Interior design ideas for your hallway

This month I received a tweet from one of my followers asking if I had any interior design ideas on how to paint her hallway in anything but white or cream but still keep it bright. Tweets are so short that I thought it would be a great subject for this month’s blog post!

Hallways are one of those interior design “black holes” for most people, you tend to walk in the door, drop shoes, coats and bags off, pick up various bits of mail and then walk through to the communal areas of your home and forget about the hallway.

What most people don’t realise is that when you open your door, the hallway is the very first impression of your home that any visitor will see, and like any first impression you need to make it a good one. My top interior design tips for giving your hallway entrance a makeover to lighten and brighten are:

• Brighten it up with a colourful carpet, either a runner in the hallway or a stair carpet that makes a statement, maybe something with stripes?
• Contrast your colours. White will bring out the ceiling but use a good bright contrast on the walls, why not a bright green, or pale but strong blue?
• Use a statement piece of art to give your entrance a “Wow” factor.
• Mirrors will help small spaces seem bigger.
• Recess your lighting if you have a tight space, but make sure that you have it cleverly placed to create an illusion of space.
• De-clutter, have some clever storage added so that all your detritus is put away every day, boots, bags and coats.
• Don’t have big pieces of furniture cluttering up your entrance, keep any tables for phones small and neat.