What colour would you paint this hallway?

[bringonyourwreckingball]

Need to redecorate basically the whole house but having particular disagreements with DH about the hallway. What colour would you paint this hallway? Current colour was a huge mistake, supposed to be a soft brown but turned out purplish. Carpet is staying. We don’t get a vast amount of natural light. Would love some suggestions from people who have a better eye for this stuff than me (so basically anyone!)

I searched for ages for a soft, warm neutral for dd's bedroom. Looked at old posts on here and got Deluxe Just Walnut: a beautiful pale, warm grey. 3 people I know are now using this in their house after seeing it. t might be paler than you are looking for though.

Is that carpet brown? And looking at the door is it Arts & Crafts style or is it Victorian (looking at the stairs and picture rail) or Edwardian? I saw a house with similar windows built in about 1912.

Just trying to get a feel for the general style of the house!

What sort of things do you like and what's the rest of your house like? What were you aiming for originally?

1920s house. Doors are currently dark brown but will be white when finished - having new doors as we need fire doors. Carpet is brown - milk chocolate colour. Rest of the house is fairly traditional, lots of period features.

I would paint it either of these colours- Red earth to make the hallway warm or India yellow to make it brighter.

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You have to be a little adventurous and have an eye for interior design- having matching accessories will make the hallway! Love is in the detail..

I think green would work well with the carpet and woodwork.

I really don't like the lime green. That with the brown carpet is not going to work imho. It's too much and green is opposite on the colour spectrum to red so a bright lime will jar with the red tones of the carpet.

I think as the brown has reddish tones to it then working with that would be good. Either something with a red tone or something that will be a cool contrast.

If the wood was staying I would say red and maybe some paper with red and cream to break it up and make it less oppressive but as it's going I think maybe going cool and contrasting like F&B skylight which is a pale blue?

Colours which are warm and more likely to have reddish tones and could compliment the brown carpet: cream, gold yellow (beloved of 18th C drawing rooms) and Ts27 has posted a great shade, a deep blue, purple or lilac, sage green.

Cool contrasting tones: pale blues, greys and whites.

I think I would go for the cool contrast option personally - the red tones will warm the space but it will be darker unless you go for a neutral. It depends what look you want.

If you want a neutral then have a look at F&B Old White.

Yeah, I don’t like the reds or the lime green, thr first too dull and light sapping for a dark hallway the second too in your face for such a large one. I would agree a warm pale neutral colour would be best.

I honestly think it looks very nice as it is - just stick some pictures up to break up the wall a bit. I'm a big fan of F&B Elephant's Breath which is a soft beige/grey and might blend with the carpet. To me, it's the carpet which is problematic, brown carpet tends to suck all the light up and it doesn't sit well with an awful lot of colours.

Don't get rid of the doors - they're gorgeous. See if you can modify them to meet fire regs.

I thought it was a shame about the doors too. Why do you need fire doors unless it's a HMO?

I'd keep the period doors.

Fire regs as we’re doing a loft extension. We spent a long time trying to figure out how to keep them but can’t make it work.

With a brown carpet, I'd stay away from greys. I've just moved into a house that has grey walls throughout alongside brown wood doors and stairs and laminate flooring. I'm currently trying to decide which way to jump!

I think id go with dulux Egyptian cotton. It's neutral, and can take the brown carpet. Excuse my ignorance but why does the loft conversion affect your doors, presumably that's the front door?

I think anything that tends to grey will clash with the carpet. Almost all new homes now use almond white (dulux again) it's the new magnolia so if you want to play it safe that would work and it does bounce the light around.

Dulux Pebble Shore - we have this with a browny carpet and it looks fab

Dulux Natural Hessian is neutral but classic. It would also work with your carpet.
Ok said F&B Skylight which is beautiful if you are a blue person. We had it in all our bathrooms at our old house. Loved it.

@bringonyourwreckingball we had a similar problem when we converted our loft. We could keep some because we had a linked fire alarm system installed. The ones that weren’t salvageable we replaced with doors from a company called period projects (maybe near Southampton although we are in London) who make fire doors from reclaimed wood in period styles. They don’t perfectly match the original ones and they were more expensive but better than standard fire doors.

No-one seems to have suggested Dulux Timeless yet...

OP, have you looked at Fireface, by Sealmaster, as a possible means of upgrading your period doors to meet fire regulations? Sealmaster also make surface-mounted smoke/intumescent door seals, so that the door can be made into a 30-minute fire door.

I have used Sealmaster products at work and they're very good. We upgraded some doors that we cannot remove, due to the building being listed.

Doors can’t be saved as in addition to not being fire resistant (which we could fix albeit at great expense) they are warped and don’t shut properly. We are replacing with period repro fire doors not standard - they are more expensive but will look more in keeping with the house. We will also keep all the handles etc.
We’re tending towards neutral for the paint now, currently looking at dulux chalky downs which is similar to natural hessian.

We have dulux natural hessian in the hall which I think would work well in yours too.

You only need to have fire doors for sign off

Coming on to say Egyptian Cotton.

Craig and Rose..Moonstone Grey. Fabulous colour that changes with the light. Goes with virtually everything.