Hallway decoration: ideas, walls, furniture, novelties, photos

The arrangement of the hallway is an interesting and difficult task. Few of the owners of apartments in old houses can boast of large areas. So you have to rack your brains: how to place everything you need in a small area, and even do it so that it looks stylish. After all, it is this room that creates the first impression of the apartment or house as a whole. Therefore, the design of the hallway is a responsible task: the development of interior design may well set the tone for the design of all other rooms. 

narrow hallway

Correctly arrange a narrow hallway, to put it mildly, is not easy. There are few solutions, but the choice is still there. The first way is to figure out which side can be occupied with furniture. Preferably the one on which the doors are located far from each other. Furniture should be placed along this wall.

The second option is to use two adjoining walls under the cabinet and hanger – short and long. Also a good option in functional and aesthetic terms.

It is absolutely wrong to place furniture along two opposite walls in a narrow room: you will have to maneuver between them, constantly bumping into corners. So that the second wall does not look empty, you can fix a mirror on it, hang narrow wall shelves on which to place decorative elements or some small things.

There are several traditional design tricks that allow you to visually expand the boundaries, and new developments in the field of storage systems will help to fit everything you need in a small amount.

Walls, floor, ceiling

To make the room visually appear larger, the walls should be light, preferably with a slight degree of gloss. For example, there are textured paints or plasters with a slight addition of mother-of-pearl. Glossy ceiling (weak gloss is more appropriate) – this is usually stretched. It will reflect the light and what is happening in the room, making it more spacious. In the economy version, plastic panels will give a glossy effect.

If you don’t like gloss at all, you can do without it, but it’s better not to refuse light colors. And most often the colors are chosen warm shades.

Light plays an important role in the design of the hallway. There should be a lot of it: the hallways are almost always without windows. Rare exceptions are found in spacious cottages, and even then not always. Therefore, we pay maximum attention to the lighting of the hallway. To control the light from different points of the corridor, the switches use walk-throughs.

It is desirable that there be both general ceiling lighting, and in some areas. For example, near the mirror. Mirrors in general are a great way to visually enlarge a room, and properly illuminated, they are also very beautiful.

One of the trends of recent years is the decoration of walls with decorative stone. Moreover, some of the walls are made smooth – usually painted, and only a part is trimmed with stone. In the photo above, you see several tricks at once, thanks to which a small hallway looks more spacious. First, the carefully designed lighting scheme provides enough light to create a cozy atmosphere. Secondly, the mirrored closet doors, reflecting the environment, push the boundaries of the room. Thirdly, vertical columns made of raw stone make the ceiling taller than it really is. An important role is still the choice of furniture – the glossy and mirror surface does not look “heavy”, does not load the space. Chest of drawers selected small width. It does not interfere with movement, but performs its functions.

Also note that when designing small rooms, the floor is rarely made dark. If so, everything else – walls, ceilings, furniture – should be very light. They look great with darker color details, preferably the same shade as the flooring.

Furniture for a narrow hallway

After everything was decided with the color and texture of the walls, the design of the hallway continues: the time has come for choosing furniture. The best option is to order the manufacture of a wardrobe and hangers in the hallway. Furniture will be made according to the dimensions of your room, individual content (hangers, shelves, baskets, etc.) will be developed according to your requirements. But such pleasure is well worth it. A more economical option is to use modular furniture. One-piece “hallways” – cabinet furniture of certain dimensions – today are losing more and more to this new type of configuration. The factory develops a collection of shelves, cabinets, cupboards, pencil cases, hangers, bedside tables, chests of drawers, benches. All of them are made in the same style and color. From such a “constructor” you can assemble what is most suitable for your option.

Read more about interior color combinations here. 

In general, you can use not only closed storage systems, but also open ones. True, only if you are ready to maintain perfect order: after all, everything will be in sight. But outerwear will dry better in open furniture.

Sometimes the hallway is so narrow that the open closet door completely blocks it. Then the exit is a closet with sliding doors. They take up almost no space. But in this case, it is better to make a built-in wardrobe: with an equal footprint, its functionality is much higher.

This type of furniture is also good in that it can occupy the entire wall, can be combined with a rack or an open part – a chest of drawers, a shoe rack, a hanger, etc. There are also corner models – they allow the use of two adjacent walls, which cabinet or modular furniture usually cannot cope with. They are good for linear hallways.

