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Hallways can offer a wealth of design opportunities, especially in period properties, which often still retain original features such as balustrades, coving and flooring. Despite the fact that these features are many years old, their design qualities have stood the test of time, increasing the desirability and interior design potential of many homes.
With this in mind, we have taken advice from Benita Baretto and Emma Page, interior design experts in both contemporary and period design, to discover how to effectively fuse the trends and enhance your period hallway and staircase to suit modern day living.
Read on to discover expert advice on the following areas:
In many homes, the staircase itself presents an ideal focal point. Period style balustrades are often design features in themselves, they can be enhanced in a number of ways and can be particularly effective when complimented with modern elements.
"For a modern/period home, focus on one key aspect in the hallway. For example, are the stairs stunning? If so, what is stunning about them? Strip them back, restore the French polish & let them shine! Then you can choose a scheme around them."
Benita
As a staircase has to endure a lot of wear and tear over time it can begin to look tired and less than pristine, especially if it is an original feature of the home. So, a good place to start your hallway re-vamp is by ensuring that your staircase and balustrade are in tip top condition.
If your staircase is particularly run-down, you may need to start from scratch. This could involve stripping down the balustrade and spindles to remove shabby paintwork and restore them to their former glory or even replacing it entirely.
Emma Page, director at The Victorian Emporium suggests the following approach:
"Staircases, if not in tip top condition, should be sanded throughout down to their bare wood and all surfaces prepared for painting. They should then have wooden varnished treads and handrails and white or pale eggshell or gloss risers and spindles for maximum period authenticity."
Emma
Before starting on the arduous task of sanding and stripping, it is worth considering the enormity (and cost) of the job if your staircase is in a particularly poor state of repair. Seek advice from a specialist, such as Jackson Woodturners, who can recreate bespoke spindles to match the existing ones or even supply a brand new bannister, in-keeping with the period style. Alternatively, if you fancy using the staircase itself to add a modern edge to your hallway, Jackson Woodturners also offer a large range of contemporary banisters.
For more information on restoring your original balustrades read our guide to Renovating a Run-down Staircase.
If you are lucky enough to have good quality floorboards, or original stone or tiled flooring in the hallway, make the most of these features, as they will serve as both practical and stylish flooring solutions. Although they are traditional features, recent trends for restoring original flooring in modern urban settings will still allow you to maintain a contemporary edge. Emma suggests insulating original tiles to maintain the original features whilst remaining practical for day to day living:
"In many period houses, the floor underneath the tiles is such that the room can be very cold. If you want to keep your tiles but improve the thermal qualities of the room, you can carefully lift your tiles, dig down by several inches so that you can add a damp course membrane - basically a thick plastic sheet followed by a cement base with insulation and mesh in the cement base. A screed is added on top of this and eventually your tiles will go back down. This will make for a warm insulated floor which will look identical to the original floor but without the cold feel."
Emma
Benita suggests using the age of the property as a starting point for choosing flooring:
"A lot depends on where a house is and the period in which it was built. A Georgian hall and stairs takes well to stone, oak or black and white or grey and white tiling on the floor, leading to a simple striped runner up the stairs. In a Victorian house you might have tiles which match the decor, and some darker, rich hues to play with such as a deep burgundy."
Benita
The contrast between a traditional balustrade alongside a brightly coloured, retro style chair can be very effective, adding a quirky edge to an otherwise non-space. Likewise, a modern bespoke hallway table is a great way of combining the old with the new, even in the narrowest of hallways.
Even if your hallway furniture errs on the traditional side, funky accessories such as contemporary ceiling or table lamps and unusual vases and ornaments, can inject a modern twist. Another good way to mix up your styles, whilst incorporating valuable hallway storage is with brightly coloured coat racks, umbrella stands and shoe boxes. Emma recommends using accessories to add a modern edge to a traditional room:
"An eye catching bohemian crystal chandelier hanging from the top of the landing will add some luxury to your stairwell.”
