Hallway Colour Ideas: Which Colour Scheme Should You Choose?
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Hallway design is often one of the lower priorities when you’re considering home improvement ideas. But as the first glimpse of your home, it’s time to give your hallway some attention to ensure it sets the tone for the rest of your interior.
A key part of this is choosing the right hallway colours.
To help you do this, we’re running through some of the best hallway colour schemes that will help you overcome some of the common design headaches for hallways, like poor lighting, small dimensions and footfall.
What is the best hallway colour?
Like any room, colour plays an important role in the overall look and feel of your hallway regardless of size, natural light and purpose.
But what is the best colour for a hallway?
Well, you have a few options. Here are some common hallway colour ideas that never seem to go out of favour:
- White
- Cream
- Blue
- Grey
- Yellow
- Green
For a classic hallway colour scheme, pale, neutral hues are a solid choice, especially if your main aim is to make the space feel brighter and bigger. However, don’t be fooled into thinking this is your only option or that you have to stick with one single colour.
Hallways can provide the ideal space to make a statement with your decor using vivid colours to make standout features. In fact, modern hallway design ideas often use a mix of colours or different shades of the same colour to add depth and interest. You can even introduce patterns and varied textures to inject an eclectic mix of colours and a layered look.
You may already have a hallway colour scheme in mind, but here are a few hallway colour ideas just in case.
White
If you want to pull off a clean and fresh look in a small, dark or narrow hallway, white can provide that bright base colour to elevate the space. However, all-white hallways can run the risk of feeling sterile, not to mention impractical with inevitable marks and scuffs on walls and floors.
Equally, bright white can feel stark, so there’s always room to go for an off-white shade instead to help soften the aesthetic or introduce other colours.
Styling ideas
White works well with almost any colour, giving you endless possibilities to pull off a cool and calming hallway colour scheme.
For a coastal vibe, introduce soft pastel blues and bleached wood accents that will transport you right onto the beach. Use practical pale wood-look floor tiles that will skillfully mask muddy footprints, while bringing depth and texture alongside crisp white walls, painted furniture in beachy blues and driftwood decorative touches.
You can also use white to bring a classic look to your hallway. White-washed walls filled with antique mirrors and picture frames can master the statement gallery wall look, with vintage furniture pieces in dark wood and slate floor tiles to finish.
Cream
Like white, cream hallway colour schemes offer countless versatility for curating a welcome, stylish space. Keeping the colour palette simple with just cream and natural accents can instantly make your hallway feel like a calm oasis away from the outside world.
Alternatively, blend cream with bolder shades like mulberry and olive green to convey a feeling of cosiness and serenity.
Styling ideas
Paint your walls cream on the top half and a darker shade like mulberry on the lower part (up to hip height). This technique works well in long, narrow hallways as the coloured stripes elongate the space. Finish with light wooden furniture and sandy coloured floor tiles for a match made in heaven.
Alternatively, all-cream walls can be beautifully livened up using patterned floor tiles. By drawing the eye to the floor, the cream walls will open up the area. For added texture, you could even choose to cover the lower half of the walls with cream-coloured metro tiles or crackle glaze tiles for a more rustic look.
Blue
If you’re after a soothing hallway colour scheme, subtle blues could be just what you need. Instantly evoking a sense of serenity and freshness, blue hallways can brighten dim corridors with a touch of colour.
For those in search of something with a little more punch, why not play around with vivid shades like royal blue and navy? Perfect for adding a little drama to your interior design, they can be used as a single hallway colour palette or paired with other shades for greater impact.
Styling ideas
If you love vintage interior design, blue encaustic-style tiles in your hallway can help you capture the essence of bygone eras. With ornate blue detailing, the key to using patterned tiles in your hallway on walls or floors is to keep the rest of the decor relatively simple, using a single colour for areas without patterns.
When it comes to pulling off bold blue hallways, go all-in with one colour. Using variants of the same shade to add depth and focus, one idea is to paint the wall behind a console table or the far end wall in a darker shade – making these areas the core focus.
Grey
Grey has been a beloved choice for interior design for some time now and it works brilliantly as hallway colour, bringing a cool and chic aesthetic.
With so many variants on shades, finding just the right hue to give your hallways a standout look shouldn’t be difficult.
You can go pale and interesting or bold and brooding, but don’t forget to factor in lighting and think about whether you want an all-grey finish or if you want to introduce other shades into the mix.
Styling ideas
If your hallway has lots of natural or artificial light, don’t be afraid to go to the dark side of the grey colour palette with your hallway colour scheme. Dark grey not only brings a sophisticated style statement, but it’s brilliantly practical for hiding marks and scuffs on walls and floors.
Worried this may make your hallway feel smaller? Don’t be. Using a darker shade like grey can in fact work to push the walls outwards giving the illusion of a grander space. Finished with white woodwork and furniture, you’ll have a hallway that’s filled with ambiance.
The other end of the spectrum is using soft, pale grey as your foundation colour. A light-grey floor tile with grey walls can work wonders in lifting a small, pokey hallway. There’s plenty of scope to introduce some colour here too, like blush pink or coral to add warmth.
Yellow
Yellow may not be a colour you’d typically associate with functional hallways, but it’s becoming increasingly popular as an interior design choice throughout our homes for its fun and cheery vibe.
It’s these elements that actually make it a solid option for hallways that lack life and character, transforming them into charming, uplifting spaces.
Styling ideas
Yellow is undoubtedly a loud and proud hallway colour, so it’s best used in moderation – unless you’re a big fan of ‘full-on’ decor styles.
For a subtle sense of happiness, why not use a yellow printed wallpaper that brings colour and a focal point? Perfect for behind console tables or even as inserts for built-in hallway storage units, little bursts of yellow will bring instant joy.
Or you can use yellow floor tiles to up the playful element of your hallways design. From funky hexagons to mixed-colour designs, you can make your floors the star of the show, keeping other areas like walls and furniture relatively simple. If you have stairs, you could even continue the theme with a yellow patterned runner or painted step risers.
Green
Green’s popularity as an interior design colour seems to be going nowhere. There also seems to be no room in the house where it can’t be put to good use – including hallways!
Conjuring up a connection to nature, green hues can be the ideal way to convey a nature-inspired hallway design. From soothing shades like sage and pistachio to dramatic pine and bottle green, this colour lends itself to traditional and modern interiors effortlessly.
Styling ideas
In period properties, achieve an authentic Victorian hallway colour scheme with bottle green metro brick tiles to transport you back to the turn of the century. Finish the floors with white or red quarry tiles, an antique runner rug and furniture and you’ll have a bonafide early 19th century design.
For a lighter aesthetic, a pale green like sage or olive olive sat alongside untreated wooden furniture and other earthy neutrals will deliver a tranquil welcoming area. This end of the green spectrum can also help to make small hallways feel bigger, particularly with the use of mirrors and bright lighting.
Choosing the right hallway colour scheme is a sure fire way to breathe new life into the gateway to your home. Whether you choose beautiful neutrals or vibrant hues, this function-first area is primed for making a style statement and can be the perfect way to set the tone for the rest of your home’s decor.
For more tips on home improvement projects, including design ideas and hallway tiling tips, check out the rest of our interior design blog. And of course, for help choosing hallway floor and wall tiles, our diverse collection of practical floor tiles and wall tiles has plenty of size, colour, shape and finish options available.
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