When you consider a project to redecorate your home, you’re most likely thinking of the living room, bedroom, or kitchen. After all, these are the spaces where you spend your time, where guests gather, and where much of your life occurs. However, arguably, some of the most important spaces in your home are those places you walk through without even taking notice.
These are the hallways, the entryways, the staircases and in-between spaces that get little attention because they’re considered “connecting” spaces instead of impressive ones in their own right. Most homeowners have halls painted builder beige and move on with their lives. But in reality, these spaces impact how you feel about your home at all times.
Why These Spaces Have More Impact Than You Think
Think about it: every single person who comes into your home passes through these spaces first. Before seeing an impressively outfitted living room, they see your entryway. Before getting to their room in a long hallway, they walk through it once (or twice) a day without giving the experience a second thought.
These transitional spaces serve as punctuation in a sentence. They give pauses and dramatic effect to what happens next—or doesn’t—and they frustrate or enlighten connections from one space to the next. Perfectly executed transitional spaces can make even single-use spaces feel well-thought-out and designed. Neglected transitional spaces can take stunningly outfitted rooms and complicate them making them feel like a family monster rather than a cohesive unit.
Additionally, these transitional spaces don’t require great amounts of money to aesthetically please. A bare hallway with painter’s tape carefully used to mask certain sections can create light boxes and unexpected interests that would draw people in instead of boring them through to the next destination. Lighting can elevate simple spaces, while creative hallway runner ideas can make otherwise ignored stretches of space comfortable underfoot.
Creating the Entryway Space
A front entryway can be small but does so much work. It needs to welcome guests, allow for shoe and coat storage, and serve as the perfect design reflection for what’s to come in the rest of the house. Instead, entryways are often left completely bare or used as accidental junk drawers for bills and mail.
You don’t need a fancy new design to bring an entryway together—you just need a console table for keys and wall space for hanging or placing items on. A mirror that creates infinite reflection and a welcome sense of arrival makes it feel as if someone put effort into making people feel welcomed in their own home.
Hallways: The Connecting Spaces
Long hallways can be daunting for aesthetic appeal—the lighting often is poor, it’s too narrow and it feels like a tunnel if it goes on for too long—but it also presents incredible opportunities for eye-popping beauty!
Far too many families neglect their hallways—painting them a neutral color and moving on—but in reality, hallways can take more drama than you think. Darker colors make them feel more intimate instead of smaller; gallery walls transform these spaces into personal museums, while patterned and non-matching flooring can set them apart from merely serving as connecting utility.
Where do homeowners believe they have no choice but to use bold design decisions? In spaces they don’t spend hours—or even minutes—in at a time! Hallways, stairs, and transitional spaces work perfectly as aesthetic playgrounds to allow personality choices based on inches instead of feet.
Stairs: The Vertical Opportunity
In fact, stairs probably present the most underutilized opportunity for design interest in any household. How many staircases do you pass that are plain and boring? Between painting opportunities (which often occur at angles), exciting lighting situations or even additional storage components make the staircase one of the more underrated spaces—in decorating and function—of any home.
The wall next to the staircase is often forgotten about more than it should be—a blank canvas for décor whether intentional gallery hanging decisions or paint color that makes the landing feel more prominent than accidental.
The Necessary Flow
Finally, what can make various transitional spaces so much better is that they lend themselves toward flow. When thoughtfully appealing, they create levels of interaction that make approaching another space perfectly natural and easy.
Where flow gets complicated is when spaces that need transitional decor are neglected. Good flow is not about everything looking the same; it’s about an acknowledgment that here is one repeated color or type of lighting and down that pathway is another color or material choice made that creates awareness but also disinterest leading up to other rooms.
Small Changes Yield Big Outcomes
The good news about these neglected transitions is that small changes get so much work done through them. A freshly painted, bright-hued hallway shouts at anyone passing through it; soft lighting in an awkward entry creates feeling rather than avoiding everything altogether; simple things like added plants or artwork on stairs instead of nothing at all can create enticing intrigue.
Additionally, these are the types of spaces that can change seasonally. Since they’re less frequently visited while still requiring purposeful movement through it, it’s more acceptable to shift temporary decisions since not permanent ones are required.
Making It Possible
Transitional spaces only work when their purpose is established first—an entryway must accommodate coats and shoes; a hallway must ensure there’s enough light for safety; stairs must be navigable with clear handrails.
When those practical aspects are established, however, these spaces become appealing canvases that welcome collections open to exploration instead of larger rooms whose contents could easily get lost in translation.
Ultimately, every space gets relied upon far more than you’d expect in how they create memories first before memories establish themselves within meaningful rooms. Challenge what you know by stepping into unfamiliar territory—and see how your whole home feels better for it!
