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Colour combinations to enliven your hallway
The hallway can often be the most neglected area of the home, overlooked when it comes to design and decoration in favour of those rooms we use most often. A clever use of colour is one of the most impactful ways we can enliven a dull hallway by creating something bright and invigorating or warm and cocooning.
When choosing paint colours for a hall, the trick here is to use something that works with all the rooms that lead off it to create a sensible flow throughout your home. Bear in mind too that paler or neutral shades will brighten and increase the feeling of space if you're low on natural light.
For the bold decorator, you can get away with your most intense colours in a hallway, as it's a transitional space that you only ever pass through. A rich shade such as an olive green or petrol blue has a wonderful enveloping effect and equally makes adjacent rooms appear brighter and more spacious.
Here, we look at 28 inspiring colour combinations to enliven your hallway.
Talk about a warm welcome. This hallway uses peachy pinks on the walls, oatmeals on the floor and rich browns and terracottas in the tiles, which sit together so wonderfully because of their similar pinkish undertones. The dark browns are an important element here because they prevent this colour scheme from becoming too pastel, and the bright cornflower blues are a perfect accent.
Pictured: Walls painted in Peach Flesh Pink and woodwork in Hoxton Grey, both at Mylands
Crisp white walls are a great choice if you have interesting floor tiles in your hallway – here it's the Otura tile at Bert & May which has a mixture of deep and sage green.
Pictured: Green Otura Tile at Bert & May
'Yellow interiors have been lighting up our homes more than ever,' says Marianne Shillingford, creative director at Dulux. 'They bring an irresistible sense of light and optimism to any space. Yellow opens up endless possibilities to create a home that feels fresh, welcoming, and full of life.'
If you like to keep your hallway clutter-free and sparely decorated, a wall treatment that adds a bit of texture and dimension, such as a limewash, can help to warm things up.
Pictured: House Beautiful Luto Bench at DFS
In the hotel-inspired hallway of this Edwardian terrace in London, the homeowners painted the stairs and under the dado rail in Black Glass from Crown to contrast with the stony shade above. The moodiness of it all is offset with brightening brass elements.
Pink and green fall on opposite sides of the colour wheel, which typically indicates that there is a high contrast between making them a bold but complementary pairing. We love the fizzy and saturated pink next to a really muted sage green too.
'Soft sage green is a great example of a colour that can work as an alternative for the beige, grey and even greige shades that have dominated the neutrals market for some time,' says Amy Wilson, interior designer for 247 Curtains. 'Sage green has all the same neutral appeal as these colours but is more on trend and arguably a warmer choice.'
The pale mint green on this front door sits slightly at odds with the flatter grey/blue walls, making quite a striking contrast. Greens and blues sit side by side on the colour wheel, creating an 'analogous' colour combination which tends to be harmonious and pleasing to the eye.
Pictured: Door painted in Copper Green No.36 at Mylands London
This minimal hallway lets the artwork shine with a simple colour scheme and accessories. If you like the idea of using intense pockets of colour – similar to this navy door frame, then a neutral white in your hallway will provide the perfect canvas.
Pictured: Flooring at Alternative Flooring
'Despite being bright and cheery, yellow can be used subtly,' says paint and interior expert Sarah Lloyd at Valspar. 'It also looks great with the natural light shining onto it for further effect. A warmer yellow shade offers a sophisticated spin on the traditional colourway. Pair with crisp white or go bold with a deep teal.'
You can get away with intense colours in a small hallway, as it's a transitional space that you only ever pass through. This rich olive green creates a neat transition from outside in, and note too that the colour is taken up onto the ceiling for a totally enveloping effect.
Pictured: Walls painted in Bancha No.298 at Farrow & Ball
A flush of pastel pink could have made this pared-back hallway look a little washed out – the key here is the contrast provided by the dark floorboards.
Pictured: Walls painted in Setting Plaster Pink at Farrow & Ball
Monochromes feel like less of a commitment than eye-catching brights, so if you sit on the fence with colour, go for a sophisticated black and white. Feature floors require little else in the way of decoration, and if an all-black staircase feels too imposing, break it up with a flurry of white paint.
Pictured: Victorian Style Porcelain Finchley Terracotta Tiles at Ca'Pietra
Hallways are very high traffic and have to withstand a lot of wear. Knocks and scrapes are inevitable, so consider panelling the walls to dado height. This is an opportunity infuse your hallway with colour – especially if you have neutral floors like these stone slabs – and a fresh cornflower blue is always a nice way to transition from outside in.
Pictured: Wallpaper at Cathy Nordstrom
This is a true Scandi hallway with a calming colour palette, pale woods (like this fabulous untreated oak Maissi bench from Danish brand, Skagerak,) and plenty of greenery. The panelling is an interesting height – it's most often used to the half – in a fresh clotted cream colour that highlights the pink undertones above.
Pictured: Bench at Nest
It is entirely feasible to concentrate all your colour on your floors in a hallway, and if you have neutral walls and a warm wooden door like this, you could use any colour you like. This cool diagonal pattern is a nice way to elongate short and narrow hallways.
Pictured: Blue Alalpardo Tiles at Hyperion Tiles
There's something very playful about this bubblegum pink from Mylands, which could very easily become a bit too saccharine were it not for the grounding influence of the dark stair runner and charcoal grey bannisters.
Picture: Wall paint, doors and woodwork paint all at Mylands
Botanical wallpaper or painted murals are a playful way to create a seamless transition from the outside in. In this Victorian townhouse, the transition continues into the adjacent living room, where the green theme is embraced to its fullest.
'Sticking to the earthy neutral tones and then pairing up sage green with deep browns, terracotta and other deeper shades of green is a really complementary scheme,' says Amy.
Pictured: Sofa at Loaf and Aula Hummingbird Mural at Wallpaper Direct
This wonderful glossy blue has a twofold purpose. Firstly, it will bounce light around the hallway much in the same way that the XL mirror will, and secondly, a gloss or eggshell finish will better withstand the natural wear and tear of a hallway.
'Different paint finishes work well on different surfaces and areas of your home. For example, an eggshell finish is a great option for high-traffic areas such as a hallway or kitchen due to its stain-resistant qualities,' says Michael Rolland, DIY expert at The Paint Shed.
Pictured: Walls and stair paint, both at Mylands
The cheerful red, citrusy yellow and navy blue here could be straight out of a St Tropez villa. It's a really clever trick to keep the floors and walls neutral and uniform so as to almost blend together to better highlight the trio of primary colours.
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