What is the Ideal Decoration for Hallways?
People dream of having a big, bright house with a beautifully decorated hallway. We tend to think of entryways and hallways as useless spaces that are hard to make the most of. But that doesn’t have to be the case.
Hallways give houses room to breathe, putting distance in between rooms and common areas. Additionally, the hallway is typically one of the first spaces your guests see when they arrive. Their first impression of your sense of style is made based on how your hallway is decorated.
We know that decorating a hallway is complicated. We don’t want to over fill them, but it’s not good to leave them lifeless and empty either. It’s easy to forget that we should decorate hallways to be coherent with the rest of the house. That’s why today’s article is all about ideas for decorating your hallways simply and practically. If your house has long, narrow hallways that you don’t know what to do with, keep reading! We’ll help you give your hallways the attention they deserve.
Light is fundamental in hallways
Light should always be the priority when looking to decorate. The key to any good hallway is that it’s well-lit, especially when it’s long and thin. Why? If we focus light fixtures strategically, we can give a hallway a sense of greater depth and width.
Hallways aren’t typically full of natural light. They’re usually in between rooms and the entrance, so they often don’t even have windows. One solution to get more natural light into your hallway is to take out a door. This way, you’re getting rid of barriers that keep the space feeling small. You might consider taking out the door to the living room, since that tends to be the part of the house that gets the most natural light. That way, you’ll make the hallway feel bigger and brighter.
If removing doors seems overly complicated, another possible solution is replacing a door with glass. The light will stream through the crystal and keep the hallway brighter. Sometimes you can even put glass panels in to replace walls. This is usually found in homes with a more modern style.
When it comes to artificial lights, one good option is adding white halogen lightbulbs in the ceiling. White light is synonymous with spaciousness, and putting the fixtures overhead will provide better illumination and sense of depth.
Another option to widen the hallway is to put little lights at the end of the hallway and two big focus lights at the beginning. This way the lights play off of each other to give the sense of a wide space. Easy, right?
Don’t forget about the walls!
One of the best alternatives when it comes to visually altering a space is changing the wall color. We always suggest avoiding dark colors. We especially suggest this when you’re hoping to make a space seem bigger. Hallways are not the place for dark walls.
If you don’t want to make your life complicated, stick to whites or pastels. We promise that’s the key to opening up the space. If you want to be a little riskier, you can try different warm-toned colors that will add brightness to the hallway. Beige and white work well for hallways, especially for classically decorated homes.
Another favorite idea to make your hallway feel bigger is changing the wallpaper. Choose a design with light colors and bright patterns. Stripes can be good for adding a sensation of space. Use wallpaper with vertical stripes to make a space feel taller. If you go for horizontal stripes, the hallway will feel deeper and more spacious.
Adding a frieze halfway up the wall also achieves this visual spaciousness we’re talking about. You can paint the part above it bright, and go a little darker underneath.
Mirrors to add depth
Mirrors are another ally when it comes to reflecting artificial and natural light alike. They can add centimeters to the perceived size of a room. In addition to providing more light, mirrors are aesthetically pleasing.
When it comes to the type of mirror, you can go with round or rectangular, as long as it’s placed at a height that reflects the light of the room effectively. Depending on your house’s decoration, you can choose a flashier or more subtle style. If you want the sensation of more space, we recommend you choose a simple, streamlined mirror.
Another option is making a collage of numerous mirrors. This reflects even more light, at different angles and with different perspectives. This can be a fun and new idea if you can arrange the mirrors well.
The problem with thin, narrow hallways, as we’ve seen, is common in many households. Knowing how to strategically decorate will allow you to make the hallway seem much bigger and more spacious. What are you waiting for? Go redecorate your hallways!