What colour for dark hall & stairs?

[GnomeDePlume]

Looking for some advice please?

We are getting ready to paint our hall, landing and stairs. They havent been painted in about a decade and boy, do they need it!

The problem is that we have a tall thin town house so practically no natural light.

All the pictures I have seen show halls with masses of light. I dont want bright white but dont want to end up with something dingy. Or do we embrace the darkness?

What colour would you go for?

We just painted our dark north facing living room Valspar clotted cream.

It’s warm, not particularly exciting , we’re going to put lots of mirrors up.

Interesting and a good idea about mirrors. Is valspar quite hardwearing? Being hall and stairs they get a fair bit of battering.

What about a very light blush colour? I've seen some pics of hallways with blush walls and they're gorgeous.

@GnomeDePlume

Interesting and a good idea about mirrors. Is valspar quite hardwearing? Being hall and stairs they get a fair bit of battering.

Valspar 700 is excellent, you can scrub it clean.

Hmm... I think I am going to need to get some sample pots.

Dulux used to do a range called light and space but that seems to have disappeared.

Thank you, you have all given me something to think about.

We went for a very light blush pink. It was always going to be dark as theres no natural light but it looks nice I think

definitley warmer light colours cream or as someone said light blush, lavender blue, grey or white would be too cold mirrors would reflect what light there is a couple of bright framed prints would add some colour

we went for valspar silk vinyl in our kitchen had the colour we wanted mixed up at B & Q so far its holding up well

We used Dulux light reflecting paint for our dark stairs which had no natural light. It definitely helped.

@GnomeDePlume

Hmm... I think I am going to need to get some sample pots.

Dulux used to do a range called light and space but that seems to have disappeared.

Thank you, you have all given me something to think about.

That's odd, we can still get the Dulux Light and Space paint in France. Maybe it's a temporary supply issue?

We're tackling a similar problem. Narrow hallway, with only nature light coming from a window above the front door. I'm painting the hallway a light warm greige colour (can't remember if it's mellow mocha by Dulux but it is the wipeable range) with a big mirror sat on the plate rail/picture rail shelf thing opposite the front door window to help bounce some light around.

Our hallway is too narrow for much on the walls but I do like the idea of framed prints/artwork with one of those overhead lights - you can get usb chargeable ones if you don't want the faff of getting electric wiring chased into the walls.

Or strip lights that sit on the top of your skirting boards or those round ones you see on decking?

We got F&B Wevet colour matched to Valspar.

It works really well in a similar space, and has slightly different tones depending on how the light hits.

If it’s not too narrow you could put a light box in.

I'm going to go against the grain and say embrace the dark! Is your house a period property or newer? If, say, pre 1920 I would go dark. Ours is F&B India Yellow with white dado, white panelling below the dado, and white stairs with a natural carpet. Terrifying when painting but amazing now!

We're just doing ours now and going to embrace the dark. We've gone with Valspar 700 as well, it's the best. It's a grey/green colour Grand Boulevard with white painted wood banister/skirting and a sort of teal and cream runner on the stairs. We like teal

Slightly off topic, but glad to hear recommendations for Valspar paint. We are looking at this when we next decorate. I was wondering how it compared to Crown and Dulux.

We just did our dark hallway in F&B Joa's White. We also took some time to paint the stair handrail - Oxford Stone for the top and bottom rail and Winbourne White for the spindles. This adds some small interest without it being over powering for a dark space.

Personally I think it's perfect.

Dulux timeless is a nice offwhite and benefits from being in the standard range. Last time this question was asked about half a dozen of us had this in the hall

I think Dulux Light & Space is still available - certainly online, but I've not a good range in the shops near me. We've used it in a few different rooms and I think it really helps.

I'm mulling over whether to use it in our dark hallway but I'll be watching this thread closely.

Dulux do still sell Light and Space. It definitely works

We have Dulux Timeless in our hall, it's lovely and light but shows every bloody mark (yes DS2, your grubby fingerprints) and needs repainting every couple of years.

Apparently painting a hallway dark can make the house seem more spacious, because it makes the rooms off it seem larger in comparison when you walk through. I'd embrace the dark walls and paint it a really lovely dark colour and offset it with lots of lamps, big mirror, light colour furniture.

I came on to look for ideas for our hallway but I’m shocked at how many people like valspar. Maybe they have improved the formula but ours started to smell terrible after a few months, like BO and cats pee. My husband found quite a lot on the internet about people with similar problems and b&q gave us vouchers (for Valspar lol) but denied there was an issue.
According to DH’s research the theory is that there isn’t enough preservative in the paint and the smell is bacteria.
We used it around 18 months to 2 years ago so maybe/hopefully they have fixed the issue. I really hope that those of you that have used it recently don’t find the same problem developing as fixing it was not as simple as painting over it. However we have addressed it and the smell has gone so we are confident the paint was the issue.

Now, what colour should I paint my hallway ?

I saw that about valspar too. I think they've fixed it. We used it for a 3 storey hallway and it was fine - about 2 to 3 years ago.

Ours has been on the kitchen walls six months and no problem we went for the valspar trade vinyl silk maybe that makes a difference