Hallway Decorating Ideas: Narrow, Dark and Doing Too Much

The mistake almost every hallway makes

It is painted brilliant white in an attempt to make it feel bigger and brighter, and it feels neither.

A hallway usually has little or no natural light, so there is nothing for white to reflect. What you get instead is a flat, grey-ish, slightly institutional corridor that reads as a space you pass through rather than part of the home. Worse, white shows every scuff from bags, buggies and shoulders, so it looks tired within a year.

The counterintuitive answer is to go darker and warmer. A deep green, a warm charcoal, a rich clay, painted on everything including the woodwork, turns a corridor into a deliberate, enveloping space. Because you are only ever in it for thirty seconds, it can be more dramatic than a room you sit in.

How do you make a narrow hallway feel wider?

Width is mostly perception, and there are four moves that reliably shift it.

• Run the flooring lengthways, boards or a runner along the corridor rather than across it, which stretches the space.
• Keep everything shallow. A console under 300mm deep, wall hooks rather than a coat stand, slim wall lights rather than projecting fittings.
• Take colour or panelling to a horizontal line, a dado or picture rail, which gives the eye a horizontal to follow.
• Put a mirror at the far end or on the long wall, which is the single most effective trick available and works particularly well opposite a door with glazing.
• Leave the floor clear. Shoes on the floor are what makes a narrow hall feel impassable.

Lighting a hallway properly

Most hallways have one central ceiling light, which is the worst arrangement for a long space because it creates one bright pool and two dark ends.

What works is rhythm: two or three wall lights at intervals down the length, at around 1.6 to 1.7 metres, which lights the walls rather than the floor and makes the corridor read as a sequence of spaces. If a ceiling fitting is unavoidable, use two or three small ones spaced evenly rather than one large one in the middle.

Warm light, around 2700K, and a dimmer if possible. And consider a low-level light or a plug-in nightlight, which turns the hallway into something pleasant at 2am rather than a decision about whether to wake everyone up.

Storage without blocking the corridor

Hallways are asked to store coats, shoes, bags, keys, post and often a buggy, in the least space in the house.

The rule is that anything on the floor must be under 400mm deep, and preferably enclosed. A shallow shoe cabinet with tilting fronts is the single best piece of hall furniture ever designed, because it stores three rows of shoes in 300mm.

Everything else goes on the wall: a row of hooks at two heights, adult and child, a shelf above for hats and keys, and a wall-mounted post tray. If there is an understairs void, using it properly, with pull-out drawers rather than a cupboard you cannot reach the back of, is usually worth the joinery.

Our entryway and mudroom guide covers the busier end of this problem.

Panelling and the wall treatment question

Hallways are the best place in the house for panelling and the reason is practical as much as aesthetic.

Half-height panelling protects the wall where bags and shoulders hit it, which is where hallway walls actually get damaged. It also gives the corridor a horizontal rhythm and a place for the colour to change, which breaks up a long blank run.

Vertical tongue-and-groove to dado height is the traditional version and suits period homes. A simple shaker grid suits most houses. Slatted timber is the contemporary option and adds warmth to a hard, echoey space. In all cases, paint above and below in the same colour if you want calm, or two tones if you want the horizontal emphasised.

Art and the gallery wall

A hallway is the best place in the house for a gallery wall, because it is the one space where you are always at the right distance from the wall to look at things closely.

The approach that works in a corridor is a dense, floor-to-ceiling arrangement rather than a sparse one, because sparse art on a long wall emphasises the emptiness. Hang the centre line at eye level, around 1.5 metres, and let the arrangement extend above and below.

Alternatively, a picture rail with pictures hung on cords is period-appropriate, entirely reversible, and lets you change things without patching plaster. Our gallery wall guide covers spacing and layout.

The floor

The hallway floor takes more punishment than any other in the house and is usually the first thing a visitor notices.

Whatever material you choose, it needs to survive wet shoes, grit and daily traffic. Tile, engineered timber with a hard-wearing finish, or a good vinyl all work; carpet in a hallway is a maintenance decision you make once and regret slowly. A long runner over a hard floor gives you the warmth and sound absorption of carpet with none of the cleaning problem, and it can be replaced when it wears.

Size the runner to leave an even margin of floor on each side, and get it long enough to look intentional; a short runner in a long hall looks like a mat.

Test the colour before you commit

Dark hallways are exactly the case where people cannot believe the advice until they see it.

With Decorly you can photograph your hallway and compare the white version against a deep, enveloping colour with wall lights, at your real proportions and light level. Most people are surprised by which one feels bigger. For the entrance itself, see entryway and mudroom ideas.

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