Paint or wallpaper in hallway? Please share your experiences/opinions

[hyperspacebug]

We are finally having our Edwardian house re-wired, which means we can get started on re-decorating hallway which hasn't been updated since 1980s.

Many people will probably know this - so much better to do with one's time in life than spend head-hurting hours on colour and pattern, and yet again I am falling into this :/

I am thinking wallpaper will make hallway look warmer and cosier. If it was just plaster+paint and floorboards or tiles, that would make the hallway look freezing and less cosy, especially in the winter. (Edwardian house here)

Or am I imagining too much? I don't pay attention what other people have and now I can't remember! I know that I like my MIL's cosy house with texture wallpaper but it's pretty dated.

What do you have in hallway that you love?

Depends on the hallway! What shape is it (long and narrow? Square?)? How much natural light? How big, etc?

I personally wouldn't paper a hallway, but perhaps choose a warmer neutral if you're worried about it being cold? However, I do have a wallpaper 'feature wall' on my (open, very light filled) staircase and think it works really well (and we get lots of compliments on it).

Not narrow corridor definitely, more L-shaped, getting northern lights.

I am also thinking of wallpaper for heat insulation reasons. Plaster+paint may make hallway colder and echo the sounds more,, but I haven't lived in a period house before.

Then I have 3 kids under 6 too who could wreck a wallpaper.

I find wallpaper impractical in a hallway - muddy wet dogs shaking, muddy boys after football, constant bashing from bags. Much easier to wipe clean painted walls (Dulux Endurance paint) and repaint every so often.

Some wallpapers may be more enduring than others? (even not-vinyl ones!)

We currently do have wallpaper in the hallway and they are still wearing well after a year of us, just far too dated.

We have a beautiful Cole and Son wallpaper below the rail in our hallway and on the wall going up the stairs. I was a bit hesitant but it looks amazing and brightens up the whole house. We have a Victorian terrace with narrow corridors.

The paper we have in our staircase is also Cole & Son. As the answer to your questions also depends a lot on the design of the paper I'd start by looking through their designs and see if something appeals.

I don't think paper will make any actual difference to the temperature and sound properties of the space (or if it does, it would be minimal), but it may affect your perception of those...

I think it depends on whether you are doing it yourselves or getting someone in. Stripping wallpaper over the stairs is a pain for an amateur DIYer, but a professional or a better DIYer than us will tie ladders together or have a special type of ladder to reach. Ours have always been painted white or cream because then you don't have to worry about getting a neat join line between ceiling and wall.

Also I agree with PP about paper being easily scuffed by bags etc, then you have a big repair job compared with retouching paint. If your hallway is huge, it wouldn't get scuffed so much I imagine.