This is actually by your back door? I view it almost like a laundry room. Where does the other door go?

I agree to paint first. Figure out storage solutions (which you are good at) for above the machines.

One word of caution. White is not necessarily the color for dark spaces. We went through this with my daughter's co-op. White can look dingy if it doesn't have enough light to bounce off.

Better lighting would certainly help, but if you are sticking with what you have now, I would go with a more saturated color.

We used BM Manchester Tan. Plus, we put in over head lighting. What a big difference. Originally it was white and yes it looking dingy.

Blues seem to be recommended in low light areas, but that was not an option for us.

I have heard that BM Navajo White can work, but when I googled it, it looked yellowish to me.

I would also research the best selling whites, but use one that look like it has a definite color.

Head over to the Home Decorating Forum and pose this question there too.

I only have a very small hallway from my front door. It is painted BM Shaker Beige. The color looks good in the places where it gets natural light and where light is limited upstairs.

My hallway is very tiny with 4 doorways, so very little wall space. I painted it a very light green, with white trim and I have a very small watercolor painting on the only wall that has any real space, maybe 18 inches wide.

OMG, Shades. That is absolutely gorgeous!

Eld: first of all, thank you so much for your thoughtful suggestions! You are really educating me here. It never occurred to me that anything other than white would be the solution to a dingy looking area. But what you said makes perfect sense. Funnily enough, I was actually going to use Light Navajo White, because that is what I just used in my kitchen.

Because my house is so small, I really want to use the same colors and materials throughout everything except two bedrooms and the bathrooms. So same flooring, paint colors, etc. in the library, LR, eat-in kitchen, and hallway. I thought it would help the visual flow of the space and unify it, while at the same time making it look and feel bigger. The light navajo white says it has a hint of brown. It is definitely not a super white white. Do you think it would work in the hallway?

Also, Eld, yes, the door on the right in the picture is the back door of the house. It's actually located about in the middle of the length of the house. The hallway, if you measure starting at the Sterilite drawers on the left, is just over 16' long. There are three other doors off it besides the back door. The main bathroom is just before the laundry on the left, my room is on the left just after the laundry, and Joy's room is at the very end. I completely agree that better lighting would make a huge difference!

Murraysmom, thanks for sharing! I love water colors! Your little hallway sounds peaceful, with the softness of a light green and the painting. I don't know if you've seen any of cpartist's colored pencil art--she posts on the kitchen forum and sometimes here as well, but her drawings are so gorgeous! She is to drawing what Shades is to glass mosaics. My dream wall would have a large cpartist work of flowers in a vase hanging up and Shades' glass lizard climbing up the wall!

Eld, hahaha! Every time I write your name, my stupid phone changes it to either "Elf" or "Elderly!" If I missed any when I proofread, my apologies in advance, lol!! :-)

Chris, if that mural is to cover up a "design mistake," then I say Praise the Lord for design mistakes! My comments are glowing because I truly love your art!! And I'm so glad you have this "therapy" to work on while you're caring for Joe in the sunset of his life. You are one strong woman, and I am so inspired by you. :-)

If I get really industrious in the next few days, haha, I'll post a floor plan of my house. But I'd love to hear more stories about all your hallways or other awkward spaces you have or want to decorate! :-)

Oh, just wanted to add, re: navajo white: Chris, you make a very good point about paint quality! The cheapest is not always the best. And for me to say that is something, haha! Some would describe me as "cheap." I prefer the term "frugal." ;-)

I did my little kitchen makeover on a tight budget. But I splurged on the paint. Because I was painting walls coated with vinyl, and because I was painting yellow over a dark blue-grey, I wanted primer and paint that could handle the job.

I used Zinsser oil based primer and Valspar Optimus Paint Plus Primer. I only needed one coat of each, and it covered it beautifully!

Chris, I also had the internal debate about semi gloss vs. matte. Semi gloss=easier to clean but shows every imperfection in the wall or matte=covers mistakes but hard to wipe clean.

