Institutional

A couple of years ago, the lobbies and hallways of my apartment building were redecorated. The finished look was kind of a weird mixture of traditional and modern with a hotel like institutional feel. I've never really been sure if the redo was an improvement.

Over the last couple of weeks, the elevator lobbies from the parking garage have been redone. The painted cinder block walls have been covered with sheet rock. We've been told that new flooring will be added.

We were out of town for a few days last week. The redo in the elevator lobby was more or less finished when we came home last night. The new floor hasn't been put down. But the walls and elevator doors have been painted. Prior to the redo the walls and elevator doors were the same color...rather mundane and boring. The elevator doors are boring no more. They have been painted institutional green. Every time I come into the lobby from the parking structure, I feel like I'm entering a hospital. I can't wait to see what the new flooring will be.

IMO, this redo was a definite FAIL.

Update: The new flooring is being laid today in the elevator lobby. It's a cream colored vinyl tile with green streaks. The tile is reminiscent of the tile that we had in the basement of the house that I grew up in back in the 1950s.. Except that was green with cream colored streaks. In the middle of the lobby floor is a logo for the apartment building. The logo is green, but not the same green as the elevators doors. The green in the tile is different than the other two greens. So what they are going for is a vintage look?? That makes sense since the rest of the building doesn't have a common theme. There's a little modern, some traditional and a lot of institutional. And, the decorator should know that greens are difficult to match. The elevator green has blue undertones. The logo has yellow undertones and the tile is something in between. Oh, well.