Boontje-Inspired Hallway Treatment

As promised, here is a look at the first custom wall treatment we finished for our current clients. Their back hallway needed some sprucing up, and since it would connect with their colorful green bedroom and yellow kitchen, it really needed to hold its own in the color and style department. Together, we decided on a shade of purple in a subtle strieed glaze along with a hand painted, semi-traditional chintz floral pattern as an accent on the top third of the walls.

Like many houses in the Jamaica Plain area, our client's home is quite old and the walls were not in the best shape. To start, we patched and sanded the walls to provide a smoother surface for the paint and glaze to adhere to:


Then we cut in and applied two coats of the base color:


This is where trust between us and the client is really essential! Anyone could easily see a bubblegum pink hallway and start to freak out a little, but we hasten to inform you, dear reader, that this is not the final color:


We achieved the final shade of purple by applying two layers of tinted glaze, which is brushed on and then roughed up slightly with steel wool. You can see the difference between the base color and the first glazing step here:



Then comes the fun part--the decorative accents. Just before we started on that stage of the project, our clients installed a wonderful Tord Boontje garland light fixture in the middle of the hallway. Next to that, the chintz floral pattern would seem a little stiff, so we got in touch with our clients. Being the super cool "go for it" people that they are, they gave us the green light to free hand some Boontje-inspried floral motifs instead. Here's how it turned out:

A close up of the floral motif.

As a final step, we covered the walls in a dead flat varnish to reduce shine and protect the designs. We are extremely pleased with the way the project turned out, and happily so are our clients. If you'd like to see more of their lovely home, it was featured in a tour on Apartment Therapy's blog! They were nice enough to name Chroma Lab a "resource of note" and their "biggest indulgence" on the tour. We hope you enjoyed our peek at the process!