Panelling in a hallway?

[newnamenickname]

My hall is wallpapered and beneath that the walls are pretty bad.

Anyhow, the wallpaper is in pretty good condition except for some patches below waist height where the pushchair has marked it and the cat has scratched it.

I really dont like the thought of having to re-paper, so I was thinking of having some panelling up to waist height done by a carpenter. I reckon I could keep this in better condition than a wallpaper and just wipe down and repaint the panel.

Anyone done this?
It's a 1920's terrace with a long narrow hallway - would it look a bit daft?

something like the top picture here?

Sounds a brilliant idea.

And you may have just solved my problem with the wall behind the front door, which also gets badly scarred by folded pushchair-type stuff.

What are you going to do at the bottom of the stairs?
Have you priced this job? I imagine it will be quite expensive. Will you remove skirting boards?
I think it will go perfectly with the period of the house. Good lock!

Thanks both, I'm glad you think it'll be ok - I'm planning to have a new floor put in by a carpenter and he is going to remove the skirting board and install new ones as part of that job, so I'm hoping he can tag this job onto that one.

At the bottom of the stairs there is a fitted cupboard which stretches to the front door, so I'll probably only do the other wall of the hallway if that makes sense.

Ideally I'd love to replaster the whole hall and landing, but I can't bear the thought of all the mess with stripping the wallpaper. I do need the ceilings done there before installing a new floor, so perhaps I'll ask for a quote for the walls too. [dread emoticon]

Wood panelling would be just as easily damaged as plasterwork would be, you could remove the plaster from the ground up to approx 1 metre and install a dado rail at the joint of the old and new plaster. Remeber that any panelling will further narrow your hallway and may make the problem worse instead of better.

Thin MDF sheets with batons to make "panelled" look, special tough paint or just satinwood in a standard colour which will be easy to match/touch up. Job done.

I have lime plaster so soft you can write your name in it (don't ask how I know this), so panelling the small area up to the bookcases will be the bee's knees for me.