Victorian hall (needs to be grubby child proofed)

[beyondthepaleandinteresting]

We are in the process of (slowly) renovating our Victorian terraced house. The hallway was one of the first things we did when we moved in 18 months ago, and I was very happy with it - we put in wooden flooring downstairs, had the beautiful staircase renovated and put in a nice runner leading in to carpet on the first and second floors.

The house is over 3 floors, and we wanted to keep the wall colour the same the whole way up. The hall is light on the 2nd floor (there's a large cupola in the roof), quite dark on the first floor, and takes all its light on the ground floor from a large south facing window on the turn of the stairs, meaning that on sunny days it feels lovely and light, but on dark days can feel quite gloomy.

We had the walls painted in a F&B Cornforth White colour match, and the woodwork white (doors are the original wood). It looked lovely, and worked so well with all of the different kinds of light.

18 months on, and my 3 children have absolutely ruined it. The walls look filthy - there are grubby finger marks all of the way up the stairs which no amount of scrubbing can remove, and when the sun shines all I see is grease. We've run out of the colour matched paint, so I can no longer touch up.

I think I'm going to have to have the hall repainted, which is galling (it was by far our most expensive room to decorate) but I can't bear to look at it any longer (it's really, really bad). I think my options are:

1. Repaint as before, but use actual F&B paint so that I can buy more and touch up / repaint to dado height only as required.

1. Paint a darker colour below the dado rail which runs up to the first floor. Below the dado rail is worse than above. I didn't really want to do this originally, but I wonder if it would show the marks less? Or would a dark colour show greasy marks more?

1. Paint in a very washable paint - I'd rejected this first time round due to cost (the price we were quoted was very high compared to standard matt emulsion) and the finish I was looking for, but a less chalky finish would still be better than the handprints!

Either way I will absolutely be reading my children the riot act about smearing spag bol on the walls etc...

Suggestions welcome!

Following this with interest as we want to decorate our hallway in a very similar way but I worry that with young kids it will get wrecked!
I'm thinking of going for a slightly darker colour, maybe a nice blue

If I were you I would deffo paint under the rail a darker colour, and I'm sure you can buy brands of paint that have a washable hardwearing type??

Also what colour is your carpet runner?
We can't decide whether to go for what we love or what's practical!

Train your children?

We've got Cornforth White and it's such a lovely colour. It bet it looks gorgeous with the white woodwork and stripped doors. Could you compromise on magnolia washable until the children are old enough to understand about mucky handprints and scuffs, then go back to posh pale paint again?

A slightly more radical idea from me. Have you considered wallpapering? Vinyl wallpapers can literally by washed with soapy water and their surface is pretty non porous so you'd probably be able to wash off spag bol or anything really.

Design-wise, they can range from really muted to pretty brave. A couple of examples attached.

If you stick to paint, I'd go with sth very washable.

We're just painting our Victorian hallway (with added toddler and soon-to-be-toddler) in F&B colour matched Dulux Diamond Matt in Calamine. It's scrubbable! So scrubbable in fact that we have in in the kitchen instead of tiles - in Cornforth White, would you believe.

Thank you all. The Dulux Diamond Matt sounds really interesting - I will look at that. And wallpaper, although it takes me outside my comfort zone!

Really, I think training the children would be the best way forward, but they're just so grimy.... My eldest (8) is actually the worst (leaves the table oblivious to the fact that he is covered in his dinner; doesn't up seem able to walk up the stairs without running his hands up the wall), so I don't have much hope there.

Anaglypta paper plus gloss paint below the dado. Looks better than it sounds and it's authentically Victorian as well, to the best of my knowledge. We used Dulux Heritage paint in our last house but their range is much smaller now, and mostly dishwatery shades.

The Little Greene scrubbable matt is not as matt as F&B but does well in our hall, stairs and landing in a light grey. You can get any marks off pretty easily and a good range of similar colours. Much better than the F&B we have in in the living room

We're doing what @Agustarella suggests - you can actually get really nice anaglypta these days and it's very hard wearing.

I used eggshell paint in my hallway which is tough and can be washed/scrubbed.
Make sure when you get it done that you store a large jar of the paint (labelled) which can be used to touch up any scuffs.

Diamond Matt. Or you used to be able to get Diamond Glaze that goes over whatever paint you choose.

You might be able to get away with just doing some walls?

Yy to anaglypta. Painted a dark bottle green.

While your children are at home you might as well give up on the idea of chalky paint, it just isn't practical. I just painted our living room in Dulux easy care and will be doing the same in the hall.

Anaglypta, if you are up for the challenge of papering the hall, is brilliant. There are some really good patterns, and it can just be painted when it starts to look grubby. I'd love a proper Victorian hall with dado and bold anaglypta.

I second the Duluth diamond trade matte. We have it in the children’s room and it looks pristine 5 years later. We used Little & Greene which has the same chalky feel as F&B but superior quality. Greasy fingerprints do wipe off well, unlike f&b.

Dulux

I've never seen the diamond trade Matt. Will have to find a stockist. Usually use the endurance/easy are/whatever it is this week for high mucky handprint areas but it's gloopier than I like, obviously designed for lazy one coat painters, and hard to get a clean finish on, especially if you're DH and don't roll out the edges very carefully. I like the chalkiness, though.

I've used Dulux endurance matt paint in our hallway and living room. It's scrubbable and even though it's Matt finish you can't see where you've washed.

We have 4 children (and a scruffy DH) and I'm really pleased with the paint so far. I chose pretty light colours and they still look great a year later, although I did have to just wash spaghetti sauce off the ceiling tonight!!

Pickachew, you can find it on their website

In the meantime have you tried those magic eraser type things (aldi have a bulk pack sometimes) we have the same set up and one of those followed by a damp cloth gets the worst off.

I feel your pain OP. I have similar. Three floors of Victorian loveliness painted in F and B elephants breath. Four (FOUR!!!) months later it needed a repaint. We had the same colour but in modern emulsion F and B, rather than estate. Never ever again. Grrrr. Neighbours have slightly darker below dado and it is better. I wouldn't risk it again. In the hall ways and stairs Dulux only. ONLY. I have F and B everywhere else and it's fine. (rant over). I have Cornforth White in a shower room and it's spotless.

I used to be a fan of actual F & B. However, it marks very easily, and my decorator suggested Dulux Diamond matte in my kitchen. I'm a total convert, cooking splashes just wipe off, even tomato and grease. I'll never use F&B again.

Agree that dulux diamond mat is scrubbable. F & B is not.

I know its not as nice but i use the dulux until kids are older i wash it with a bowl of hot soapy water and it works great

Yy Dulux diamond, also Mylands marble matt is very hard wearing & scrubable (it’s got crushed marble in it) much better quality than F&B & has some really lovely colours from subtle through to very strong colours, also goes a very long way & is easy to work with.

I have farrow and ball in some rooms a mixture of modern emulsion and estate emulsion. I too have 3 floors and my hallways are white, every couple of months I wash the walls and touch up. You can’t do this with farrow ball, the whole wall needs painting otherwise it’s very visible. I second magic erasers, they are amazing! I say choose a standard duly colour that can be retouched easily. Deluxe Potters Clay is a similar colour to Cornforth White