‘We got creative in our rental home’

Clare Blacklaw and her husband, Steven, gave their hallway a bold overhaul for an entrance that’s playful, and can easily be changed when they move out

When Clare Blacklaw, her husband, Steven, and their three children moved into their three-bedroom, new-build rental in Edinburgh in 2017, it was all-white and crying out for some character. As it’s a rented home, they could only make cosmetic changes that can be easily removed when they decide to leave the property. So, with some creative paintwork and budgetfriendly updates, the couple gave their hallway a low-cost and easily reversible makeover for some much-needed warmth.

THE PROJECT

The property was a blank canvas with plain, white walls and a dull, grey carpet, which made for an underwhelming and frosty welcome whenever anybody entered. Clare

was keen to create a space that felt inviting to the family and their guests when they came in the house. She wanted a hallway full of personality that delivered practicality, too. ‘We needed space to hang coats, and I also wanted to make sure there was somewhere for the kids to sit and put their shoes on,’ she says. With her list of requirements in mind, Clare set about researching the look she wanted and the creative solutions the family needed.

WHAT WE DID

Clare didn’t have a plan when it came to giving her hallway a glow-up, but she did have an inkling of where the scheme might be heading. ‘I spent a while searching for hallway décor inspiration on Pinterest before I got the paint brushes out, so I had an idea of what I wanted to achieve,’ says Clare. ‘The recurring theme was monochrome with pops of colour so I trusted my gut and ran with it, allowing the scheme to develop organically as I stumbled upon vibrant accessories along the way.’

To transform the entryway, Clare stuck to simple yet effective methods. She peeled back the dull, grey carpet from the staircase, which made the space feel much too drab, and – after a lot of elbow grease sanding the

This bright, open space doesn’t feel enclosed or cluttered thanks to the wall-hung coat racks from HomeSense

Clare’s hallway combines rainbow pastels with monochrome – and plenty of family-friendly storage – for a space that ticks the boxes for both style and practicality

Clare has made a huge change to her hallway just by using a rainbow palette of paint, a big improvement on the grey carpet that was there previously