If space permits, you can make a dressing room. It differs from the built-in wardrobe in greater depth – 1-1,2 m is a minimum. But you just can’t imagine how many things it includes, and how convenient it is to use.

Separately, it is worth talking about the place of storage of shoes. For this, there are special shoe chests of drawers or shoe racks. They come in different shapes, can be built into the hallway or stand alone. Shelves in them can be:

• Folding. Shoe cabinets with such shelves, as a rule, are narrow and fit well into small hallways.
• Retractable. Such furniture has a great depth, which is why it is often placed in square rooms or takes up space in a corner, often behind a closet.
  

In order not to just take up space, a seat is often made on the top of a free-standing shoe rack. This is both a shoe locker and a bench on which it is convenient to put on shoes.

There is another option – a round rotating shoe rack, divided into sectors. Compact and convenient solution.

If you use at least a few ideas, the design of the hallway will be stylish and comfortable.

Small hallway: layout features

If the hallway area is only 4 sq. m, you can’t put a lot of furniture in it, because most of the walls are occupied by doors opening into it, there are at least two or three of them. The design of the hallway of a small square is already from the field of art. You have to use any available wall area, because there is very little of it. And here the best way out is to order the manufacture of furniture. Since the equipment will be small, it will not result in a large amount, but it will be possible to use every centimeter.

First you need to find a place to place the hanger. Take a good look at the room, find an opportunity to put a closet or just a hanger, and under it – a shoe rack with a seat.

Hallways with an area of ​​4 square meters. m – “property” of small-sized apartments such as “Khrushchev”. In them, free space is generally a rarity: even for one person there is not much of it, and there is nothing to say about a family. But in any case, the composition of the furniture greatly depends on your wishes, and also on the layout. There are several recommendations that you can heed or not.

1. Use all available height. If a closet, then under the ceiling, if a hanger, then you can make a shelf above it – open or closed – choose for yourself. On the upper “floors” you can put out-of-season clothes, or you can, for example, install a pantograph for clothes. This is a horizontal pipe, which, thanks to the mechanism, can be lowered from the ceiling.
   

2. Choose furniture with sliding doors – such as a wardrobe. They take up less space.
3. The mirror can be placed on the wall, on the door (more convenient – on the entrance) or one or more cabinet doors can be made a mirror.
4. If necessary, you can use the space at the top of the walls – above the doors. There are shallow cabinets. And so that they do not “press” too much, the doors can be made of frosted glass. This is the best option – such furniture turns out to be “light”. Another option is to make them the same color as the walls. Then they will merge and practically will not stand out. It is more convenient to make doors opening up or sliding – like a coupe.
   

5. Much more functional is not a bench or ottoman for shoes, but a shoe rack with a seat. It can be with closed shelves or open. It’s already up to you.

Read about the redevelopment of Khrushchev here. 

Arrangement of a hallway in a private house

If the hallway is spacious – the task is to properly arrange the desired furniture. Although the closet is still the best choice, there are options in its size and location. The best one is the corner one. It allows you to use the area to the maximum, while all things are in their places and at hand.

If desired, you can separately make a hanger – for “duty” clothes, in which in the cool season the years go out into the yard, and under it – a shoe rack with a seat and the same “duty” shoes.

Now about where to place a closet or hanger. The answer is simple: as close to the entrance as possible. So that you can immediately take off your outerwear and shoes. For this area, it is necessary to provide a floor covering that will be easy to clean, and at the same time will not allow debris to be spread. Usually, ceramic tiles or something like that are laid at the entrance, and anti-splash mats are placed on top.

Hallway with stairs

If, when planning the house, it was decided not to “inflate” the technical premises and the entrance hall turned out to be small, and even a staircase goes into it, it will be problematic to place everything you need. Especially if the family is athletic and you need to place sports equipment somewhere – skis, skates, rollerblades, skateboards, etc. If the design of the stairs allows, the most reasonable option is to arrange a kind of wardrobe under it.

In some homes, this area is used to store vehicles for large and small – prams and bicycles. If bicycles can still be left in a shed or garage, then it is simply impossible to do this with a baby carriage. And often for this “means of transportation” the most convenient place is under the stairs.

Hallway decoration in different styles: photo

The entrance hall can be decorated in any style: classic, Provence, minimalism or high-tech. The choice is yours. To make it a little easier to understand what suits you best, this section contains photos of hallways of different styles.