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North Carolina homeowner Guerin Piercy and her fiancé, Brian, refreshed a gray hallway with floral peel-and-stick wallpaper, white-painted trim and a secondhand light fixture. Piercy told Apartment Therapy the project cost about $200 and made the space feel lighter and more in keeping with the home’s vintage character.
North Carolina homeowner Guerin Piercy and her fiancé, Brian, changed their gray hallway with floral peel-and-stick wallpaper, white-painted trim and a secondhand light fixture, in a project Piercy said cost about $200. In a before-and-after report, Apartment Therapy described how the couple reshaped a passageway Piercy had found gloomy into a brighter space that better matched the home’s vintage character.
Piercy told Apartment Therapy that a painting company had repaired the hallway’s plaster and painted it gray after she moved into the house. Although the gray improved on the earlier “dingy beige pink,” she said the color did not suit her. The hallway also had an old light fixture and a yellowed switch plate, contributing to what she described as an “ominous feel.”
Rather than repainting the walls another solid color, Piercy chose wallpaper she had bought for the kitchen. The Better Homes and Gardens peel-and-stick paper has a white background with repeating purple bouquets; Apartment Therapy reported that it was sold out at the time of its article. The couple painted the doors and trim Sherwin-Williams’ Snowbound, a white shade also used in their kitchen, then added gold-framed artwork and a $15 light fixture bought at a Habitat for Humanity ReStore. Brian installed the fixture.
The work took longer than planned when Piercy ran out of wallpaper and had to wait for additional rolls. She said the narrow pieces beside the door casing and around the bathroom doorway were especially difficult. After wasting several pieces by trying to trim wider strips directly on the wall, she found that cutting the sections to size beforehand worked better. She said she and Brian had measured and marked the wallpaper before applying it to keep the pattern aligned.
A Small Project Changes the Hallway
The project shows how a limited-cost, focused update can change the feel of a high-traffic area without altering its layout. Piercy’s choices tied the hallway to adjoining rooms through the trim color while giving it a distinct floral pattern. Her account also highlights a practical issue for homeowners: peel-and-stick wallpaper may be manageable on broad wall sections but can require careful measuring and advance cuts around door frames and corners.
The reported about $200 total is specific to this project, not a guaranteed price for similar work. The wallpaper was already partly purchased for another room, the light fixture cost $15, and the source does not itemize the remaining expenses or say whether the couple owned all the tools needed. Material costs and the amount of paper required will vary by room and product.
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From Gray Paint to Jacobean Print
Piercy bought the North Carolina home to share with Brian and their two dogs, knowing it needed substantial work. The hallway’s gray paint was a recent improvement over the previous beige-pink finish, but Piercy said she did not want to keep a color she disliked simply because it had been newly applied. She considered a dark evergreen shade, then decided she was not sure a darker color would make the passage feel less imposing.
The wallpaper had initially been intended for the kitchen, but Piercy decided its print suited the hallway better. In the article, she called the pattern’s look whimsical and described the finished space as feeling like an “English dollhouse.” That is her personal reaction, rather than an independent design assessment. Her advice to readers was to order wallpaper for 115% to 130% of the measured wall area to allow for matching the pattern and cutting around obstacles.
““Turns out, gray is not my color. I despise it.””
— Guerin Piercy, as quoted by Apartment Therapy
What the $200 Covered
Apartment Therapy reported that the makeover cost around $200, but the article does not provide a full breakdown of expenses or clarify whether that figure includes all three wallpaper rolls, the additional rolls, paint, supplies and artwork. Piercy had already bought three rolls for the kitchen, so it is unclear how the cost would compare if a homeowner purchased all materials specifically for a hallway.
The report also does not provide the hallway’s dimensions, the total amount of wallpaper used, or a precise project date. It identifies the wallpaper as sold out when the article ran, but does not say whether the same design is available from another seller. The account is based on Piercy’s description and photographs in Apartment Therapy; the reported cost and her assessment of the finished space are not independently verified.
No Further Work Was Reported
The source describes the hallway makeover as finished and does not report another planned phase or a follow-up project. Piercy’s practical guidance for anyone attempting a similar job is to buy extra paper—she suggested measuring for 115% to 130% of the wall area—and to pre-cut narrow sections around doors and corners. Readers would need to check current product availability and calculate their own material needs before beginning; the report does not identify a replacement source for the sold-out wallpaper.
Key Questions
What did the hallway look like before the redo?
It had gray walls, a finish Piercy said she disliked, along with an old light fixture and a yellowed switch plate. The gray had replaced an earlier “dingy beige pink” color, according to her account to Apartment Therapy.
What changes did Piercy and Brian make?
They covered the walls with white-background wallpaper patterned with purple bouquets, painted the doors and trim Sherwin-Williams Snowbound, and added gold-framed artwork. They also replaced the old fixture with a $15 secondhand light that Brian installed.
How much did the project cost?
Piercy put the cost at about $200. Apartment Therapy did not publish an itemized budget, and three wallpaper rolls had already been bought for the kitchen, so the total may not represent the cost of buying every material specifically for the hallway.
What was the hardest part of applying the wallpaper?
Piercy said the narrow areas beside door casings and around the bathroom doorway were the most challenging. She found that measuring and cutting those pieces before applying them worked better than using wide strips and trimming them on the wall.
Is the same wallpaper still available?
Apartment Therapy reported that the Better Homes and Gardens peel-and-stick wallpaper was sold out at the time of publication. The report does not establish whether it is currently available from another retailer.
Source: apartmenttherapy.com
