The hallway is the first room that sets the tone for the entire apartment, serving as a unique business card of the owners, so its design deserves special attention. A small hallway is not a sentence, even a few square meters (approximately 21.53 square feet) of the entrance hall with the right approach can turn into a comfortable stylish environment, surprising with its functionality and space.
Where to start renovation?
Starting renovation in a small hallway, the first thing to do is to evaluate the possibilities of expanding the space. In this case, the combination of the entrance hall with the living room by dismantling the doorway and a fragment of the wall can help. To prevent street dirt and cold air from entering the living room directly, decorative gypsum partitions are installed. A good solution will be the construction of arched vaults instead of interior doors, as a result of which the space of the small corridor will become more open and bright.
Hallway layouts often provide for the presence of niches, especially this is typical for apartments in Khrushchev buildings. Recesses in the wall can be used for arranging built-in wardrobes, where clothes, shoes or appliances will be stored (sometimes even a place is found here for a washing machine).
Start repair work with a complete dismantling of old finishing materials, leveling and cleaning surfaces. Think in advance about the future lighting system, as before the start of finishing work it is necessary to equip the locations of lights and sockets to hide the electric cable.
Before starting the renovation, think everything through to the smallest detail, starting with the choice of style, color of the small hallway and ending with the installation of furniture, lamps and decor. It is better to draw a sketch project on a piece of paper, following which you can carry out repairs without unforeseen problems.
Color for a small hallway
For decorating small rooms, designers quite rightly prefer a light palette, which is capable of visually expanding the boundaries of the room. In the hallway, where there are no windows and almost no natural light gets, light finishing is most relevant. As a rule, they choose the main color, to which they add one or two additional ones to create contrasts and small accents.
Today, quite a few people prefer the white palette, which is characteristic of many modern styles (minimalism, Scandinavian, classic). Decorating walls and ceiling in one snowy palette will “dissolve” the boundaries between the planes, due to which the room will seem much wider. You do not need to be afraid that the hallway will turn into sterile hospital rooms, because you will fill it with unique contrasts, the role of which will be assigned to the original floor finish, rugs, wooden furniture, wall decor in the form of paintings, photos or a beautiful mirror.
To achieve a lighter but cozier setting, you could base your design on a beige color scheme, which looks great in any style. The best companion for it would be brown, but you can also incorporate white and pastel tones into the design.
Gray is at the height of popularity – it’s neutral and concise, so it often serves as the best solution for decorating rooms in modern restrained styles. To liven up the monochrome environment, multi-level lighting, mirrored surfaces are installed, and splashes of white, black colors, and other contrasts are used.
Soft, unobtrusive atmosphere in a small hallway can be created with pastel colors, such as light green, blue, pink, lemon, etc. To avoid a messy situation, it’s better not to mix different tones, but to choose one primary one and add shades from its own spectrum to it – alternating light and dark stripes of the same tonality or making a more saturated accent wall against the general light finish.
Finishing and materials
When choosing materials for finishing a small hallway, pay attention to the fact that this room may be exposed to dirt from the street, streams of cool air, and humidity, so it is worth preferring coatings that are resistant to these conditions.
Floor
The hallway is a transit room, where the floor surface is constantly under mechanical load and quickly gets dirty. Consequently, you need to choose the most resilient covering that is easy to clean.
The best option may be floor tiles or porcelain stoneware – these materials meet all necessary operating requirements and have a huge assortment of designs.
A more economical option is linoleum, which, although considered somewhat outdated, also has many interpretations today, and is made from synthetic and natural materials. Parquet and laminate are much worse at resisting moisture, sand, and can deform over time.
Walls
For the walls of the hallway, the choice of finishing materials is quite large, and they are often combined, creating a unique interior. Having leveled the surfaces in advance, you can paint the walls with acrylic or water-emulsion composition, decorate with decorative plaster, wallpaper with washable wallpapers.
An interesting option would be to wallpaper one of the walls with photo wallpapers, where images are selected according to the style of the room. Separate areas can be decorated with decorative stone, highlighting, for example, doorways, corners or niches. PVC panels, which have a wide range of color solutions, are no less relevant.
With the help of finishing materials, you can visually increase the space of a small hallway. Vertical patterns on the wallpaper will “raise” the height of the ceiling surface, and horizontal ones – will expand the room. You shouldn’t get carried away with large patterns, which can bring the surface closer – if you don’t like a single-tone design, choose wallpaper with a small pattern that adds dynamism to the decoration.
