big l shaped ha;l but not very light in terrace house...i am going to paint it but dont know what colour if any

[zippitippitoes]

.............cold house

quyite a big area including the stairs and upstairs landing

and i am going to put carpet on the stairs which have been just left for the last 8 years

oh just paint it white zippi

you know you want to

I painted mine light green, there is no natural light, it has a very hig ceiling, it looks fab

In my livingetc magazine a few months ago someone had painted their dark Edwardian hallway in farrow and ball's 'slipper' (a very pale pink). It looked amazing and not at all what i'd imagined - it managed to lighten and warm the area at the same time.

i painted the spare house all white

i think it might look a bit spartan it would be the quickest

no need to worry about where the ceiling meets the walls

i did think about light green or plae duck egg or pale pink

ime those farrow and ball colours dont work in this house i did the shutters in the front room green from there and they looked grim

like we hadnt decorated now they are white or psosibloy gardenia

A pale straw/goldy yellow?
We have this and it looks very nice.

I have a rich cream (possibly pale straw!) in our long dark fairly narrow hallway and its great. Really warms it up

No you need a warm colour if it is a cold house.

We just did the bedroom (which is enormous) in a nice sort of creamy white. I thought it would still look cold (it was very very dirty, grubby white before - almost grey! - looked disgusting and depressing)

actually even that tiny bit of cream worked wonders - it looks lovely now.

Go with either pale pink (but a warm pink, ie with a more peachy tone than bubblegum iyswim) or pale cream.

Blues and greens usually add to the coldness.

Or go with my old fave, butermilk/ magnolia/ oaty biscuity beige! That is always warming and goes with everything.

Marina and MamaG are right

oh all the rooms are some variation on the cream magnolia look

i am trying to motivate myself to paint it which involves it looking different after

or ordering a carpet and then that will mean a deadline

i cant decide whether to carpet the hall which has parquet quarry tiles not particularly nice and very cold

What about a sunny custardy yellow? That's what I'm going to paint our hall, when we finally get one.

This is a magnolia-type colour but it's lovely and doesn't have that pinky-peach tinge that looks so cheap and yukky.

Farrow & Ball Tallow for the walls.
Farrow & Ball Pointing for the woodwork.

or if you like Green this is a lovely warm and tasteful green

Zoffany Fennel for the walls
FArrow & Ball Pointing for the woodwork.

In our hall we have Laura Ashley "Honey" on the walls which is a rich, warm, sandy gold that is not too yellow/zingy/citrusy.

Crown's Egyptian Sand is similar.

In our last place, the hall was two different shades of a beautiful purpley mauve/deep pinky colour. I mixed it myself and it looked very cosy and inviting.

Might be a bit much in a large space though - maybe go with some walls darker and some paler.

Keep the tiles though - KEEP THYE TILES!!!

I would pay a fortune for quarry tiles - in fact I just did, but we got slate instead.

You need maybe to clean them up, seal them, wax or something too - polish them up. They will be stunning!

Sooo easy to keep clean, and you can always have a washable rug on top.

If you want to go one step further than decorating (and if the layout means it would work) a Velux window over the stairwell works wonders for getting some more light in.

We did this in a terraced house we lived in -it added an amazing amount of light to the downstairs hall as well as the upstairs landing

I think white or a very pale warm colour with lots of beautiful mirrors to reflect the light would be my ideal decorating scenario in a dark hall.

White can look grey if there's not much light.
North facing rooms need a warm colours - yellow, red etc, south facing can take cool - blues and greens.
I did not watch all those episodes of changing rooms for nothing..

oh these arent nice quarry tiles

i might try this colour it looks a lot less pink on the paint sample card i picked up

it has a big window half way up the stairs but that looks onto a blank wall on a side alley

also has a roof light on the landing and glass doors downstairs