Hallway design dilemma. Advice appreciated.

[Anonymous]

What do I do with the second floor hallway? There's just a little, narrow space (8') once you reach the top of the stairs. It leads to the DC's room. A bathroom sits to the right of their door. If you turn at the landing, the hallway follows the opening of the stairs to the master bedroom (15'). The path is only wide enough for a single person to walk. A skylight sits above the stairwell.

Right now, I have nothing hanging in the skylight. There are two black and white art pieces hanging along the part of the hall that leads to the master, and a large chalkboard on the wall just outside the children's room.

There is zero flow. It's very cold and uninteresting. The wall color is an off-white-ish and runs throughout the house. I'm not opposed to adding paint color, but as it's a traditional D.C. house, I don't know where the paint would end. Would I create a line where the stairs begin or follow it all the way down the stairs to the front door? I'd rather find a way around painting actually.

How can I warm the space up and bring it closer to my bohemian ideal? I thought about a big mirror high up near the skylight. Or, bird cages or something equally eccentric hanging from the ceiling space. Could I put shelves up that would sit above the stairs, across from the path leading to the master bedroom? Would new light fixtures accomplish enough?

I'm tempted to create a wall of framed photos but am worried about how annoying it will be to slip past them in such a narrow space.

Sorry if my description fails to give a solid sense of the area. Chances are, if you live in a D.C. townhouse, you have the same. It's a small house and this hall feels like a missed opportunity.

[Anonymous]

I think paint, some art work or pictures with narrow, flat frames (a series or one or two larger pieces) or a large mirror would help. I would not do shelving in that narrow of a space. Would a small or narrow closed credenza work at the top of the landing for storage? I would pick paint colors that are similar or transition well to your DC or master bedroom. Also, you don't mention the flooring, but look at flor.com for some cool runners that might jazz things up. Martha Stewart has some cool ones on there.

[Anonymous]

Totally understand. The space at the top of our stairs is exactly the size of my laundry basket.

I wouldn't hang anything from the skylight, you'll just block the light and the space will feel even more closed. I hung a string of cut glass and ended up taking it down because it cast too many shadows.

Maybe more colorful art? The B&W pieces probably aren't helping. I do have a mirror and I think it helps, because it reflects light and makes the space seem a little bigger.

[Anonymous]

i have a very narrow table at the top of my stairs and have books in the bottom shelf and some art on top. also hung a very striking african cloth on the wall there. i have a skylight in my bathroom and have a mobile in it.

another option is color paint.

or framed kid art and kid pictures.

[Anonymous]

You can get a lot of inspiration by Google. I put in "narrow hallway" and "narrow hallway decor" and then selected "Images" and got a lot of great ideas. Some of the ones that I particularly like include:

http://blog.purehome.com/2011/hallway-decorating-tips/
Not so keen on the colors (the pink on the floor), but I love the diamond floor pattern and the chair rail.

http://www.desiretoinspire.net/blog/2010/8/6/reader-request-long-narrow-hallway.html
There are quite a lot of good inspirations here. Horizontal stripes will make a space feel wider like the top picture in the right-hand column. The wide ovals also help make the space feel wider in the Eric Roth design (5th row down, right hand column).

http://www.villalagoontile.com/images/installations/VLT-pescado-hall.jpg
As another PP mentioned, flor tiles can be used creatively, such as this one. Not my colors, but with the center solids and the outside a border it does widen the look of the hallway. If you hallway is too narow, make the center one tile wide with the border around the outside and it will still work.

Loads of good ideas out there.

[Anonymous]

I fell in love with this idea and did something very similar in my house--different wallpaper, different style chair rail, and I haven't put pictures up, but it makes all the difference in the world. For a couple of weeks, I was peering up the stairs every couple of hours just to admire it.

http://www.doorsixteen.com/2010/12/30/many-pictures-of-my-hallway/

My wallpaper is from Graham & Brown. They periodically have 20% and 30% off sales, so it's worth getting on their mailing list if you find some options you might like. You can order samples from them, too.

[Anonymous]

13:30 again-- I used Flor tiles, like a PP recommended, and hate them. I'm always having to stick them back together.

[Anonymous]

I would wallpaper, but with grasscloth f-t-c. It will give it warmth and texture, and then you can add a gallery wall. If you want the pics higher, then you can do the wainscoting. I think it works better painted, than wallpapered imho.

[Anonymous]

These are beautiful ideas! Thanks so much for the links!

A question though: Where do you stop the wall paper or paint or chair rail? At the top of the stairs? Or do I only do the wall that leads to the master bedroom?

I feel like I'm stuck doing the entire second-floor-to-front-door path. Is this the case?

I'm in love with the runner. A rich carpet will warm things up, if I can only find one narrow enough. The idea of a chair rail with wallpaper is exciting as well. I may go for texture rather than too much color on that one. Oh, and I'm convinced that the light fixtures we have now aren't doing the space any favors.

I think these changes will completely transform the atmosphere up there.

I have two larger art pieces up. From the photographs online, I'm starting to think a greater number of smaller frames (16"x20" vs 2'x4') will give the space more dimension, break it up so it looks longer somehow. I can also do more ornate (but flat) frames.

Honestly, thank you so much for the feedback! I'm excited about this new project.

[Anonymous]

OP, I'm not sure I'm following your new question. But, we have wainscoting up the stairs, which has a turn in it. It stops at the top of stairs, but I will say we have a wide upstairs almost foyer, so it doesn't look weird. If it was narrower, I would probably continue throughout.

You could also do semi-flushed lights or wall sconces, to light it up and give visual interest that you don't bump into.

Have fun!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
These are beautiful ideas! Thanks so much for the links!

A question though: Where do you stop the wall paper or paint or chair rail? At the top of the stairs? Or do I only do the wall that leads to the master bedroom?

12:06 again. You're welcome.
Typically the upstairs hallways stops at any doorway into any room and at the corner which turns down a stairway. Like this:
http://www.virginiamls.com/sales1/wildhorse/Foyer.JPG

If your stairway goes up and the side wall continues into the hallway upstairs, then I would have the stairway wall match the upstairs hallway walls. On the first floor, the stairway wall could be a different color than the rest of the foyer and would just be an accent wall. Like this:
http://www.houzz.com/photos/19036/chelsea-atelier-contemporary-staircase-new-york
or this:
http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&biw=1421&bih=924&tbm=isch&tbnid=mgds4MUWPF4OrM:&imgrefurl=http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/decor/msg050909451511.html&docid=s40wiITNOqQ8bM&imgurl=http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w170/judiegal/DSC01232.jpg&w=1024&h=768&ei=HKYPT-iqH8-cgQeDvcTjAw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=270&sig=106342679239109895011&page=1&tbnh=126&tbnw=166&start=0&ndsp=36&ved=1t:429,r:34,s:0&tx=44&ty=82

This is assuming that you don't want to do the upstairs hallway, the stairway and the downstairs foyer all the same color (which a lot of people do).

[Anonymous]

You don't have to paint the whole hallway. You could just do one wall.