Ceiling
In a small hallway, a light ceiling looks best. The surface can be whitewashed or painted. A popular trend has become the finishing of the ceiling with drywall and stretch glossy or matte fabric. These structures allow you to do without preliminary leveling of the surface, arrange figured constructions and a spot lighting system, hiding the wiring.
Furniture for a small hallway
Choosing furniture often becomes the main problem of a small corridor. There’s no room for bulky cabinets here, so it is necessary to select the most compact storage systems. You should try to maximize the use of corner areas, for example, install a radius sliding wardrobe or a coat rack. You can choose a modular set for the hallway, placing individual elements in less busy places.
It’s worth maximizing the space around the entrance door – equip a mezzanine at the top, and compact storage systems on the sides. If there is a niche in the corridor, use it to equip a built-in wardrobe – all you need to do is install shelves and sliding doors. You can buy a narrow shoe rack for shoes, where folding shelves allow compact storage of shoes.
In a small hallway, you can get by with a minimum set of furniture, for example, install a shoe bench on which you can sit or put a bag, and attach a shelf with hooks for outerwear at the top. All that remains is to add a wall mirror and a couple of decorative elements.
Lighting and decor
In most cases, there are no windows in the hallway and the room can seem quite gloomy if it is not equipped with high-quality lighting. This can be a small ceiling chandelier, spotlights, spots.
The area near the mirror should be additionally equipped with backlighting in the form of one or two lamps (sometimes makeup mirrors equipped with a multitude of lamps are installed). The ceiling and floor surfaces with hidden lighting in the form of neon tapes, luminescent elements look original.
In a small hallway, you should not get carried away with bulky decor, which will clutter up an already small space. Its role can be played by finishing features, color inserts, a couple of photos or pictures, a mirror in a beautiful frame, a bright floor mat or pouf.
Interior Styles
To make the hallway look beautiful and orderly, it should be designed in one of the interior styles, which should match with other rooms in the apartment. We propose to consider several successful ideas for a small hallway.
Small Hallway in Classic Style
Cream, milk, and light gray tones are acceptable for a hallway in a classic style, so the decoration will perfectly suit a small room. Here, a preference is given to white furniture made of wood, large mirrors in lavish frames, moldings, and carved elements that decorate the surroundings.
Marble or porcelain tiles are laid on the floor, and the walls are adorned with decorative plaster, stone, or fabric wallpaper with a subtle, unobtrusive pattern. Classic never gets old, and this is its main advantage – a luxurious interior can be supplemented with more modern details such as sliding door wardrobes, spotlights, etc., but elements of stucco molding, luxurious chandeliers, and expensive finishing materials will always emphasize the presentability of the decoration and the good taste of the owners.
Small Hallway in Minimalism Style
The design of a small hallway in a minimalism style implies a succinct design, almost devoid of decorations and useless elements. The interior features strict geometric shapes, clear lines, and angles. Preference is given to light tones of decoration, built-in storage systems, and bright multi-level lighting.
Wall finishing is characterized by simple but high-quality materials without patterns – these can be wallpaper for painting, plaster or PVC panels. An integral part of the decor is large mirrors of any shape, which visually enlarge the space.
The style that originated in the 18th century in Sweden has regained its relevance in our time thanks to the design features, where the striving for minimalism perfectly combines with home comfort.
A small hallway in a Scandinavian style is most often decorated in a white palette, but this is not a dogma – gray, beige, olive shades may be present. Preference is given to wooden furniture items, of which there should be few: open coat racks, a small couch or ottoman, a mirror in a solid wooden frame, and a small bedside table – this is quite enough for placing necessary items.
Plaster, paint, monochrome wall panels, or brickwork-style decoration are used as finishes. Decorative elements often include vintage trinkets (an old chest of drawers, a worn rug), live pots, photos, bright pieces of furniture, and clothing.
Small Hallway in Loft Style
The peculiarity of the “attic” style in a small hallway is manifested in the deliberately rough wall decoration under brick or concrete, a large number of lighting devices, often having original (industrial) design, and a minimal number of setting details.
Furniture here can be presented in the most unusual forms: open shelves, racks, massive metal hangers and definitely a floor mirror in a wooden frame – all these details vividly emphasize the features of the stylistic decoration.
Interior Design of a Small Hallway – Photos
The hallway in the apartment is a kind of portal separating the quiet home corner from the city noise and hustle. What it will be like is up to you, and we, in turn, offer to get acquainted with various beautiful design options in our photo gallery. Look and get inspired!
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