9 Best Hallway Paint Ideas to Transform Your Home

It happens to the best of us. We decide to take on the project of repainting our homes. We go through all of the steps of choosing the best interior paint colours for the walls in the living room, the kitchen, and the bedrooms. 

But there’s one thing many of us miss – the hallways. 

They’re often overlooked because they’re not the major areas we spend all of our time. Instead, we pass right through them without much of a second thought. However, choosing the right hallway paint ideas can transform your home. 

We’ve come up with 9 of the best hallway paint ideas to help you transform the sometimes overlooked part of your home:

Why Is It Important to Choose the Right Hallway Paint Ideas for Your Home

Hallways are often tricky areas to tackle when painting your home’s interior. They’re usually overlooked by those living in the house, yet they’re one of the first things a guest notices.  They also typically lack as much natural light as living rooms or bedrooms, which means they require a different colour scheme to achieve the same tone as the rest of the home. 

How Does the Hallway Set a Tone for the Rest of Your House?

Your hallway ties directly into the living spaces that it connects to so it requires as much attention as the rest of your home. While we often overlook hallways if we’re living in the home, it’s one of the first things your guests notice. Because of that, they immediately get a sense of what to expect within the rest of the home. 

If a hallway looks and feels dark, they may be expecting a moody, bold, or modern tone throughout the remainder of your home. If a hallway looks and feels light and airy, they may have more of a sense of welcoming.

9 Hallway Paint Ideas to Inspire Your Upcoming Paint Project

Whether you’re tackling your hallway paint project first or after you’ve completed your other living spaces, you’ll need some excellent hallway paint ideas to help inspire you. 

Here are 9 hallway paint ideas to get you started: 

Sometimes, a brighter colour or shade of white isn’t the tone you’re looking for in your home. If that’s the case, brown hues can create a moody, interesting tone for the hallway and the rest of your interior. 

Many shades of brown aren’t dark enough to evoke a sense of gloom. Rather, they’re warm and cosy with just the right amount of interest.  

Beige colours come in all shades, and each one can create a different mood or emotion from it. A beige-grey is more of a neutral colour that blends well with most paint colour schemes for hallways or accent decor around it. If you’re looking to showcase personality around the hallway in other ways besides paint, then a beige grey may be a great choice. 

To show off your personality, determine how you’ll want to do it. Does it involve painting the trim around door frames to rooms connected to the hallway? Does it include painting the door itself a bold, vibrant colour? Or maybe it includes showcasing artwork or photos on the walls. Either way, determine how you’ll show off your personality beforehand to make sure that beige-grey is the best hallway paint idea for your home. 

Considering its neutrality, it most likely will be. 

Certain hallway paint ideas never go out of style. A light grey colour is one of them. If you’re not keen on following trends or repainting your hallways every few years, then stick with something classic and timeless. You can use the neutrality of light grey to allow your artwork, photos, or mirrors to add drama and visual interest. 

A blue colour scheme is one of the best paint colour ideas to opt for considering it’s such a timeless colour. Most shades of blue are thought of as sophisticated colours, which keep your home feeling even more elevated. Plus, blues are known for their psychological effects, including reducing stress and providing more peace and serenity in any given space. 

Considering its natural cool tone, opt for home decor that incorporates warmer tones such as oranges, yellows, and reds to counteract the coolness of the blue shades. 

While we’ve mentioned other paint colour schemes, sometimes a bright white hallway is the best thing for your home or the mood you’re trying to create. If you have a large focal piece you want to display in your hallway, then this all white hallway paint idea is one of the best options for you. 

White doesn’t cause any distractions like other colours, but too much white without giving the eye somewhere to go can feel overwhelming. Be sure to consider the type of white paint you choose. There are multiple shades of “off-white” that may not be what you’re looking for. Not to mention, most whites have some sort of underlying colour tone that can make the paint look like a different colour in your hallway. 

The best way to manage this is to use interior testers to see which one fits your home best. 

If you’re looking for ways to step out of the box, then this may be one of the best hallway paint colours to opt for. A dark green creates the same quiet of a woodsy forest while still creating a sophisticated, elevated space. It’s perfect for those who embrace a more traditional interior design aesthetic. However, it also works exceptionally well for anyone who prefers a modern interior design style. 

