Hallway and corridor design - differences, similarities and features

Hallway and corridor are an integral part of your home. So, she must fully comply with it. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. I do not want to mention "Stalin", "Khrushchev", "Brezhnevka" in this topic. Because even in modern apartments, these rooms are often allocated a very modest area. Sometimes it is so modest, non-standard and uncomfortable that the implementation of a beautiful and functional design of such a home space becomes quite problematic even for a specialist. But you do not care how the most “combat” rooms look like. And this article is to help you. After all, not the gods burn the pots. So that, designing the hallway and corridor, you are not burned. And here you can’t rush.

First of all, you need to pay attention to the configuration of these rooms, because it plays an important role in the strategy and tactics of their design. Consider the most common options for the hallway and corridor.

The small area of ​​the entrance hall is an unpleasant, but quite fixable fact of the layout of the apartment.

Let's see if it is possible to do something that would please both the hosts and guests.

First of all, we will not violate the laws of design - we will start with zoning. You say what other zones in such a small space? Ordinary and real. For example, the area where everyday clothes are hung and the area where seasonal clothes and all kinds of household items are stored. Indeed, the practical purpose of the hallway is to unload the living space from numerous household items, to hide their existence from prying eyes. How to distinguish these zones? The most functional option is to install clothes hangers and shoe stands on one side, and built-in wardrobes for other slow-moving things on the opposite side. In this case, built-in cabinets should have a different color than the hanger.

Do not forget that the hallway zone can be distinguished by wall decoration with different materials. The entrance hall, the walls of which are decorated with wooden panels, looks good. Very practical, because the hallway is subject to temperature changes, especially in winter. The hall area can be distinguished by laying different types of flooring. We do not forget at the same time that the coating must be wear-resistant. After all, the entrance hall is the most active zone in the apartment, and this must be taken into account when choosing the material.

If the hallway is not only small, but also long, then in it you can distinguish the entrance zone and the zone of the hallway itself. Zoning can be performed in any known manner, in particular using flooring.

Having decided on the hallway zones, we remain dissatisfied with its space. Now just think about visual expansion a small hallway. The most popular way is wall paintingceiling in bright colors. But here you should know the measure. Otherwise, your hallway will look vague and uncomfortable, which, of course, will worsen its perception.

A floor covering made of large ceramic tiles will also allow you to "expand" the space of the hallway, especially if it is different in size and laid with a mosaic or diagonal. A similar visual effect is produced by a laminate laid diagonally or across the hallway.

An excellent way to visually increase space is to install mirrors on one of the walls. But at the same time, the lighting of the hallway should be properly organized. Mirrors should not be framed, as in this case they will divide the wall into parts and make it visually smaller. Therefore, mirrors are best mounted on the wall. But they can be built into furniture.It should be clarified that mirrors visually increase the space in the case when the interior of the room is made in bright colors. In extreme cases, the wall opposite the mirror should be finished in light colors.

We deal with furniture, what it should be in this hallway. Furniture must be decided before the start of work. Given the modest size of the hallway, it should be small. Set along the wall of your choice. Otherwise, moving along it will resemble an obstacle course. It is unlikely that you will like it. Custom furniture would be the best option, but it should not be wider than fifty centimeters. Furniture for a small hallway involves an open part for storing everyday clothes and a closed part (cabinets, columns) for seasonal clothes. In addition, it should provide places for storing shoes and hats. It can be small narrow bedside tables or just open niches with shelves. There are many options. Structurally, furniture can be quite diverse, but necessarily functional.

At first glance, this is an ideal hallway. However, there are pitfalls for design. The most dangerous of them is emptiness. That is, after installing the furniture required for the hallway, a lot of criminally free space still remains in the room. And this is already inadmissible luxury. Such a hall cannot be called cozy.

An excellent way out of this situation is to divide the hall into two rooms. Of course, the entrance hall should occupy the main space. In the second room you can place an armchair, a table, mirrors, put floor lamp etc. Your imagination will tell you how to complete the design of this room. He should not be too fancy. Otherwise, the effect will be the opposite.

If the area of ​​your entrance hall tends to square more, experts advise, without further ado, to use the angular arrangement of furniture. This option will save you from unnecessary headache.

At its core, the corridor is a “transit” building. And it doesn’t matter whether it is narrow or wide. This should be the starting point for the design of its interior.

Most often, the corridor is a narrow small room connecting the hallway with the rest of the apartment. This is especially common in apartments of earlier construction. In modern apartments, representing a single space, the corridors can be represented by a fairly wide space, often merging with the rooms surrounding it.

From time immemorial, the corridor served as a buffer zone between the inside space and the outside, outside the house. What made it more practical than in the modern layout. But in some cases, the old layout is still present today. Therefore, lovers of antiquity and its life wisdom are recommended precisely this arrangement of rooms.