I went with semi gloss. I know myself, and know I will spill, spatter, and drip, haha!

The way I see it is if I spring for the money to paint the interior of the house now, I don't want to have to paint it all again in a couple of years because I went cheap on the paint. I'd rather spend a bit more now and have it last for a long time before I need to do it again.

When I first moved into this house in '98, I was ok with the colors that the rooms were painted. But each room's trim was in a different color. I didn't realize how much I hated that until I had the interior repainted 8 years ago (every room but the bathroom and that was done last year) and had all the trim painted a semi-gloss white and now I love it. My house is a small cape cod so every room flows into the next and my "new" colors really do a nice job of that. My family room is a very pale yellow called Parmesan and I used that in the kitchen as well, along with that darker almost ochre color. Then you go into the living room and that is a brighter yellow. Then the tiny hallway which is a very light sage, as is the second bedroom and then my bedroom is a mint green. The bathroom got a makeover last year when I found a beach themed shower curtain and the whole room was redone. My two sisters-in-law were both here visiting when it was decided "yeah, we can do this"!! LOL Two borders had to be removed and I took the color a shade darker than it was. It's a nice sand color now including the ceiling since it's such a little room. I have a snifter filled with shells as some decoration. And funnily enough when the sisters-in-laws left, within about a week later I got two packages in the mail. Unbeknownst to each other, one sent me more decorating items and the other sent me new towels that go perfectly! They are the best.

A couple of pics:

That little red wooden cabinet was here when I moved in. I really like it.

I agree to not be cheap with the paint.

Our painter used a Home Depotcolor match instead of Benjamin Moore. There was a difference, big time. We had it repainted with the BM.

Murraysmom, I LOVE your beach bathroom!! That is so cute! Those towels give it just the right pop of color. You have some nice SILs! And leaving the cabinet was a good choice because it looks kind of "beachy," if you know what I mean.

eld, that is so true about the paint. The light navajo white we chose was actually a Clark & Kensington paint, which is Ace Hardware's store brand. We had them color match it in the Valspar, because I know that's a good paint, and the store brand was an unknown that I didn't want to experiment with. I'm hoping to use that white throughout the whole house.

The very first thing I would do is look for dry rot under the floor. I would rip out the vinyl and fix all that stuff first. Dry rot never sleeps, it just gets worse and worse until it finally caves in the floor, or your foot goes through it.

This actually happened to me, more than once, so may be prior trauma talking. ;)

After that I would figure out a group of colors, and paint down the hallway ombre style, to make it more cheerful and less tunnel-like. I would go right over the doors and trim, since they aren't contributing anyway. I would not go with white, It's not your friend in a room without much natural light or interesting architecture. Color and boldness, like the glass mosaic above, is your best approach.

Alternatively, you can paint on any pattern using stencils. You can make your own stencils using transfer paper and sheets of acetate or herculene, which you can get in an art supply store. A pattern all over the walls will make things look bigger, oddly enough, and definitely more interesting.

I wouldn't put up pictures. Since the hallway is so narrow, they are going to get knocked off the walls and smash goes the glass. And framing is very expensive. You could paint graphics right on the walls, using a projector. That doesn't take any art training. Or you can glue pictures directly to the wall. They used to do this a lot in the 18th century, it's known as a "print room."

Finally, if I had an extra few bucks, I would put in a sun tunnel. Sunlight is almost always a good thing.

Debbie ,

I think the primer you use is very similar to the "bright white" so once you prime it you should have a good idea if you would like it or not. I think you should keep going with the Yellow. It's such a happy color.

I think poster frames might work against the wall for pictures since some are super thin and lightweight( usually not even plexi glass, I think some are just a thin sheet of plastic and they have a black frame so would go well with the black/white photo's.

A pull out pantry for the brooms and cleaning supplies would also be nice if there is enough room beside the washer/dryer.

Found this slide out mop organizer.. would be a lot less expensive than a pantry and would get the brooms and mops out of the walkway.