What colour for the hallway?

[Paddingtonthebear]

We have a narrow hallway with not much natural light, just a fanlight over the front door. The walls have now been been stripped and replastered. Stair will be changed to a plain neutral. White/neutral paint feels a bit boring but just wondering if anything else here will be too gloomy?

I have a soft pale yellow in my dark hall.

Our hallway is similar. We had Farrow and Ball Slipper Satin and it looks lovely. A chalky off white, looks warm but airy if that makes sense! A lovely classical neutral.

Watching!
We have a very similar hall to your current picture, having removed some garish decoration.
Looking for inspiration of what to add to to make it a bit more welcoming, but still keep the sense of space.
We figured changing some light shades or pictures was much easier than repainting the whole thing. So went very plain - one of the myriad of off whites (pretty much cream). But it does need something extra.
It is much lighter, brighter, and feels more spacious having removed the green and purple.....

Yes we’ve removed ancient yellowy anaglypta, replaced the radiator and will put a shelf above it with mirror etc to make it look a bit more inviting. Just can’t decide whether to go with colour or plain neutral paint

I would go with a soft green. Blues and greens recede away, visually, while warm colours come forward. So a blue or green would open up the space. Then hang a large mirror above the radiator. It will reflect the rooms opposite and draw the viewpoint further away. Add a statement lamp and a runner on the floor (companies like 'hug a rug' and 'turtle mat' do machine washable runners and door mats which are useful for high traffic areas)

(Green shown is F&B breakfast room)

Ah, crossed post. See you are planning a mirror already! That will make a bigger difference than the paint colour.

Our bathroom is that green colour so I’m a bit reluctant to use it for the hall. The other issue is we have a dog so the walls around the front door tend to get a lot of rain/mud flicked on them 🥴

We just had ours done in Elle Personal Touch. Our painter had it mixed in a scrubbable paint so it has that colour but can be washed down from the mud etc.

I'd get a colourful geometric wallpaper. Lush have some fab ones.

I have chosen almond white for a dark back bedroom. I decided colour was only going to make it darker.

If you want green I recommend overtly olive from dulux. I'm just painting my hall and have Egyptian cotton on the walls, pure brilliant white panelling, overtly olive door, overtly olive on the stairs only. My hall is big though.

I also like f&b mizzle

Egyptian cotton is a beige shade that looks lovely in my big kitchen. I was worried it would make my dark hall darker. When it's done I will report back. It's a lovely shade.

That is definitely dark, so personally for a hallway I would stick to a light colour or to assist with dog dirt go for a darker colour block lower down.

If a modern house, I would do that just with paint or wallpaper. If older I would have some kind of panelling.

I’d put a dado rail up and paint the upper part a warm colour and below something paler. Then when you hang pictures/mirrors above the space, it really defines it…

Also hang a chandelier type light , something OTT from the ceiling ( dunelm or B and Q do some reasonably priced ones) and a long mirror at the top of your stairs to reflect the light.

Thanks all. It’s a Victorian terrace so I’m planning a pendant/lantern style light. Panelling would look quite good on the lower part of the wall but not sure how that would work with the stair wall. I like the idea of a mirror at the top of the stairs. The stairway carpet will be changed to a plain grey mix which I think will brighten up as that current carpet makes it feel dark and dingy.

White with a hint of something warm

I actually agree with @WildCherryBlossom I don't think a darker colour makes a small hallway smaller...it adds warmth and makes it inviting, as long as the lighting and accessories work. I find light colours in a hallway really bland, personal choice I know.

Mine is exactly like this. I have dulux natural hessian :)

Dulux has this tool online, easy to navigate

(e.g. these colours would compliment your future grey stair carpet)

https://www.dulux.co.uk/en/colour-details/filters/h_Cool%20neutral/l_Hallway/f_Matt#tabId=item0

What would make a massive difference is if you paint the stairs white and just have a runner in the centre. Tile the floor, paint that beam white and move the smoke detector. Something like this…

Yeah I can’t bear the noise of wooden stairs, sorry! It’s bad enough hearing next doors kids thundering up their stairs

Beam will be painted and smoke detector put elsewhere though!

A runner would have pretty much the same noise dulling effect as a carpet. They have underlay etc.

That’s true. Wooden stairs just feels a bit cold to me though. And our stairs are extremely noisy and creaky so I think carpet is best.