If you have a narrow corridor, you should take care of its visual perception, as it is quite normal in width of the room. First of all, take care of the color scheme. It should consist of light, but different shades. For example, the corridor looks great with a white ceiling, light brown walls and chestnut floors. Due to the correct combination of colors created the effect of visual expansion of space.

In principle, the design rules for the corridor are the same as for the hallway, with only one difference - the design of the corridor is simpler in content. Therefore, it makes no sense to repeat the above. But talking about the design features of the hallway and the corridor is the time.

Hallways often lack natural light. Therefore, you should take care of the artificial. In narrow, small hallways, lighting is only installed on the ceiling. Do not waste your precious space on additional wall lights. Often in a small hallway one lamp is enough.If one lamp does not suit you, you can install several lamps built into the ceiling. The main thing is that the room is not dark.

Fans of comfort in everything and everywhere can recommend two-level lighting. Very practical. Creates comfort and warmth from the first steps in your home. Its functionality will provide you with a delightful feeling of “the roof of your house” at any time, especially later and inclement.

Interesting and useful may be the lighting built into the furniture. The so-called backlight. Usually it is embedded in the neutral part (zone) of the hallway. For it, you can use LED strip lights.

Do not underestimate the importance of decor in the design of the hallway, corridor. After all, the first thing that people meet in your apartment is the entrance hall and the corridor. Therefore, the use of these rooms in the design paintings, family photos, graphic prints, art objects is extremely important. An excellent decoration of the hallway can be anything from antique furniture, especially wicker or bent.

The corridor is somewhat less functional than the hallway. Therefore, in its "open spaces" you can take your soul to the decor. The decor of the corridor is no different from the decor of the hallway. And the effect should produce a similar one. But a sense of proportion is imperative.

The peculiarity of the material for flooring in the hallway and corridor is its wear resistance and surface texture. Wear resistance, for example, of ceramic tiles should not be lower than the third class (fifth grade is expensive). The texture of the tiles should be rough. In short, choose a floor covering based on your ability to move on ice depending on your and your family members. A joke, of course. But, as they say, in every joke there is some truth. This will be especially true in winter or in inclement weather.

Linoleum for the hallway or corridor is undesirable for the reason described in the previous paragraph. However, this applies to a greater degree to the room located first from the front door.

If you want to use the laminate as a material for flooring, then note that it must be moisture resistant. In extreme cases, this type of floor area can be covered around. On the rest you can lay a regular laminate.

The ceiling plays an important role in the design of the hallway and corridor. At the same time, some contrast with the recommended light tones of the walls is allowed. For instance, brown, light brown colors in combination with light walls create special comfort in these rooms.

If we talk about the design of the walls, then there are many options. The most common is wall panelingpainting. In this case, the paneling is made either of the entire wall, or its two-thirds. The wall, lined to the middle, will give your corridor or hallway the look of a production building. And this contradicts the very purpose of design in the apartment - the creation of home comfort.

An excellent design solution is the cladding of one of the walls with mirrors. Thanks to this, the space of the room is visually increased. This is especially effective in small corridors, hallways.

Use in the design of walls, ceiling moldings (a bar with a volume profile) allows you to visually combine the plane of the walls and ceiling. This looks especially impressive if the hallway furniture also has these moldings.

I would also like to say about the front doors. This is especially true for the middle and northern latitudes of our planet, where the temperature regime will make you take care of this element of the interior of the apartment. And its feature is that, first of all, the doors should protect your hallway from low temperatures in winter. There are many designs, but the most effective are double doors.

If you have a mirror in the hallway or corridor, you need to arrange the lighting so that the lamps are in front of you or on the sides of the mirror. Do not use fluorescent lamps, as they distort color. For the beautiful half of humanity, this is important when applying makeup. It is better to use ordinary incandescent or halogen lamps. And of course, it’s important that they have sufficient brightness. Otherwise, there will be no sense from such lighting. Is that to find a way out of the room without stuffing yourself a lump on your forehead.

In the corridor, you should not carry out the design in dark colors, especially if it is narrow and long. Otherwise, only you will walk along this corridor. Guests are unlikely to like the prison atmosphere in this house. After all, the entrance hall and the corridor are the face of your apartment. Also, do not hang oversized objects on the wall. The effect is the same. And even more so, make one of the vertical planes in such a mirror corridor, especially the end plane.

Do not use low hanging chandeliers, fixtures. They reinforce the feeling of limited space in the hallway, corridor. The height of the room under such lighting is visually perceived much less than the actual one. It is better to use floor lamps, wall sconces.

Despite the relatively simple design functionality of the hallway and the corridor, you must act carefully. Design work does not imply rush, just like sapper work. A mistake can be expensive. It is hoped that this article and your creative imagination will help to avoid mistakes. Good luck in the design of your home!