Can you help me with ideas to cheer up a hallway that has little natural light?

[notafish]

Our 30s semi has no hallway or landing window because we are joined to our neighbours beside the stairs. I love our house in the summer months but coming home during the winter months puts me in a low mood because I am met by a dark, dingy hallway as I enter the house.

It's painted in pointing which is supposed to be light reflective but I guess it doesn't have many places from which to reflect the light. I've thought about adding a few more mirrors. Am I missing something that would make the hallway feel more cheerful and welcoming? Perhaps it's not just the light issue. It's a wider than usual hall for a 30s semi.

A lamp on a sideboard or maybe some fairy lights draped on stairs/banister?

I live in a 1940’s terrace, very dark hallway with two little squares in my hall door which allows minimal light in. Its so dark and depressing when you walk in the door, i know what you mean! Im going to be doing it up soon and my plan is to paint the whole hall white, add two large mirrors and add an artificial plant in a beautiful white pot. It will hopefully brighten up the space!

Big mirror

Mirrors and lights (either fairy lights or a lamp), so the light is reflected.

Agree that mirrors help, but actually leaving the light on ll the time (low energy light bulb, obviously, and a bright one at that), or, failing that, a lamp on a timer so it isn't dark when you come in.

Not sure of your layout or whether it would help in your case, but we have a very dark hall. We recently replaced the front door with one with a much bigger glass panel in it to let in more natural light.

Other than that I think mirrors and lamps are a good idea. Also, not sure why, but plants make a room feel lighter too (although they don't last long in our hall because of the lack of light!)

What are your current sources of light? Agreed that a front door with glass panel could help. Mirrors, white on the walls. Bright bulbs or a new fitting that will offer more light. If you have space for furniture or decorative objects, do them in a light finish as well. Large white frames on the wall with a white mat.

Are there any rooms off the hallway that have a lot of light? We've been considering replacing our dining room door with one that has some glass to allow a little more light flow.

Maybe a photo of the space would help generate more ideas? Or at least some suggestions for mirror placement.

Sympathies on the dark hallway. I vetoed one house because it wasn't just the hallway that was dark, it was all the way up the stairs and felt oppressive. And it was a skinny hallway, not nice and wide like yours.

I agree about the mirror idea too. Is it an option to change the front door to have more glass in it.

Not sure how much your budget is or how much trouble you want to go to but I saw these on a program once:

Although we do have a small landing window and a small hallway window I love the feeling of a light hallway and ours can still be very gloomy. On the right of our hallway is our livingroom and I removed the livingroom door (which was never used and so easy to remove) which added so much more light into the hall way! Also, I leave a lamp on 24/7 with a warm low energy bulb which makes a massive difference and really changed how my house feels.

Mirrors opposite each other
Small led lights up the stairs

I have put a small shelf above the radiator with a small lamp on a timer.
Also added a heavy rich fabric door curtain and it transformed the space with a nice and cosy feel

My hallway's dark too, no window at all. I have one mirror at right angles to the door and another at the end of the hallway, opposite the door iyswim. I'm a big fan of faux candles- the ones with a flame that moves and have a few of these which are on timers. These would be especially effective placed I front if a mirror. I also have fairy lights draped on the top of each mirror

Put a Velux in over the stairwell/landing.

We did this in our old house (a Victorian terrace) and it made such an amazing difference

My hallway is quite dark too. Painted it white, put a mirror up and kept the light shades that must be from the 70's. Small cut glass ones that reflect light everywhere.

a modern version here

Or what about glitter wall paper?

Dulux make a paint designed for small darker spaces. It is called light and space and it reflects light. Bit more expensive than ordinary dulux but does make a difference,

what colour is the front door? we used to have a dark wood door, but now its white and it really brightens up the space.
we also used silk paint as it reflects the light more
and went for a light fitting that gives a peachy glow

This is the nearest I could find to my suggestion to have a velux over the stairs - it's kind of recessed so you don't need to have a sloping ceiling or lose your loft space.

It made a huge difference in our old terraced house. In fact we've done similar in this house even though it wasn't as dark.

Anyone have a Matthew Hilton Cross dining table? I have questions..!

Sorry, totally wrong place to post the above, have reported myself!
Meanwhile for the hall, suggest a really bright rug, ideally some strong colours? We have a dark hall with a jazzy bright rug, it seems to "legitimise" the space.

I got distracted and forgot to come back to this post. Thank you for all the suggestions. Ideally I'd love to add a sun pipe or velux in the roof to give proper light to the upper landing and downstairs hallway but we have tentative plans to consider moving in a few years time. If this were our forever house or at least 'next decade' house, I would spend to make those changes.

I like the idea of a lamp, maybe on a sensor or timer so it comes on when it is dark and before I enter the hall. The socket is at the wrong side of the hallway so I'd have to look into having one added at the other side, at the bottom of the staircase where we have furniture for it to stand on. Unless there is something more attractive than a nightlight that could plug into the existing socket to spread a little welcoming glow...? The piece of furniture at the bottom of the stairs is dark and the inside of the front door is not white, so painting both of those would help. The hallway and landing are painted in F&B Pointing which is supposed to be light reflective. The front door has lots of glass but it is obscured glass and stained glass. We have an outer front door which is all glass - so I don't think much can be changed there. We do need new internal doors downstairs so could opt for ones with some glass in.

It sounds like two mirrors will be better than one. I think I'll just have to buy two and hold them up and see where they will do the best job of increasing light.

Our hallway has no windows either, however all the doors that open off it (including the front foor) have those pains of glass above them - don't know what they are called - that let the light through. I am about the paint the walls a very dark colour in an effort to stop battling the dark feeling and embrace it. I fugure if I can't make it lighter I can make it cosy, so I'm going to do that.

Have you thought about concealed lighting ? Basically just strips of led lights fitted under the ceiling coving... in terms of ££ you can do this pretty cheaply with battery operated strips... have a browse online and see what's out there !

Thanks I will have a look.