Make An Entrance

It's the age old saying "first impressions count" and this phrase is well suited when you are thinking of how to decorate your hallway.  It's a part of my home I know I haven't got right yet and I am constantly trying to decide what to do with it to give the impression it should do to people when they walk into my home.  My new years resolution is to sort the hallway!

I was told not so long that you should treat your hallway like a living space.  Just because you may not spend time in it as such, you probably find it's one of the most used spaces in your home, after all unless I spend all my days just going from my living room to my kitchen, I can't get to any other room in my home without going through the hallway.

Our hallway is quite narrow and not at all spacious for storage.  I don't really have the ability to have an entrance table with accessories and lighting to give that living room appeal, we don't even have space stand a coat rack!  But that doesn't mean to say we can't create the look of all this. 

Think about how you use, or would like to use the space, do you want to throw today's coat on a hook as you come in, there for you to grab the next time you pop out, with a quick check in the mirror that you are ready for the world?  Somewhere which shouts this is my home and place for my family? I thought as much (at least for the purpose of this blog).

Picking your hallway colour is essential at this stage because once the wall stickers go up, though they do come off very easily, you cant always reapply them.

So here's a few quick ideas to make that entrance feel like home.

Family Home

I take inspiration for this from a show home I recently visited.  They had a lovely large entrance hallway and along the longest wall had placed a dado rail, then underneath 4 fake panels were created.  The panels and lower part of the wall were all painted the same colour.  But it made me think, what if each of those panels were used as photo frames for silhouettes of each family member.  Above the dado rail add nice personal quote that you can get created at a variety of sites including Vinyl Impression


London

A favourite place of mine as you all know, so taking a little thought about the large grandfather clocks that used to sit in hallways, well if your hallway isn't grand enough, then visit my Big Ben wall sticker and create a contemporary version

Coloured Big Ben's available at Rockett St. George
Photos both courtesy of Jane Rockett

If you have space and a long wall why not really go London with their London Skyline sticker.   And yes as much as I love my white walls, I want to add WOW so I have images of this wall being red, maybe the facing wall blue and then doors white and black gloss frameworks, it's the hallway, have fun!  Pick up some black and white London images for the blue wall, or better still if you can print your own images from time spent there and get them framed, it keeps that personal touch.

Available at Rockett St George


 

Narrow Hall

No room for a coat rack?  The key with this type of entrance is mirrors.  Try to place one where opposite you can also hang a piece of wall art, as a mirrors job is to reflect an image, so when it's not your image it's reflecting make sure it mirrors something else to add interest.  If possible you could place the mirror where the wall angles to the stairs so it creates the illusion of more space by reflecting that larger space.

Coat rack you say, of course there is always room, and I don't mean that block of wood with hooks on it from the DIY store.  I mean a coat rack, check out Zazous for their ready made one as a wall decal.  It's available in a wide variety of colours.  Then you will need a few DIY store hooks :-)

Coat Rack wall decal from Zazous

If you are looking for something more creative, don't forget just because it is not called a coat rack doesn't mean it cant be one.  Some of their wall decals of trees and branches such as this could easily be used as an alternative rack.

Abstract tree branches

Console Table

It could be cost, or it could be space but added that console table, or appearance of can really add to your entrance hall.  Again look at site like Zazouz whose table wall sticker comes in two styles, allows you to even hang a plain mirror above as it also comes with the mirror wall sticker!  If you can try and get a narrow floating shelf, place that at the console top so you really can add some decorative accessories.  A floating shelf in the same colour as the decal will become part of it, and will be narrower and cheaper than a table itself.

Roccoco Quartet at Zazous

Colour block

Lastly, if you are not into wall stickers and have a largest hallway for the likes of proper coats racks and telephone tables but still want a little more life, why not colour block.  Take a couple of colours, or shades of the same colour and on each wall paint a different colour, or paint half that wall one colour and half another.  I'm looking at this as an option for my hall so I'll let you see how I get on.