The Sunday Times - UK (2022-02-13

1 Build a barrier

The interior designers’ secret weapon in the fight

against dirt? A barrier carpet, essentially an XXL

wall-to-wall version of a doormat, which will create

a buffer zone between your interiors and the great

outdoors. Buy coir, cut to size, in a variety of colours

from specialistmats.co.uk.

2 Let it shine

Gloss paint up to a 1.1m horizon line is easier to

wipe clean of grubby fingermarks than emulsion,

and the shine creates a mirror effect that helps

make the most of daylight. Choose a rich colour for

the gloss and pair it with a pale shade above the line,

taken up and over the ceiling.

3 Plug-and-play lighting

Wall lighting in the hallway needs to take up minimum

space while delivering maximum wow factor.

Don’t want to wire in new lights and redecorate?

The one for you is the Opal Ball wall light (£159;

houseof.com), a directional design that delivers a soft

ambient light without the need for rewiring.

4 Superskinny furniture

Hallways are narrow spaces, so restrict furniture to

floating shelves and low-profile consoles, 25cm or

less wide, like the ingenious designs from Urbansize.

5 Quiet, please

Vinyl and rubber are warmer underfoot than

traditional tiles and will soften the acoustics of your

lobby. Try Neisha Crosland’s Parquet vinyl tiles for

Harvey Maria, or the triangular rubber tiles from the

Colour Flooring Company.

6 Party walls

Unleash your inner exuberance with a showstopping

wallpaper such as Emma Shipley’s various fantasy

beasts, Paloma Home’s Vintage Chinoiserie or Poodle

& Blonde’s Cliftonville Cowgirls Motel.

7 Show runners

Using the same runner from the hallway up the

staircase and on to the landing creates a sense of flow

from the front door to the first storey. Try the new

brightly coloured natural fibres from Fibre Flooring,

the subtle stripes of Roger Oates or the extravagant

pattern from Divine Savages x Alternative Flooring.

A chequerboard floor is timeless.” For her 18th-century

terraced house in York she picked Brompton Porcelain

Field Liquorice and Milk White tiles from Ca’ Pietra.

“The floor always stays the same and I change the rest of

the decor around it.” One of her favourite tricks to

update her hall on a budget is to repaint the inside face of

the front door. First it was Valspar Pantone Rose Quartz,

currently it is Farrow & Ball’s Arsenic. Next she is

considering Hazy, a pretty pale blue from Kelly

Wearstler’s California Collection for Farrow & Ball.

As well as personality, practicality is paramount. An

obstacle course of bulky furniture and fixtures does not

make for a happy hallway. Sallie King, founder of the

compact-furniture label Urbansize, has a “long skinny

hallway, less than a metre wide” in the Greenwich home

she shares with her two children, aged five and seven.

“It was incredibly frustrating to manoeuvre any piece of

furniture in or out, so the solution was something wall-

hung, with a place for everything you put down when you

come through the door — hooks for keys, a drawer for the

post and a shelf on top for sunglasses hats and gloves.”

Her advice is to visualise returning home in a winter

coat, weighed down with shopping bags, and then create

enough clearance for comfort. A traditional freestanding

coatstand may look charmingly Mary Poppinsesque, but

in a compact space it will infuriate. King says: “We have a

double layer of coat hooks, one at adult height and one at

half-height for the children, so they can come in and

hang up their own coats and bags immediately. My kids

love it because it is their little area.”

The conclusion then? The best hallways offer a pop of

pleasure to everyone who enters, from children to house

bunnies — and even visitors. ■

7 

STEPS

TO HALLWAY

HEAVEN

Opposite top The framing unifies the photos, while the dark

background — Benjamin Moore’s Plum Martini — helps them stand out.

Opposite left Add colour and texture with a Yuvari hand-knotted rug by

A Rum Fellow. Opposite right In this project by Howark Design, a rich

Indian yellow gloss is paired with a lighter colour to create a sun-tunnel

effect. Below Urbansize’s floating console is ideal for hallways

The Sunday Times Style • 33