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When we added the mini-beam next to the chimney, I instantly knew we'd have a great opportunity to add some additional storage this hallway. My not-so-secret opinion on hallways is they are typically wasted space that can often be more useful not as a hallway... So I knew when we put the freezer in and committed to the office wall location that I was in trouble. But the posts under the mini-beam gave me the perfect opportunity to finally find a permanent place for two salvaged cabinets that had been rolling around my parents' laundry rooms and eventually my house. The white doors already blend with the rest of the hall, and these were sturdy enough to be our temporary kitchen when we renovated upstairs. It's the perfect set up. 
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While I love my little pocket office, its secure ceiling joists, and its pocket door, adding these elements separates the office from a fairly large, mostly usable, area of our basement. Nothing in our house exists without working for us, and this hallway is no exception. The freezer has been in its spot for years, and there is no chance it is moving anytime soon. If it does, it will be replaced by appliance movers. These are hefty! So, I wanted to work around the freezer and make use of the old water heater position by the chimney. These really amounted to two separate problems that we were able to address with a lot of salvaged components and some left over lumber. This is about the 6" gap between the freezer and the wall: a tight space to make something work for us!  It’d be a lie to say that we aren’t feverishly working on our house to keep our living options open. Being completely honest, we always felt like this is our forever house, and every decision I have made for it is for us. But… we’re also living, as usual my dear Millennials, in unprecedented times. So, we’re fixing as much as we can, and we’re doing it the right: no hidden problems, just real solutions we’d be happy with no matter who lives here. Progress has been fairly steady the past several weeks as I rage-build. We have a laundry list of projects to do this year! Mostly, I’m finishing things that are already started or making better projects that we did early on. We’ve been in this house for nearly a decade, and I have learned a lot here. One thing I learned is not to ignore signs of stress. So with the broken joist -that has always been broken for us- in our office and the always crooked dining room buffet telling us it was time to get the sinking around our chimney buttoned up, I knew I had to get working.  Last year was such a mixed bag of personal challenges, slow shifts, and hard decisions that it’s difficult to encapsulate! House progress was slow, and largely consisted or triaging things that were broken or making smart swaps to improve our lives. Though I can finally say the library is in the home-stretch! …And I still need to tackle the attic. Personally, it’s hard to quantify the struggles we had this year in our household, but I will say that a lot of my close relationships grew in ways I never could have imagined: it’s enough to thank the past year for that time. Our household after five long, hard years is back to being a two-dog family. We adopted Henry just before his first birthday! He’s black lab, doberman mix: all legs. Perfect for getting me back into running and mixing us all up a little.  In working on the one open wall -the couch wall- in our basement library, I decided to add my favorite piece of millwork to the wall: picture rail. Not to be confused with a picture ledge, this sits at the top of the wall or below the crown with a small gap to provide a spot for hooks that hold artwork without tampering with the wall itself. It's fantastic for flexibility, and saves the wall from hanging holes. My functional brain loves this molding: the purpose in its use makes it a perfect fit for our house, even if I had to get some custom milled. The folks with the knives for what I ordered were on Etsy, and they are identical to the original picture rail in our living and dining room.  |
Katie SwansonI am a parent, creative spirit, and old house lover. My big passions are sustainable design and preservation. Bringing these together is key to moving existing homes into the future. * By subscribing to the monthly newsletter, you consent to receive links this month's blog posts and other relevant blog updates, a round up of things I love, and as a throwback to my DIY days, I may toss in an exclusive knit or crochet pattern of mine. Archives
June 2026
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