UGH. This area is the perpetual apology zone. The area where when people come over and dare to go upstairs, I literally can’t help but say, “Ooh, the upstairs landing isn’t done yet, obviously, haha,” which is cringey and annoying. It’s empty on a good day, messy most days, and yet has a lot of potential. So this is one of those update posts that most of the world won’t care about, but those following this house closely will understand (and perhaps help). Stay til the end for some rarely reported design drama that made me madder than I want to admit (but was totally warranted).

Last Time We Showed You The Landing:

The OG Landing:

This area was big and dark and full of potential. The new skylight brings in so much light, so that was a real “win,” and then I put up the sweetest ticking stripe wallpaper that you literally can’t see on camera (which I think I can consider that a “fail”). We kept the floor of the landing white because I was going to paint a mural or pattern, but I haven’t done that for three very distinct reasons. Wanna hear my excuses?

1. Painting the most highly trafficked floor is incredibly disruptive to live with while it’s happening. The kids would need to be gone for a few days or sleep somewhere else, and listen, when the kids are gone at camp or grandparents, painting the floor isn’t exactly what Brian and I want to do with that time. So every summer we plan for it, and every summer we decide to do something fun just the two of us with our kid-free days.
2. I don’t really know what I want to paint it, anyway. We have the sunroom floor and the art barn floor, both checkered, so would another one really be the right move? I bought all these scandy floral stencils on Etsy, thinking that I could just do a border with them, but I haven’t felt confident enough to actually get it done. No clear vision = paralysis.
3. We love the big oval sisal rug up here (from H&M home, but no longer available). I don’t think NOT having a rug up here is an option (I also fold all the laundry on the floor every night as the kids are getting ready for bed). But the problem is that the area around the rug is a totally different color from what is under the rug. Like it’s beige around the oval and bright white, untouched underneath. My fear is that we’d take so much time to paint this, and most of the pattern would be covered up, with just the area outside of it visible, and then damaged. This is why I was leaning towards the solid blue of the stairs with a cute border and calling it a day. There is just not a clear path forward, and every option feels time-consuming, and when I don’t have that clarity, I move on to other fish to fry.

If I could go back in time, I’d invest in replacing the damaged wood of the stairs, the landing, and the kids’ rooms in our pretty wood flooring, but we were so financially drained that I was looking for any way to save like $18. So painting the super-damaged floor seemed better (and there was only linoleum under the kids’ carpet, so laying new carpet felt easy/fast). I don’t know. Your brain really stops working well near the end of a major renovation, clouded with so much panic, desperate to turn off the firehose of cash and just wanting to move in SO BAD. I made choices that I have to live with, and that’s ok.

I do really like the door color, though (although I wish I had invested in new knobs – those original antique knobs fall off every day, often with a random neighborhood kid locked inside, and I have to walk them through how to get out after minutes of screaming for help…). So charming!!

Now we did redo this laundry closet, which is a daily joy (not joking, it stays pretty organized). I want to mention the best accidental (and very specific) life/family hack – put your laundry machines outside and near your kids’ rooms. Here’s why: every night while the kids are brushing teeth and getting ready for bed, I turn over the laundry and usually fold a load. We used to do all laundry on Sunday, which took hours, and now we rarely have one load left since I keep it going all week.

Drama #1: Severe Wallpaper Damage

Ok, remember that wallpaper that you can’t see in photos (but I actually loved – so calming!), well, turns out it’s the most fragile wallpaper ever made. We rented our house out to a huge photo shoot, and they used blue tape to attach protective corner boards to every corner so that moving furniture wouldn’t nick the walls (all standard). When they took it down, the tape ripped up the walls so badly (at eye level). Like 6 different spots spanning all corners (so not easily fixable). I retested this on a leftover piece of the same paper to see if it was their tape, and sure enough, even after 10 seconds of me gently putting the blue tape on the paper, it ripped off the top layer. It’s like tissue paper!!!!

The wallpaper also wasn’t very washable and was covered in gross kid finger marks, and you could see every single nail hole (and I was way too scared to put command strips on it). So the production company and I were going to split re-papering the entire stairs and upper landing. I chose another barely there stripe that is far more durable (we tested it). While I want to be the person who does a super fun, colorful pattern up the stairs and the landing (because yes, would have to be all of it), I can not or will not. 🙂 iPhone pics at the end!

PLOT TWIST: Enter The Pop-A-Shot

For Christmas, we got our kid this Pop-A-Shot, and after debating for a while, this was the only place for it. Listen, all you northern girlies can relate – in the winter, you want to offer your kids anything to do inside that involves moving their bodies (i.e., away from screens), so until we are done with the guest house, it’s living here.

It’s honestly awesome. The kids and their friends play a lot, and it folds up to be compact. To me, it represents life with kids, tweens specifically. It says “We are a house for and about families”, so this wasn’t something Brian had to convince me of – all of us play it. BTW, Elliot has the piano in her room for now, and we moved the world’s heaviest arched cabinet that you can’t take apart into the guest room for now (because we honestly didn’t know how to get it down the stairs besides sliding it – it’s CRAZY HEAVY).

If you are wondering if this is the old striped wallpaper or the new one, it’s the old one. If you blow up your screen, you can see the slight striped pattern. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS WALLPAPER. I even looked up what it’s made of to avoid it for the rest of my life (and warn you), but it says the same as every other wallpaper, so I suppose there was no way of knowing. Bad, bad, bad. 2/10.

So that’s the current state of the landing. I might just have someone paint the floor the same blue as the stairway this summer, and then if we do any DIY, it would just be a border. It looks all white and clean here, but in person, it’s kinda gross (which barely bothers me, honestly).

Drama #2: The Wrong Wallpaper Installer

I am really excited to show you the new wallpaper, though. I love it already – what tiny bit we have hung up. It’s 1/10 installed because the company that was hired to repair the damage from the photo shoot and install the new paper had barely installed wallpaper before. They came over to quote, assured me that they were experienced, and quoted like $3,500 for the entire job. I wasn’t really in charge since the production company was handling it (they were wonderful, BTW). Turns out they were painters, and these guys were so nice but totally stumped. The company owner should never have taken the job and put them in a really bad position. They primed with oil paint primer (no idea why), which was so toxic we all had to clear out the house for two days (unplanned), and then they were here for 2 additional days with three dudes and had only completed the bottom landing at the end of day 2. Brian and I were dumbfounded, and the owner kept telling us that this is how they do it, etc. For reference, when it was originally installed, it was 2 days, with one person, and cost $1,800. After the second day with so little progress, I had a “clear and kind” conversation with the supervisor and owner, and they refunded everyone’s money and left the job (I made sure that the painters were complimented for being professional and hard working. It was the obvious responsibility of the higher ups for taking the job and put them in that terrible position). I was angry that I was lied to over and over, and it was extremely disruptive to our house for three days (I had to work out in the garage with the dogs because they barked at them the whole time… blah blah, whatever). No one died, and I was glad that no one got charged. But y’all, if you don’t know how to do something, do not take the job just for the money. I’ve always hated the phrase “fake it till you make it” for a reason. DO NOT FAKE IT. Admit what you know how to do, but when you don’t know, ask questions to show your willingness to learn. Don’t lie.

Anyway, I called one of my installers that I should have called in the first place to come finish, so it should be done soon, and I’m really excited.

Here’s a couple of dumb iPhone shots of it so you can see how its GOING to look 🙂

THE END. Also… perhaps I was hormonal while writing this, lol. All’s fine in the Henderson world, I promise.

*Photos by Kaitlin Green