The ceiling trim and door frames don’t have to be the same as your hallway paint colours. Rather, you can create a beautiful contrast between the two to add dimension and visual interest to your hallway. Doing so almost beckons people into the adjoining rooms. 

Opt for a darker hallway colour such as brown, dark green, or dark grey. Then add contrast by painting your ceiling and door trim a bright white. 

If you have a small hallway with shorter ceilings, then panelling may be a great solution. Vertical panelling automatically makes a space feel taller than it is, which is perfect for hallways that feel a touch too cramped. 

Using paint can add visual interest to the area. A pale, light hallway paint colour scheme will emphasise the height that the vertical panelling adds. 

Perhaps you love the idea of a bright, vibrant colour as a hallway paint idea, but you don’t want to commit to so much boldness. If that’s the case, then try painting just one wall of your hallway the vivid colour you fell in love with. It can act as a feature wall, which gives more visual interest and variety to an otherwise monochrome high traffic area. 

Shades of red, yellow, orange, and teal are excellent choices for a feature wall. 

What Should You Consider Before Choosing the Right Hallway Paint Ideas

Before you decide on any of the hallway paint ideas, you’ll need to consider your hallway first. While it’s tempting to choose colour schemes or paint ideas based solely on photographs, the hallway you’re working with may not give you the same results as the pictures. 

That’s often because of two reasons: the shape of your hallway and the lighting in your hallway.

What is the Shape of Your Hallway

First, consider the shape of your hallway. Is it short and narrow? Long and tall? A combination of the two? 

Often, people want a long and tall hallway, however, their homes just aren’t built that way. The beauty of paint colours is you can create a colour scheme that acts as an optical illusion. Essentially, you can create a hallway that looks long and tall, if that’s what you’re after. 

For a Narrow Hallway

If you have a narrow hallway, and you want to make it seem bigger, then it’s a good idea to stay away from darker shades of colours. 

We say shades because, while there are naturally darker colours, such as brown versus white, there are many different shades of those colours. So, a light brown may still be a viable option. 

Try lighter shades of taupe, beige, grey, cream, or even lighter shades of green and blue. You can also create a wider space by using mirrors in your decor pieces. 

For a Short Hallway

Similar to a narrow hallway, a short hallway that wants to feel longer doesn’t want to have darker colours pressing in on it. Opt for similar, light shades as a narrow hallway to create the illusion of a longer hallway. 

Green also does a wonderful job of elongating hallways, especially if you have a room that’s at the end of the hallway. To do this, you’d want to paint the room green and the hallway a lighter colour, such as a bright white. 

What Natural Lighting Does Your Hallway Have

The lighting in your hallway also places an effect when deciding on the best hallway paint ideas. 

For a Naturally Bright Hallway

Brighter natural light can get away with darker colours without the paint making the hallway look like a black hole. Here’s your opportunity to use deeper blues and greens or bold colours, such as red, brown, or even black. 

For a Dark Hallway

For dark hallways that have no doors or windows, you’ll want to stick with lighter colours to give the appearance of natural light. But that doesn’t mean you’re limited to neutral colours like taupe, beige, or grey. 

The best paint colours for dark hallways include lighter shades of greens and blues to create more light. Plus, considering these two shades are often found in nature, they inherently have “natural light” qualities, making them some of the greatest hallway paint ideas for darker spaces. 

What Paint Finish Will Look Best for Your Home?

Once you decide on the hallway paint colours, you’ll need to consider the types of paint finishes. For the most part, you’ll want to use an eggshell finish or a satin finish. Unlike a matte finish, eggshell and satin bounce light instead of absorbing it. It creates the illusion of more light in the space, which is especially crucial for narrow, short, or dark hallways. 

If you’ve already painted or you’re considering painting the interior of your home, don’t forget about this often overlooked portion. These hallway paint ideas are meant to inspire you and help you find the perfect paint colour scheme for this key area of your home. 

Ready to start your hallway paint project? We’ve got the supplies you need here in our interior paint section!