what colour in my hall?

[snowballinashoebox]

I need some help with paint ideas for a narrow hall, north facing. The only direct light is through a half glazed front door.

floor is freshly sanded and varnished old boards which have helped warm it up a bit.

It is the corridor of doors, so masses of gloss, satinwood on frames but the actual doors are going off to be striped as they are original 1930s.

I was thinking tallow as it is bright without being too yellow... also have some elephant breath sample patches everywhere but know it's too dark.

Any ideas would be gratefully received.

Are the doors pine or a darker wood? this might affect how dark you can go.

Um, I'm not a huge fan of tallow personally, I find it too similar to magnolia, with that same pinky undertone. I would go for something cleaner like Pointing. Or if you want to go for something neutral like Elephant's Breath, how about Skimming Stone which is a lighter warm grey? Or Pale Walnut or Egyptian Cotton by Dulux.

bear in mind you may need to have the same colour going up the stairs as in the hallway (depending on whether there is a decent "break point" where you could change colour without it looking odd).

Do you have any sort of dado rail - could you do one colour above/one below?

We've just finished our hall, with F&B 'Orangery', below the dado rail. We have a half-glazed door and all the other doors/staircase are pitch pine. The colour matches some of the floor tiles, so it works well.

The doors at the minute are stained very dark, once dipped they should be pale. not sure what the wood is, lovely grain, not pine.
minciepie thank you for saying magnolia, I feared as much.

Just found a sample pot of pointing in the cupboard!

Origina dados are gone and I thought putting them back would emphasis how narrow it is. Also no stairs.

merle just off to look at orangery thank you.

hmmm.... dado rails could emphasise narrowness, but on the other hand it would break up the height of the walls and create a horizontal line, which can make a space look wider. Also it's v practical as you can have a darker colour under the dado, less likely to show marks.

I must admit though that I probably wouldn't bother putting dados back in if they aren't there (in fact I haven't in our house, having had this very debate).

I have elephants breath and even in the darker parts of the hallway it's fine. I get lots and lots of compliments on it.

The great dado debate, yep been there! we have put back most of the picture rails though.

pointing is very pale looking at it - quite helpful that today is very overcast.

skandi interesting you say that, keep going back to it.

We have strong white in our dark north facing hall, with wimborne white woodwork. We have elephants breath & skimming stone in our living room and love the colours but wanted something a bit lighter to brighten the hallway.

If it is very dark, Dulux do a range of paints that I have forgotten the name of, but is supposed to bounce the light around better.....not tried them but wonder if it's worth thinking about.