The Ultimate homify Guide: How to Choose the Best Hallway Wallpaper?

When picking out wallpaper for an entryway or hallway, remember that your choices need to be super practical. Think about people kicking off their shoes, bikes leaning against the wall, and children constantly touching those wall surfaces. 

Look for symbols on your hallway wallpaper that signify:

• Impact resistance: Wallpapers with this symbol can endure shocks of up to one joule of energy – a great choice for a space with heavy traffic like the hallway!

• Extra washable: This ensures that greasy stains can easily be removed with soapy water and a damp cloth without damaging the paper, making your hallway wallpaper appear good as new. 

• Scrubbable: This allows mild abrasives or detergents to be used on a soft sponge or brush to help remove water-based stains, oil, fat or solvent-based stains. 

• Extra scrubbable: Meaning that dirt and all domestic water-based stains can be cleaned from the wallpaper with intensive treatment via a sponge or soft brush and mild detergent or abrasives. Oils, fats and some solvent-based stains can also be cleaned. 

When it comes to regular rooms that are rather small, we want to trick the eye and make the space seem much bigger. However, this is not that crucial with transitional spaces like hallways and stairs. In fact, lots of designers and homeowners relish the chance of keeping hallways looking tiny (not cramped), as the adjoining room (such as a living room) will then look and feel much more spacious when entered. This is also called the ‘squeeze and squirt’ effect.

Thus, don’t feel that you need to stick to stark whites for your hallway wallpaper – a moody blue or revitalising red can also work! 

Also keep in mind that a hallway is a transitional space – we don’t spend lots of time there and only use them to travel from one room to the next. If you’re looking for a colour for your entryway wallpaper, green could be ideal as it’s a pleasant transition from the outdoors to inside. For a hallway that joins up two rooms, try to find a wallpaper with hues from both rooms’ colours (i.e. grey and blue), which can help create a smoother transition from room to room. 

The fact that a hallway is known as a transitional space is also the perfect excuse to experiment with motifs. For instance, a wallpaper with polka dots might be too much for a living room, but since you won’t be spending lots of time in your hallway, the polka dot print won’t be that much of an issue. 

That being said, choose a pattern that reflects your interior style plus your personality and forget the rules that we usually follow when it comes to normal rooms. For a hallway, big irregular patterns can work just as beautifully as simple motifs. 

Want to liven up a dull hallway or staircase without going overboard? Picking only one wall to flaunt a striking wallpaper design can be a great idea. But how do you decide which wall in a hallway must become the focal wall?

If there are doors in the hallway, pick the wall that people will see as they walk through the doorways. Alternatively, if the one wall extends longer than the other into another room, this might be the better one to choose. To make that wall become a focal point, choose wallpaper that’s brighter, more colourful and more visible than the plainly painted wall. 

homify hint: In a hallway with seating or storage, wallpaper can also be a clever way of delineating separate functional areas.  

We always say that nothing beats a good paint job when it comes to livening up a room, but wallpaper might just beat that idea. Instead of just using primer and paint, wallpaper allows an entire room to stand out with patterns, textures and colours. 

And like we said, the rules of decorating a hallway are slightly different than what they are for regular rooms. In a living room, for instance, your wallpaper must effortlessly integrate with the rest of the space’s furnishings and accessories. But with a hallway, the walls can become the pièce de résistance of the space! Thus, be gutsy and try out unique, one-of-a-kind designs that would be way too much for a regular room’s walls. After all, wallpaper isn’t permanent. 

• Be honest about your hallway’s size. A hall table is a great idea, but then there needs to be adequate legroom for walking, too. Don’t just insert a piece because “it’s the right thing to do”. Rather consider floating shelves to clear up legroom in a narrow hallway, then opt for wallpaper that can make the area seem longer than it actually is (i.e. horizontal lines). 

• Want to add a feature piece in your hallway like a chair, large painting or mirror? Ensure its colours are complemented by the tints in your wallpaper – if they are contrasting (colours that are directly opposite one another on the colour wheel, like blue and orange), then even better, as it will automatically draw the eye to said piece. 

• Lots of homeowners opt for photo galleries in their hallways, but doing this against a busy backdrop can make the hallway seem visually cluttered. We recommend a wallpaper with a subtle and soothing design (colour and pattern included) to make those framed photos stand out even more. 

From transitional spaces to public rooms, let’s see How to correctly (and stylishly) wallpaper your living room.