Paint colour advice much needed!

[Brightonbella]

Any suggestions for what to paint a hallway and landing that has a dark brown carpet (that I can't afford to get rid of!) and donkey sick (wood chip) on the walls. I'm painting the living room in calico so think I ought to use some colour in the hall or it'll all look a bit bland. I'm hopeless at this though and a single parent so don't have anyone else to bounce ideas off, or blame! Any advice would be gravely appreciated.

Could you steam the wood chip off? It'd look so much better! As long as you don't uncover a plaster nightmare, it's always a bit of a risk.

If you can't face it i'd go neutral on it as not to draw attention.

Just walnut by Dulux is a nice neutral.

Thank you for your advice! All the other walls have proven to be a nightmare with extra plastering needed in every room, so I'm pretty sure that steaming off the wood chip would uncover a world of pain. I'll check out just walnut though, thank you!

How about a nice rug for the hallway that would blend in with the brown? It would break up the colour and you could introduce other colours that way.