This post is sponsored by Ace Hardware. I received compensation and product, but all opinions and content are my own.

If you have been following me for some time, you know I love experimenting with color and especially paint projects. I am not afraid of painting walls, totally the opposite, I am a firm believer in the transformational power of paint, if you are craving an easy and affordable change in your home, think no other than paint!

Let’s recap,

When we moved into this house last year one of the first things we did was rip out the blue carpet on the stairs. We felt so lucky to find wood underneath. It wasn't in good shape so I decided to paint the stairs instead of re-staining them and so glad I did because the black pops beautifully with the light wood floors.

After painting the stairs, the stair project stood still for some time, actually months.

One of the best pieces of advice I can give you as a new homeowner is never rush design decisions right after you move in, as time goes by you have a better understanding of the flow of your home and also you start figuring out the design style that would work best for your new home.

Time for some more color,

I was craving more character in this area of our home. I wanted an easy and fast project that we could do in one weekend. After some brainstorming, we decided to add chair rail molding on the upstairs hallway and continue the molding going down the stairs.. We would do a complimentary color on the bottom half part and keep the white walls on the top.

Once we had a plan set, I went to Ace Hardware’s website to order all the paint supplies I needed for this project for local delivery. It was so easy to use their website and place the order. Everything was delivered right to my front door! Did you know Ace Hardware has over 5,000 stores around the world? 75% of the U.S population is within 15 minutes of an Ace! Whether you choose in-store pickup, curbside pickup, or store delivery Ace provides a hyper-convenient and high-quality shopping experience. For more information about Ace Hardware, visit AceHardware.com and check out their Paint Studio to get your project started.

Ace Hardware introduced three curated color palettes from Clark+Kensington® set to be the most influential of 2021. The palettes are heavily inspired by nature and natural materials, like raw cotton or linen, wood tones, and soft, peaceful greens - aimed to conjure a sense of calm in our everyday lives.

From left to right, 1. Smokey Taupe, 2. Caramel Apple, 3. Act Naturally, 4. Playas de Cancún.

After sampling 4 colors from the Clark+Kensington2021 Paint Trends collection , I was immediately drawn to the

Mindful Living and Creative Escape color palettes.

From my top 4 color alternatives, I chose Smokey Taupe, a soft and soothing color. I felt that color complemented perfectly all the adjacent spaces in our home.

I highly recommend starting with color samples to “test drive” your color options, then order your gallons or go into your local Ace Hardware store when you’re ready to complete your project. I am still looking for a place to use that pretty pale mustard color called Act Naturally. Isn't it so pretty?

A little bit of molding.

If you are new to adding molding on your walls, chair rail molding can be a great starting point, plus it is fairly easy to install.

We decided to keep it simple and just paint from the chair rail line down, just that small and affordable change added so much character to this small and plain hallway.

After a couple coats of paint, the walls were done! It was time for a black and white gallery wall going up the stairs with some of our favorite family pictures -check the process for this gallery wall on this ig story highlights-

Gallery walls can be a great way to dress up walls and also make a space feel personal. They can tell the story of the family that lives in the house. It is my favorite way to make a house feel like home and our kids love seeing family pictures on the wall, a great way to look back at some of our favorite family memories.

*Pro tip: Create a separate folder on your phone with the pictures you want to use to visualize them all together, you can then use the same editing filter on all. Also, I like to use different size frames and styles for a collected look.