What colour should I paint my dark hallway and landing?

[CiderwithBuda]

am without inspiration!

Flooring is oak. Carpet not stairs is an oatmeal colour.

Want something that will look bright and fresh.

Going out to buy tester pots later.

Oh - house is Edwardian if that helps!

Please save me from magnolia hell.

Dulux do a paint range which reflects light so it is fab for dark hallways. After years of farting around with F&B we just slathered the place in a dulux light reflectant white and it looks 1000 times better. Victorian flat if that's relevant.

That's interesting helium. Decorator said he didnt think the light and space paint was great. May give it a go. Did you use Absolute White?

I painted our dark hall/stairs/landing pure white (not light and space) and totally regretted it. It just looked dingey and showed up finger prints on places where the kids always touched the walls.

Sorry, that's not really helping is it!

We've recently used F&B Theresa's Green and Stony Ground in a couple of dark rooms, and we reckon they look lovely.

Yes I think we used absolute white. Not professional though so would be worth asking your decorator why he or she doesn't like it, I'm sure they know their stuff. It's just before we used two different F&B variations on posh white (pointing was one) and it looked awful.

Marks come off quickly with one of those flash magic eraser sponge thingys.

We're renovating a house and had potentially same issue (terrace house, want to bring light into hallway etc). My DH really doesn't really like plain white, although I do, so we did a zillion testers of variations of neutrals and off-whites (all Dulux) and eventually arrived at .... white!

They've only done one coat but it looks fab. Really bright and lovely. We didn't use F&B because it's ridiculously hard to get marks off walls, and we went for Diamond Dulux matt white. Diamond is the more expensive of the Dulux range but it's great at keeping clean.

Coincidentally, in my office to be/spare guest room, we're using Light and Space absolute white as it's a small room. I'm going to see how it looks this weekend. Will report back.

Watching thread with interest as our dark hallway and landing are white, but I'm longing to change the colour. It looks cheap and studenty.

The plus side is that it's quick and easy to touch up when I notice the DCs handmarks, but it really doesn't look right at all. (Edwardian house).

Looking for something a bit more grown-up, but still light and bright.

We did our (dark, Victorian) hallway and stairs/landings in white - not pure brilliant white but white. At first I wasn't sure and thought it was a bit stark but now I really like it. It shows off the period features (stained glass, tiled floor etc) and it looks sooo much bigger and brighter than the dirty cream from before.

If I was going to have something other than white, I would probably go for a very pale non-creamy off white. Like a very very pale stone colour. We have Sanderson's Slate II in our kitchen which would be a good option for this.

Well have been out to buy testers and have 3 Light and Space - Absolute White and two others whose names escape me and also a normal Dulux in Egyptian cotton.

Will see how they look.

I didn't really want a pure White but something soft. A non-creamy off White sounds perfect so I will have a look at the Sanderson one.

Thanks everyone.

Can you let us know which one looks best? so that we can shamelessly rip off your hard work