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How to Decorate Your Hallway In 2022

First impressions count.

And whether it's guests entering your home for the first time or you, returning from a hard day's work with shopping in hand, that's almost always your hallway: the entrance to your home and the room that sets the tone for the rest of the house.

In this blog, we'll be showcasing some of the standout hallways we have decorated for our clients and the methods you can use to replicate these and make the entrance to your home stand out.

Mirrors

Using mirrors to reflect light and create a sense of space isn't groundbreaking interior design advice but nowhere is it more powerfully deployed than in a hallway.

Traditionally narrow and long, hallways benefit from the effect and can also be used to reflect highlights from adjacent rooms, the garden or even reflect light from the doorway.

Mirror frames also make a fantastic blank canvas and can be painted to reflect the colour scheme of a room.

Manu Interiors designed this eclectic home in North London and we decorated the hallway with simple emulsions from Farrow & Ball.

See the full case study

Paint

While we're very fond of daring reds, bold oranges and dashing blues, the hallway is one of the few rooms in a home where it might be best to stick with whites and more muted tones.

This isn't just the preference of many an interior designer: it might have foundations in psychology.

'For some people, [a hallway in red] can feel like walking into a warning sign.. .The sense of threat and danger can feel anything but welcoming' says colour psychologist Lee Chambers.

You should also bear in mind that hallways are high-traffic areas in homes and may benefit from more durable finishes.

Find out which paint finish you should use in your home here.

Staircase Runners

While statement walls or bolder colours might not work as well in your hallway, that's not to say there's not ample opportunity to inject colour into your entryway.

Staircase runners have multiple benefits from dampening noise to protecting your floors and providing more grip to anyone walking up and down them.

Here, interior designer, Deborah Law chose a colourful, stripy runner to draw visitors' attention to the staircase, making it a feature of the room.

We decorated this entire Wandsworth home - a major undertaking which involved installing new floors, windows and more.

READ THE FULL CASE STUDY

Lighting

Lighting plays a vital role in your hallway as they are frequently poorly lit receiving only filtered light from a translucent front doorway or porch window.

So while a living room may benefit from subtle wall lighting, a hanging chandelier-style light is often not just a more stylish choice for a hallway but a functional one too.

In this stylish Wandsworth home, an oversized brass hanging light illuminates this hallway and provides a welcome focal point.

See the full case study

DON'T FORGET YOUR FRONT DOOR

It's tempting to neglect the back of your front door: you can't see it from the outside and visitors will seldom see it.

But while first impressions are important, don't forget this is the last thing you and your guests will see when you leave, and a scratched or flaking door isn't a great takeaway for you or them.

Luckily, doors respond well to fresh paint and in the worst-case scenario can always be taken off to be sanded and restored.

Your front door is also another potential vessel for light to flood your hallway. Frosted panes or stained glass work well to maintain privacy whilst letting in precious sunlight.

FURNITURE

Depending on the size and shape of your hallway, you may wish to include functional furniture such as a long table - a convenient repository for keys, phones and anything else that's often left hiding in a hallway.

Of course, this shouldn't just be functional: antique or repurposed tables provide immediate visual stimulation to visitors and instantly inject character into your home.

In another Wandsworth Common home, this table is also home to a decorative lamp providing yet more lighting options.

SEE THE FULL CASE STUDY

Hallways are often considered one of the most challenging rooms to design and decorate but in many ways, their constraints often give rise to delightful solutions.

We're lucky enough to have worked with some incredibly talented interior designers who have created impactful, welcoming hallways using some of the strategies described above.

If you're considering redecorating your hallway, make sure to check out some of the case studies above for inspiration and get in touch with us to request your estimate.

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