Anyone who has been to one of my Design Classes or is doing the Online Class right now will know that I spend quite a bit of time yabbering about hallways. The most forgotten space in the house I would say. As we don’t hang out there we tend to give it zero attention, few hooks for coats some simple sort of pendant (bare light bulb I saw the other day) and that is pretty much it.
AND yet the hallway for me is one of the most important spaces to get right because its the first place you enter and the last place you leave. It sets the tone, doesn’t matter if its skinny and narrow with zero natural light or large and hang out able it just needs to feel like the rest of the space so the minute you enter you are transported to another world, your world.
There are so many ways to go that your choices are endless. You could wallpaper, the guys below have wallpapered above the paneling (not something I would do cut a wall in half that is) but it cozies up the space so quickly! If you don’t want to add pattern then the grass cloth ones out there work a treat. So very popular in the States and get this even in Starbucks over here. What was I doing in Starbucks when I am the worst coffee snob ever, well my head was reeling from a Debenhams meeting earlier in the week. Never before has a homeware range sold so well and so quickly apparently with one or two of the pieces sold out altogether! Last week out of the top 10 sellers 7 of them were mine! I came out of their offices so dizzy with euphoria that I needed to sit down immediately and compute – hence the Starbucks visit.
I digress sorry!
Grass cloth below, plus one of the smallest little entrance ways I’ve seen check out this beautiful paneling.
If you’ve got a space that is big enough to sit (lucky you) even if you never will add something to perch on. A chair, a bench a super sweet little love seat. Then add a small table a lamp something scented and you’ve elevated it big time. If its skinny and narrow like mine then how about a thin console or shelves something to break up the linear feel. If you’ve got a pad where you walk immediately into say the living room look at what these guys have done by the stairs. Super cool no?
Art as we all know art changes things up big time. One of the coolest hallways I have ever seen belongs to my sister (don’t tell her)! Its not grand there is no natural light and yet when you visit or look at this image you actually just want to hang out in the hallway and not even go a step further. Clever hey!
Photography Graham Atkins Hughes
Many congrats Abi! Well deserved awesomeness 🙂
Thank you x
Hi there. Loving your work and it is a nugget of light at the end of my re-wire, re-plumb, re-plaster tunnel of mayhem. Would you mind asking your sister what the green paint is on her doors? Thanks a lot
Gem hasn’t used green paint – do you mean her hallway because I’m trying to think what doors you are referring to.
It must be my eyesight which I blame on trying to salvage original kitchen floor tiles – note to self, wear those safety goggles I actually bought! I thought I saw that the door in the foreground – and at the rear and floor beyond the rug – is in a dark, sludgy olive colour. thanks
I have been buying your beautiful products in Debenhams in Belfast.But the hare light was sold out -the staff told me a woman drove from Dublin to buy the last one! They couldnt get over it! Well done Abi!
More hares needed!!
Wow that is incredible. More hares due in within two weeks thankfully oh and thank you for letting me know
Viva la hallways intriguing!
I don’t know if you know but I was watching Alan Carr Chattyman and I noticed one of your bull terrier lamps under the table. It looked brilliant (I know nothing to do with hallways but thought you’d like to know) xx
Thank you I had forgotten that he was going on Alan’s show shall certainly check it out
Congrats on the sales!
The bit I find tricky to decorate in my house is not the hallway as much as the stairwell. I live in a typical Victorian terraced house and the stairwell is a big, blank wall with no window. I have no idea what to put there! Ordinary pictures just get lost.
I know what you mean. I’ve hung a rug from one of my walls going up which helps big time
Love your sisters hallway! The shape and size are very reminiscent of my own. I may just have to adapt the dark walls and ceiling in our home, so dramatic!