How to make your narrow hallway seem more spacious

First impressions count and the feeling that you get when you first walk through your front door will have a big impact on how you feel when you come home. Entering a small, dark, cramped hallway full of cluer, won’t give you that cosy, relaxed, homely feel that should have when you enter what is supposed to be your sanctuary.

However, not all of us are blessed with bright, large, roomy hallways. For many of us, the hallway may be a long, narrow space that can easily feel unwelcoming and imposing. So, in this post, we would like to share some ps on how to make a narrow hallway seem more spacious.

1.

Paint your Walls in a Neutral Colour

We all know that painng walls in light and bright colours creates the illusion of space, so when trying to make a narrow hallway seem more spacious opt to paint the walls in neutral colours. Choose from the various shades of white, cream, or grey, or if you’re looking for something with slightly more personality choose lighter pastel shades or something like a nice, soft sage green.
It can help to paint the walls and any trim in the same colour. By blending all the joins in a narrow hallway you can give the impression that

2.

An Depth with Paint Effects or Panelling

A long narrow hallway can lack visual interest so it may help to add depth to the space if you use paint effects and techniques that catch the eye. For example, consider painng the boom half of the walls, up to waist height, in a darker shade. This trick will help to visually push the ceiling away. You could also try painng the wall that is furthest away in a deeper more vibrant shade to visually grab aenon.

Panelling is another great way to add visual interest in a way that won’t overpower the eye. Architectural details like this not only look great but they can also make a narrow hallway seem more spacious.

Other ways to break up the long expanse of walls in a narrow hallway is to paint any internal doors in a contracng colour. This could be dark grey or black doors in a white hallway or something more subtle.

3.

Make the most of natural light

One of the reasons why hallways can feel like they are closing in on you is due to the lack of natural light. Being internal rooms, they rarely have any windows that will allow natural light to come flooding in. Make the most of any natural light that you can bring into the space by choosing internal doors with glass panels to allow light from other rooms to filter through. To ensure privacy in those rooms, use frosted glass to obscure the view.

4.

Choose effective lighting

With a lack of natural light in narrow hallways, it’s more important that ever to ensure that you have adequate arficial light in the space. The more light you can bring in, the bigger the space will feel. Ceiling lights should be an absolute minimum and where possible add in secondary light sources like wall lights or table lamps. Ideally you want mul- direconal light sources.

5.

Use mirrors to bounce light around

Mirrorsare a great way to reflect and bounce the light that you do have around your narrow hallway. They are also great for opening up the space visually as the reflecon can broaden the visual space and expand the sightlines in the room.

Choose larger mirrors and posion them in a central posion for the best effect. They look parcularly good posioned above a slim console tableor with a slim wall shelf hung below.

6.

Choose Large Statement Artwork

Large statement artwork is a great way to add personality to a narrow hallway and can help to broaden the visual space. However, it is important that you only hang artwork on one wall. Hanging artwork on both walls will have the opposite effect and will draw the walls closer together.

Another opon is to hang artwork at the end of the narrow hallway to create a focal point and draw the eye in. This distracts the vision from the side walls and takes the aenon to the end of the hallway instead.

7.

Choose Bold Patterned Rugs or Runners

In a narrow hallway, the choice of flooring has a big impact on our percepon of the space. Darker floors tend to make the ceiling feel lower and long mber planks that run with the direcon of the longest wall can make a hallway feel narrower.
Combat this by opng for lighter coloured flooring, or by choosing a style with shorter planks, such as herringbone, or les that break up the dominant sight line in the hallway
If you can’t make either of these work for you, the simple addion of a bold, paerned rug or runner will help a narrow hallway seem more spacious. The colours and paerns will draw the eye deeper into the space towards the end of the hallway.

8.

Opt for Practical Storage Solutions

In a narrow hallway, it can be difficult to find storage soluons that fit the space. For parcularly difficult spaces it may be worth considering having your storage custom made. That way you can get narrow, made-for-purpose storage that makes the most of the available space. A wall of built-in storage is great for hiding away, coats, shoes and bags. Add sliding doors to save more space and make the storage easier to access in a narrow hallway

9.

Multi-Functional Furniture

The cheaper opon is obviously to buy mul-funconal hallway furniture. Think tall, slim console tables that have drawers for storing smaller items, benches with hidden storage, and high wall shelving and hooks. You also want to go for minimal style furniture that won’t disrupt the visual flow of the space.

10.

Declutter

This p is perhaps the most important of them all. You can do everything we’ve menoned above but if your narrow hallway is sll full of cluer it will never seem more spacious. Make sure you store everything away when not in use. Make the most of baskets and boxes, built-in storage, hooks and hangers. Try to keep everything off the floor where possible.

If you have used Honeypot Furniture products to make your narrow hallway seem more spacious, please share on Instagram and tag us with @honeypourniture and use our hashtag #JoinTheHive so we can see