Fast forward to next weekend (Friday, May 16 to Sunday May 18), and the restructured hall is opening for a three day extravaganza of theatre, jazz, community events and sport, demonstrating the flexibility of the old hall now that the successful overhaul is complete.
The first part of the restructuring was to demolish the stage that dominated the hall over the past century, a task undertaken at a time when funding for the refurbishment programme was still being sought.
The funding for the last stage of the village hall refurbishment came about as a result of Coldingham's success last year in the Big Lottery Peoples Millions.
Although Coldingham appeared to lose out on the night to a greater vote for Coldstream it then transpired that they had the second highest vote in the Borders region and this secured them the funding they sought.
Coldingham Hall has been completely restructured to provide a flexible space that can be used for all community activities, sports such as badminton, theatre and musical performances and film.
The key to this flexibility, according to project leader Dave Jones, is the top of the range telescopic seating which can be brought out for theatre style performances but occupies hardly any space when not in use. In this way the hall can be quickly converted from a coffee morning to a 101 seat theatre performance
Dave explained the thinking behind the opening weekend: "We wanted to use the weekend to demonstrate all the different uses that can be made of the hall.
"During our opening weekend we will be setting up the hall cabaret style for jazz and story telling, and theatre style for the performances by three local choirs, a variety show featuring local talent and for the premiere of a new play 'The Windmill' written specially to mark the event. And amidst all these changes of use we will be holding the opening ceremony as part of a coffee morning."
Coldingham is keen to bring a range of professional performers to its hall. As James Urquhart, who co-ordinates the arts programme, explained: "We have a full range of lighting and audio equipment and a well equipped production box.
"We know there are any number of performance groups who would welcome an opportunity to come to an excellent performance space built to professional standards.
"We also want to encourage local people and groups to take an opportunity to participate in performances."
The grand reopening begins on Friday, May 16 with jazz.
The coffee morning and grand opening are on the Saturday morning and are followed in the afternoon by local history and heritage DVDs and slide shows and in the evening by the play 'The Windmill'.
On Sunday there will be a Songs of Praise at lunchtime followed by performances by locals choirs in the afternoon and Sunday Night at the Coldingham Palladium in the evening.
The full programme for the hall reopening can be found on the Coldingham website at www.coldingham.info.
Tickets can be reserved by phoning 01890771852.