily with little obstruction, I decided to use this room as our little library. And as you can see, I'm in desperate need of more bookshelves. I'm getting another just like the tall, skinny black one (it has to be custom made to fit the space), possibly two. The hall is also the perfect room for displaying some of my really bright art. It just pops on those purple walls. The prints below are by Jonathan Green, a wonderful Lowcountry artist. I have a couple of other watercolors I bought from local artists in Georgetown, S.C., hanging here as well, along with some other art and the portrait a friend did of our Emily.
The fabulous black dresser I found at the Salvation Army years ago for a steal. I have never done anything to it other than reattach the handles when they have come loose. It just looks like it was always meant to sit in this room and was the inspiration for doing everything else in here in black. In addition to the new bookcase that's coming, you'll see another in here that needs to be painted. It will be black along with everything else. When I get the remaining bookshelves and completely finish the room, I'll show it to you again.
And now it's back to the grindstone. Wishing all of you a lovely week...

Photos by The Art of Living Beautifully