As soon as you start decorating one space, another four of five seem to hone into view! This is a process my friend Bianca from French For Pineapple calls the Decorating Domino Effect. And with good reason, I hadn’t even got as far as opening a paint tin for Ted’s room before I knew that the hallway would need a refresh, alongside the study I was moving into (Ted’s old bedroom) and using the colour from our downstairs hallway in Teds new room added that space to the long list! However, my plans for the upstairs hallway were simple. No grand designs here, just a simple update with a new paint colour, a showstopper lamp and a restyle of pieces.

This hallway has changed a lot in the four years since we’ve lived here (scroll through to end of piece to see its previous incarnations), and I never really felt that I had got it right. When we moved I white washed the space and put up a gallery wall. Then I removed the pictures, painted it peach, created a geometric paint effect wall and promptly got very sick of it! The next colour I had was lovely, but it’s warm neutral hue didn’t quite sit with the rooms coming off it – all painted in cool tones. I was ready for a cooler neutral, and just as the rest of the design world has apparently turned it’s back on grey I have chosen a beautifully light grey. Blackened, classed by Farrow & Ball’s amongst their architectural neutrals, and a colour that is well suited to minimal styles, is a lovely pastel like whispered shade of grey. It’s perfect for the upstairs hallway, as I wanted something on the cooler spectrum but also something gentle, whispered, not white but also not unlike white. This shade has a lot of white in it, but when placed next to true white (the floor, picture rail and ceiling) there is an elegant contrast.

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When turning out what can only be described in the most flattering light as my dumping ground in the old study (now Ted’s new bedroom) I unearthed a gem which I haven’t had on the walls for years, a gigantic print of stills from Jean Luc Godard’s sixties French New Wave film A Bout de soufflé. French New Wave is one of my absolute style touchstones, it has great meaning for me, I must have watched 90% of what was produced within this movement, I took a course on it in my early twenties at the BFI, and it was the focus of one of the first pieces I ever wrote for the blog in 2013 (Nouvelle Vague: The Subtext of Style). So to have this as the central piece on the walls in the space, has not only changed the tone of the to something more architectural and simple, but is also really inspiring for me, it’s made me think about rewatching at least 20 films I adore (which in turn has taken up a spot on my isolation list should the time come!).

I have edited a few pieces out to create a less cluttered and simple space, but the bones of this space have remained the same. One very exciting edition is a new lamp which I have had my heart set on since it came out over a year ago (see blog post here!). Online design emporium Nest have very kindly gifted me the Arum lamp by Ferm Living. It’s honestly one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever owned, simple and sophisticated, delicate and weighty, made of solid materials (that black marble base!) and I can’t stop looking at it. To be completely honest, I’ve started to wonder if it’s a little wasted in the upstairs hallway, it’s such a showstopper piece, so I have started to move it around in my minds eye and will be posting a piece soon on my deliberations (one lamp, five ways).

I’m always so surprised by what a transformation a lick of paint can make to a space, and I absolutely adore Blackened, the new colour here. I need to give the floor a fresh coat of paint, but one thing I know is that I won’t be changing the colour on the walls anytime soon! I’d love to hear what you think of the colour change in the comments below.