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Having emerged from the other side of a dreadful winter flu that struck the house down last week (thank goodness these germs don’t stick around long) I’ve started with the autumnal clean and clear. I love editing and organising for the first twenty seconds and the final result, but get so bored and regretful in the middle, is that just me? I’ve also started compiling my Christmas wish list (I know, but the early bird directs the other half to the best worms or something!) some of which are only affordable in my dreams but look out for Fridays Design Crush post as I’ve found a cabinet that is truly dream worthy. Today’s post however, is about happiness already attained, namely our hallway makeover which is now at the half way point. We have spruced it up from the mushroom coloured blandness we inherited into a bright, fun and inviting space on little budget past paint and trinkets. The next part will be finding a new front door and finally pulling down the ugly porch which bugs me no end, but today is all about the positives!

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I think the hallway is an often forgotten space in the design stakes, an afterthought, maybe because it’s one of the less exciting spaces of a home. A space that is chiefly used to navigate your path from one room to another and not for stopping in for any length of time (unless you get on particularly well with the postie!). Our hallway is small, narrow and has a pretty ghastly front door (from the time when people presumably felt able to leave their doors on the latch) BUT it has a few exciting things and lots of charm going for it. It has a front door onto the street (I know, but this is a first for us), it has a lovely period window that looks onto our side passageway, some cornicing details, high ceilings and most importantly more than a little dash of fun. I may not have found my perfect period door yet (don’t mention it, I’m so bored of hunting the salvage yards for our odd sized door) and I haven’t even bought the stairways carpet (though I have at least sourced it!), but I have thrown a lot of paint, a few strips of wallpaper and tons of love at it. 

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The undisputed game changer, for me, in this space has been the paint colour we chose, its Oval Room Blue by Farrow & Ball and I love it. The transformative power of paint never ceases to amaze me. Now mushroom may be more your shade than opalescent (though I suspect if you’re reading my blog it’s not, as you will find an abundance of one and total absence of the other) but even if you like this slightly putty like neutral (actual putty with pink tones I quite like incidentally) if you are going neutral and you have bought a radiator cover (again not my go to choice but we can’t all afford beautiful cast iron radiators) then please don’t paint it in the same shade of mushroom. Navy blue or pitch black could look really striking for example. The previous owners of our house definitely adhered to the idea that narrow and dark spaces require light colours to bring in more light, so they brought on the tins of mushroom hues, It didn’t work, the look wasn’t in any way offensive but it wasn’t in any way inviting either. To my mind, bland is not a shortcut to neutral and unless you are prepared to think really hard about your neutral it is always in danger of looking slightly unloved, dispassionate or disinterested. A dark radiator cover, a few well chosen objects, some depth to contrast against the light, all of these things are what make Scandinavian style so covetable (that and their amazing sense of furniture design). I’m not here to berate the previous owners of our home, but I wish sometimes that neutrals weren’t slapped about like so much talcum powder, I’m sure we’d all have more interesting homes for it. Neutral has its place, our bedroom is pretty classically Scandinavian and it’s one of my favourite rooms but I also love colour and I think hallways are one of the spaces in a home that are just made for colour. They are the first spaces that greet guests into your home, they should be interesting and inviting, but they should also say something about you. I chose this shade because it’s slightly darker than many of the hues that sit between green and blue that I am forever attracted to. But I also chose it because I think it’s a sociable colour, an inviting one, maybe even a disarming one. I can’t help but decorate with this shade it seems, upstairs we are much more monochrome but downstairs the opals have sway. What do you think?

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I mentioned that good hallway design should, in my eyes, say something about your household, this wallpaper (above) does exactly that for us. It is, on the one hand, a beautiful design, on the other, it is fun and when framed in its edging panel it is more than a little kitsch. I love design, I love pattern, I love high end pieces, I mainly buy high street ones, but one of my style staples is definitely humour, I hate po-faced-coordinated-within-an-inch-of-its-life looks, they make me scared to actually live in a space. This tropical print is by the front door, to me it says ‘come in and have fun, let your hair down, no-one is too serious round here’. I love all the botanical prints around at the moment and had great fun compiling my favourites a few months back in a post (here) but in the end I went for a pretty classic design from design stalwarts of centuries standing Cole & Son. Having it in a small area is me being sensible, framing it as though it were regency silk paneling is my wink to having fun with design.

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One of the things we were super lucky to inherit was this lovely chequerboard flooring which I’m really fond of. It’s a statement design but also one that’s entirely versatile to whatever look you want to give the space. I absolutely adore colourful Victorian patterned tiles but this black and white design gives us total freedom not to have to colour match with anything. The shoebox may be a bit of a hackneyed idea these days but it’s one I’ve happily taken with me from our old flat. I can think of no better item for a hallway to add vintage interest (whilst housing the umpteen different pairs of shoes I’m rotating at that time) than an old crate, and isn’t this a lovely example of one? (plus it’s a great toy box for my son who is obsessed with trying on big people’s shoes!). 

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Ah! the brass Feldman Lotus light from the Hollywood Regency era of design (above), this baby was the one thing I had my hearts desire set on for the new house, I’d wanted one for 3 years, the price had always been disgustingly and unjustifiably high, but Lady Luck shined down on me and one came up buy-it-now on American eBay for considerably less than I’d ever seen before. I love it. If I could write a poem to it I actually might, it brightens my day every morning as I come down the stairs and each time I pass it. The electrician I took it to to be re-wired to (along with a 1930s memlite task lamp I’ve owned for nearly 5 years and never got around to wiring) thought my choices were both a bit bizarre but I guess that’s what makes us all different. I was so pleased to discover how cheap it is to have vintage lighting re wired, I provided the cord flex but all in all both items were just under £30 – bargain! We added some small spot lights in the ceiling by the front door to increase light in our darkest area so there is now 3 times as more light than before, it also provided the opportunity to remove the poorly placed previous lighting which someone, at some point, felt free to fit on the Victorian arch cornice detail (why do people do these things!?). 

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These reproduction vintage seaside travel posters are such a favourite of mine. We had them in our previous apartment on a white wall (forget what I was saying earlier about neutrals!) but I think they look so well against the Oval Room Blue shade, particularly on darker days when the paint takes on a grey-ish almost airforce blue tone. I love vintage travel posters, I’m sure I could sit pouring over ones from particular eras or locations for hours. These really work in the hallway as they add colour and conversation to a narrow wall area without overpowering the space. 

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There’s no room for furniture in our narrow hallway alas, the radiator cover (which houses the biggest radiator I’ve ever seen) is the only item that stands up in the space. I change the trinkets up on it regularly, as coldness starts to creep in and we’re enjoying amazing autumnal lighting at the moment I’ve been putting cheerful fresh flowers and a faux cactus in centre place. The brass cranes, again maybe a little kitsch, are cheap and cheerful from eBay, the bug (which terrifies my husband) is from Etsy and the mirror is by Rowen & Wren.

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So that’s it, our hallway makeover at the halfway stage. I’m super pleased with it so far, now just to find a front door and knock down the ghastly porch… small tasks, small tasks!

Shop the Look:

Farrow & Ball Oval Room Blue Estate Emulsion | Beetle Entomology, I picked this one up on Etsy from Billys Thai Shop  | Vintage Brass Feldman Lotus Light  | Large antique brass mirror  | Faux Cactus  | Palm Jungle Wallpaper  | Vintage brass cranes – so many of these available online for around £20 the set.

I’ve been nominated for an Amara Interior Blog award, if you like my blog please take a couple of seconds to vote for me, it would mean the world to me. Please click the image below to be taken to the voting page, your vote should take five seconds to cast.