How to lighten/ brighten a dark stairway?

[Suddengeekgirl]

We are redecorating the hall in the autumn so will be painting over the dirty magnolia with something to lighten and brighten.

The stairs turn back on themselves iyswim and have a very tall wall with no windows in it on the bend iyswim. In fact there is only one window in the hallway downstairs and none upstairs, so the stairway can be very dark.

What would you do to give the appearance of light?

I want to use a dulux endurance type paint as te hall takes a battering from the dcs.

I have a long narrow hallway and stairs with a bend and not much natural light at all, but the previous owners went for cream and a carpet and boy its filthy! Coat marks, hand marks...

I'm going to tile the hallway white and black and paint the walls either side of the hallway in dark blue and dark purple/ red and carry that on up the stairs where all the sticky hand marks etc are. I am using the floor to brighten it and lots of frames in silver or gold to give it some personality.

I've had a few raised eyebrows but I don't care:) ( defiant)

Something from B&Q valspar premium.... You choose a colour, they colour match.... It's completely scrubbable, unlike other paints

Or

Dulux light and space. A few shades to choose from there

Put a big mirror opposite the one window that you have.

Put a mirror opposite every glimmer of natural light that reflects into the stairwell, and mirrors to reflect the light from your light fittings.

It's easy to have an eclectic batch of interesting old mirrors.

Minkah - I see exactly what you're saying about the mirrors, but eclectic is not really me.

Unfortunately the window doesn't have a wall opposite it - it's opposite the staircase.

I was wondering if hanging a large picture on te tallest, dark wall would help. I'm sort of thinking of a picture that has lots of light in it iyswim. Maybe something like this

Lurking for inspiration. Our hall, stairs and landing is incredibly dark. We have done what we can yo maximise light. We've put lights in above the doors upstairs and put glazed doors in downstairs.

I like the eclectic mirrors idea. The wall going up the stairs is just a vast, dark windowless wall the full height of the two floors. I think the mirrors would work well there.

suddengeek, you might want to get wall lights installed, then.

you could use that picture you linked to if you like it. But will you be able to see it?

Notso, go for it. It will work!