How to make your hallway look bigger and brighter

The hallway can be a forgotten space in the home. However, as the first area visitors see, it sets the tone for your property and should be welcoming.

Due to the nature of house design, entryways are often windowless, dark, and chaotic with clutter. Thankfully, there are a few simple tricks to make your hallway look bigger and brighter, no matter its size.

Color Scheme

Use light shades

Color is critical in interior design. Different colors create different moods and can enlarge or shrink a space in the mind’s eye. 

To make your hallway appear more prominent, use a white, cream, or beige background as the primary foundation for your walls. If you want to add some color, go for richer taupe or experiment with light shades like pale blue and sage green to keep the space feeling open and airy. 

Dark colors can make a space feel more prominent by adding depth, but be wary of making your hallway overwhelming and unwelcoming. 

Go monochrome

Are you willing to be bold in your interior décor? Go monochrome in your hallway to add instant depth and dimension. This doesn’t have to be the traditional black, white, and grey combination—as long as you stick to one color in various shades, you can achieve a monochrome scheme.

Prioritizing deeper hues on the walls and floors will add intensity while using light shades will ensure brightness. Light paint and flooring contrasted with darker furnishings is a best-of-both-worlds combination.

Storage Solutions

Understairs storage

We might want our hallway to look like it belongs in a show home, but given its position and purpose, it can quickly become a dumping ground for coats, shoes, dog leads, and bags. 

Using your understairs cupboard makes it easy to ensure that your day-to-day possessions are hidden away while remaining close at hand. You can look into bespoke understairs storage solutions from specialists like Hammonds that are tailored to your needs to optimize the space. These include clever features like pull-out shoe racks that keep the cupboard neat while speeding up your leaving routine.

Tables and shelves

Rather than using bulky cupboards and cabinets in the hallway that can make rooms feel close and confined, place tables and shelves strategically to display your ornaments. Having open space underneath your furnishings helps keep the hallway looking large and is helpful for more storage solutions such as shoe racks.

Investigate the option of floating shelves if you have a tiny hallway. These will help to draw the eye upwards without dominating the wall space. Adding trailing plants and tall ornaments will further aid the idea of length. 

Lighting

Create zones

Lighting can make or break a space and should be the most critical consideration in any room. Ensure you have flexible lighting options for all times and seasons, combining bright overhead lights with lamps and spotlights.

Use your lighting to create zones in the hallway that match the area’s purpose. For example, the entryway should be illuminated by a bright light for good visibility when opening the door. As you move down the hallway, staggered soft lamp lighting can create a feeling of ease. 

No dark corners

When putting together your layered lighting, make sure there are no dark corners or large shadows on the walls. Even illumination throughout the hallway ensures it looks big, bright, and inviting when you cross the threshold. 

Be strategic with where you place your lamps, and think about their height and how the shade or bulb casts light on the walls. Floor lights, wall sconces, and spotlights above pictures can help keep lighting even while making the space visible longer.

Flooring

Add a runner

Adding a runner is another surefire way to create the illusion of length in your hallway. This is a narrow rectangular rug that stretches the size of the hall from door to door. 

It works particularly well if you have wooden, linoleum, or tiled flooring, as it also brings warmth—figuratively and literally—when guests remove their shoes.

Elongating patterns

If runners and rugs differ from your taste, choosing flooring with elongating patterns will work just as well. This could be wood or laminate lookalike laid out in vertical strips rather than horizontally. 

Another option is to have tiles or linoleum in a design that draws the eye along the floor. A prime example is the chequerboard square diamonds famous during the Art Deco period, which are made even more effective at tricking the eye due to their black-and-white color scheme.

Mirrors

Trick the eye

When it comes to what to put on the wall, you can’t go wrong with a mirror. These multi-purpose ornaments enhance spaces because they reflect light, which makes the space feel bigger and brighter. The reflection also doubles the size of the area in the mind’s eye.

Hang the mirror at the end of the hallway so it can be seen from the door. Alternatively, place a large horizontal mirror on the wall in the walkway immediately next to the doorway. These are the best areas for adding impact and the illusion of space.

The perfect place

Another reason to have a mirror in the hallway is that it’s the perfect place! We all like that last-minute glance before we head out, whether running to work, meeting a loved one, or going out for a romantic dinner date.

Make sure that the mirror is well-lit wherever it’s positioned in the space, perhaps flanked by lamps or illuminated by a spotlight. You could keep a decorative dish next to it with all of the seasonal essentials, such as suncream, lip balm, and an umbrella.