Help! Which paint colour for dark hallway?

I embraced the dark hallway with a rich shade of 'Roasted Red' and loved it. All the rooms seemed lighter, brighter and airier by contrast. I've now changed it to sage green and cream - but only because I will be selling up soon. (Personally, I find it very bland and boring.)

Glad you're sorted Tartlet. I would opt for F&B every time, and although it seems counter intuinitive I would go dark rather than pale, with as big a mirror as you can manage. Plus pictures. Although you can colour match to get same shades as F&B in my experience the paint doesn't react in different light the same. We have F&B in our lounge and colour subtly changes throughout the day. Happy decorating!

Just looking through some old threads and saw this one. Are you pleased with your choice and the result, Tartlet?

I think small rooms look smaller in whites & neutrals and going dark in small dark spaces can have an "infinity" effect that actually makes them look larger!

Early last year, I was getting ready to put my terrace house on the market/ Looking on rightmove, I noticed that most houses on the market had their hallways/stairs/landing painted white and this gave a very good impression when people first came into the house. No windows on that area, decorator did it all, ceilings, woodwork, walls in white and it looked fresh, bright and marvellous. Bought white light shades for top and bottom of stairs in Dunelm, and that finished it off. Just the rail on the stairs was in wood.

May I suggest you don’t paint the hand rails-let them be the natural wood instead-paint wears off on handrails and soon looks tatty IMHO and experience

Have now got the F&B and decorator quite happy.

Oldgimmer1, I painted it a dark raspberry once and although I liked it, I couldn’t deny that it looked better when it was later done a paler colour.

Our hall is painted in a very soft lemon: this makes the most of the available light. We have not regretted this colour choice.

White can look dingy in a dark space, though.

Go dark! Very dark.

There is no other colour that reflects light anywhere near as much as pure brilliant white.

Just to say thank you to everyone for their suggestions. I think I've settled on Joa's White and will buy the proper stuff since Homebase have a good offer on F&B at the moment. I've reserved the paint so only need to make the short trip to fetch it tomorrow.

Unless the decorator throws up his hands in horrow at the though of F&B ......

"Cream" can be a very difficult colour to get right! Some are too yellowish, others can be either too cool, or some have pink undertones (such as the dreaded Magnolia)

After a lot of trial and error, Dulux Ivory seems to work well, we have used the "Easy Care" finish, which is pretty tough and any marks wipe off.

If you are looking for more of a colour, but still want something fairly neutral, then "Crispy Crumble"(Dulux again) has worked well in our South facing sitting room. It actually looks like a sort of grey/green.

Colours will look different in different lights, a colour I loved in a friends house, which looked like a soft grey, when I tried a tester in the room I was decorating seemed to be an ice blue!

We have F&B Mizzle in our hallway it’s lovely

We painted a rather dark room Georgian Green - very pale Olive. It has always looked good perhaps because it makes us think of olden times when houses were darker!
Mind you the National Trust have copied us over the years so it may look hackneyed now.
I would go with a light neutral and a mirror too and good lighting
Whatever you do, don't do what I once did and paint the room really dark for the cosy look. It was oppressive and hard to lighten.

Thanks, Lemongrove. ?

My hall has only one small window, and is quite dark. We painted it a pale yellow which brightened it up.

I have also used Sea Breeze. Love it.

Definately lemon with large mirrors enhanced if possible with an oversized glass chandelier if there is space to hang from ceiling it will bounce light around.

That sounds lovely Springy ?

We've painted our hall, stairs and landing yellow, 'Pendle' from Brewer's own range. It's certainly not wishy nor too 'in your face'. We have white woodwork, oatmeal carpet and an oak staircase and all look lovely against the yellow walls. We have two large mirrors , one in the hall, one half way up the stairs.

I love the Dulux Light & Space "Lemon Spirit". My hallway will be repainted with this next spring. Mirrors help, too - anywhere you can safely add them.

Does the colour need to go with carpet or tone with the rooms leading off the staircase? Joas white or maybe Skimming stone are lovely if you want to be neutral but have a look, if you haven't already, at Light Blue (also F&B) which is very classy with white and is not really either light or blue! There are some pictures of user's rooms on the Farrow and ball website which may provide inspiration. Good luck - it's a minefield.

When we were redecorating our dining room which also have the stairs leading to a large landing in them, we eventually tried 14 tester pots.

That’s the kind of colour I’m replacing. I think part of the problem is that most of the colours I’ve tried just look drab against it. I can’t even redo it the same because it’s no longer available and the last decorator bunged a bit of magnolia into the second coat to tone it down a bit.

Unfortunately I haven’t got time to order any posters by post. I look like making a trip to Homebase at Sheffield tomorrow if I decide to get more testers.

Will have a look at Willow Elegran.

My daughter has given me a lovely big mirror she doesn’t want any more so I’ll certainly take up your suggestion Pantglas2.

We used Dulux space light, Sea Breeze in a dark space. It’s a lovely sea turquoise colour.