decorating help needed - what paint in dark hallway

[sabas]

Looking for some suggestions on paint colours for a very narrow "L" shaped hall in our flat. there is no natural light at all so the hall is v dingy. there is dark real wood flooring and a "dado"? rail dividing the wall space in half.

I'm not keen on white or cream all over, I would prefer the bottom half of the wall to be a colour & I like the flat matt effect of the Dulux Timeless Classics range but unsure of which colours would work.

any ideas, preferably dulux paints & what would you do with skirtings - is dulux satinwood in Timeless too dark/cream?

also has anyone used the light & space paint on celings - does it highlight flaws

please help :)

don't know about the light & space.

very matte paint can be a bit of a problem - it shows marks/scrapes quite easily. A narrow hallway could be an issue with that.

You could easily have a darker color below the dado rail (aboue waist height?) then a lighter color above it. You can have toning or contrasting colors - e.g. dark blue lower, light blue upper, or dark blue lower with cream or light yellow upper.

Get tester & paint patches then live with them for a few days.

Also, anywhere you could put a mirror that would look OK - does actually get more light into the space, rather than just a different color.

Are you able to keep clutter to an absolute minimum? Getting as much stuff out of there as possible would help. If you do need somewhere for coats, shoes etc, get furnishings in light colours.

mmm, agree with kickass that the flat matt isn't very hardwearing (and it's not wipeable). Also it's very, very light absorbing as it doesn't reflect light at all. I like the flat matt finish but to be honest for a hallway I'd go with something slightly less matt and more washable/wipeable - like the Dulux Endurance maybe.

How about something like Timeless above the dado and then Natural Hessian under the dado see here for the colours together?

I would choose white satinwood skirtings and woodwork, brings in more light and also contrasts nicely with any colour on the walls. I think woodwork in Timeless might end up looking like white that's gone grubby?

Thanks for the advice :) you are both right a hallway is liable to marks, I just hadnt realised that the Timeless Classics stuff wouldnt be wipeable :(

The sugesstions to use Endurance are good ones, especially below the dado rail, any ideas for another colour that would be good with timeless, something a bit deeper maybe but not too dark?

Good point about the woodwork too, do you recon Timeless is a no-no on any woodwork though or just in my hall? I did go with brilliant white gloss wich yellowed in about 2 months due to the absolute lack of light in my hall. What colour of satinwood would you recommend , PBW?

I will investigate about the mirror, but not sure if my hallway is too narrow, plus the walls are not vey long as they are broken up by doors. Id say the hall is a max of 70/80cm wide

tHANKS AGAIN :)

ok, to be fair, I don't know that the Timeless Classics paint isn't wipeable. I just know that flat matt paint usually isn't.

Other colours to go with Dulux Timeless: here are the other colours that Endurance comes in. How about Soft Stone?

About the yellowing: It's oil based gloss which yellows (and sometimes satinwood, though less so). However, I would highly recommend Sikkens Rubbol Satura - although it is an oil based satinwood paint, it doesn't yellow. Otherwise, try water based white satinwood paint - that won't yellow (but is a bit less hardwearing than oil based). I'd go for White rather than PBW.

If your hallway is narrow, a mirror or two would definitely help increase the sense of space - if you can squeeze one in between the doors. I don't think a hall can be too narrow for a mirror, as long as it doesn't have a bulky frame!

Thanks minipie. Looked at your link and Soft Stone is nice and I quite like mellow mocha too, time to go back to b&q and get more testers! :)