Emma
If space is an issue and you simply don’t have room to include any additional furniture or accessories, your best option is to focus on the walls. Forget practical yet ugly coat hooks and focus on the decorative! Benita, finds that well placed decorative mirrors are particularly useful for giving the illusion of space, whilst also making a bold style statement.
"You can always widen a staircase with the use of mirrors up the wall – either with an array or floor to ceiling mirrors. I like antiqued mirrors myself, with a Mercury or bronzed undertone, depending on the decor."
Benita
Pictures can also be very effective going up the wall in line with the staircase, or for livening up a narrow hallway, and the sky is the limit as to what you wish to display.
The style of frame you choose will determine how far you want to push the modern or vintage theme. You can even accentuate the fusion between old and new with a mis-matched selection of contemporary and traditional frames.
Old fashioned photographs can be particularly striking when displayed in stylish modern frames, as can modern prints in more ornate antique frames.
Sometimes, dressing a room can simply be a case of less is more, and an overall feel can be successfully created by decorating alone. Choosing a fresh, modern colour can immediately make an otherwise traditional room, feel much less stuffy. When tackling a room with several period features, for example, a staircase, with both traditional flooring and radiators, a bold statement wallpaper can be incredibly effective.
Period properties often feature picture or dado rails, which open up even more opportunities to get creative with wallpaper placement and contrasting colour palates. If you want to tackle the decor to be in-keeping with the period style of the property, Emma suggests:
"To decorate your hall and staircase, choose lincrusta or anaglypta relief wallpaper for below the dado rail, then paint it in a mid to dark shade complemented by a lighter paint shade or wallpaper above the dado rail. These relief wallpapers are available in many different patterns and period designs. Wood work such as dado, skirting and coving should all be in complementary shades - either white or grey or another light tone to work with your chosen shades on the walls".
Emma
As Benita maintains, the hallway is a great place to have a bit of fun with bold styles, as it is a room that you pass through rather than sit and stare at the decor.
“If you are brave, strip everything back to white, soft grey and black, and punch through this with stairs in a really bold, pure colour. A hallway is generally not a space to linger in, and when people are moving through the space dramatic features can really work. Consider trying stairs in pillar box red, a carpet in emerald green down the stairs, or even experiment with lemon yellow."
Benita
It may well be that you have a hallway that features a modern staircase, or you may fancy replacing a traditional balustrade with a more contemporary one. The same (lack of) rules apply to this type of design challenge, in other words, there is no reason why you cannot compliment a modern staircase with traditional features.
By simply taking the above points and switching them on their head, you can still create the perfect fusion between the old and the new, only in reverse!
It’s hard to imagine that it wasn’t so many years ago that we were ripping out the period features from our properties, for want of a modern, streamlined finish. The thought seems quite ridiculous now, when we have finally struck a balance by successfully combining the two extremes to complement each other. Aside from the aesthetic qualities that period features bring to a home, there are also the undeniable financial benefits, with original features adding to the value, and desirability of the home. This infographic, courtesy of the Victorian Emporium, highlights the facts:
If your period property no longer has any original features, it isn’t difficult to re-introduce them. Emma recommends looking out for the following period features to add an authentic element to an otherwise modern room:
When asked what period features add the most value to a home and should be restored if possible, Emma went on to say:
"Restore or replace as closely as possible all of the original features. Wooden double-glazed sash windows, period wooden and plaster mouldings, wooden doors and hard floors downstairs are all essential elements of a period property. Period floorboards, if in good condition can be sanded and varnished. Original radiators are usually really inefficient and do not provide enough heat to be used as the main heat source. NEVER be persuaded to go for aluminium or upvc windows or doors - they will always devalue your house."
Emma
By implementing some of these tips and expert advice into your own home you will be well on your way to creating a hallway to be proud of. Rather than seeing it as a daunting prospect, take the advice of our experts and have some fun with your space. Once you have got the key elements in place the rest is purely set dressing, and whilst modern accessories can come and go and be updated as you wish, period features are clearly here to stay.
