What can I do with my hall and landing?

[Pickingmyselfup]

My hall and landing is really annoying me at the minute, it's just so meh and I want it to look nicer.

The layout is like this...

Walk in the front door. Immediately right is the cloakroom, immediately left behind the door is an alcove. Walk a few more steps forward, to the left the wall sticks out then goes back in again where the coat rack and radiator is. To the right is the stairs that go up to a windowless landing so it gets pretty dark up there.

Straight on as you walk in past the stairs and the radiator is the lounge which leads to the kitchen.

I want to somehow box the alcove in and hide the router and the fuse box with a long cupboard maybe because we still need to access them.

I want to repaint the hall and the landing because at the minute it is cream and it gets so grubby. In my head I have white panelling at the bottom and dark blue paint for the top half but I've no idea how to work the panelling around the plug sockets and the radiators. I would like to replace the floor with a nicer laminate or similar, vinyl maybe? The hall isnt very big at all, in the photo taken facing the lounge door I am touching the frojt door with my back.

I'm also a bit concerned that the dark blue would really darken the landing. At the moment the bannister is dark brown, I want to paint it white I think which should help. The picture frames are all black too so if I switch them to white that will look better.

Whatever we do can't cost a fortune, painting we can do ourselves, the rest potentially depending how difficult it is but we are stretched on time because of the kids.

Can anyone help with some ideas please???

Budget?

To box in your fusebox and panel your walls, I'd recommend the Georgian tongue and Grove panells from the English Pannelling Company. They are sturdy enough for boxing in and are easy to paint. You'd have to take off your socket faces, cut out the shape of the socket from the panelling and then screw back the socket face.
theenglishpanellingcompany.co.uk

They also sell peg rails to create your own little bootroom.

The budget is minimal, like £200 for the paint and the hiding of the crap. Husband doesn't want panelling so we will have to go with a lighter colour that shows the dirt less than cream does. Not really sure what to go for but I'll have a look at some paint.

I'll have a look at that website and see what I can find to hide the fuse box. It's quite old anyway so maybe needs replacing.