House decorating has become an art form that is accessible to people today on a grand scale. “A man’s house is his Castle” and practically nobody wishes to live in a drab and ugly Castle. We all want to enter our Castle and go ‘wow’, it was worth all that hard work and effort to get this. The trouble starts when a new home-owner starts thinking about styles, ideas and solutions. All that needs to be put into a context of a particular budget available to decorate and then priorities whether to do the Kitchen first, or the Living Room area where one would spend most of the time. But some people would like to do decorating of an entire place all at once which will save time and money (and effort) to do it in parts.
The Hallways are quite often the first impression one gets when entering a home. That is why it is rather important to take it as a ‘statement’: whoever is entering this space is going to experience a pleasant environment built to shelter but also please the eye and senses. The idea is to use the style that would connect all the elements of the Hallway into a harmonious entity. I will list them in order not of preference but just randomly. Things a proud home-owner would consider while decorating are: a rug/carpet; walls/pictures/murals; cabinetry/storage space; lighting; wainscoting; bookcases (whether or not?); mirrors…
The beauty of decorating today is that nobody needs to ‘invent the wheel’ so to speak, there are plenty of ideas available, and a lot of these things one can do by him/herself, so the cost need not be too high. The carpets and rugs are ‘warm’ and welcoming but white-washed floors are quite modern today as well. Wainscoting is somewhat pricey but in the long way will make a proud owner satisfied if done properly. Now talking about the walls that would probably be the major area where one can go ‘wild’ while decorating. It is worth mentioning a Canvas Art Shop such as Blue Horizon Prints, a great place to get fresh and original ideas.
From a more traditional William Morris style to the 21century decoration it is a field lots of hours can be spent exploring. Cabinets and storage space is important but often clutter is an enemy not a friend… Bookcases find an alternative space in the Hallways as oppose to Living Rooms and Studies where they are mostly housed. Lighting too can brighten the space and totally change our perspective as to what is a homely and welcoming environment. The last but not the least important is whether to put mirrors in Hallways, and a good thing to do is to have a look how the great decorators made a use of mirrors in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles (Louis XIV’s palace) in order to ‘enlarge’, enrich the space and make it grand. Especially when at night the lights go on!
To summarize I would say that each person would have a variety of ideas when home decorating is a topic of conversation/discussion. We all have preferences to styles and ‘esthetique’ so it is important to work out what can be done, meaning within the budget to ‘please’ the owner and then proceed to accomplish that style of decorating and furnishing the space. Normally a wise endeavor would be to ‘stay’ with a certain style and not go ‘over board’ but that is left to each individual to control.
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