When entering a home, a person first of all pays attention to the hallway. Usually, its area does not exceed 8-10 square meters. m., although in many apartments the dimensions may not reach 5 square meters.
It is in small spaces that it is extremely important to make the right stylistic decisions. If light colors are most often classic, allowing you to visually expand the area, then a dark hallway can turn the room into a cellar.
However, this does not mean that it is strictly not recommended to use dark colors in design. When choosing blue, coffee or black colors, you should pay more attention to accessories and take into account all the designers’ recommendations.
Brief overview of the article
Features of dark hallways
If you approach the issue correctly, then dark hallways in the interior have a number of advantages, namely:
- Contamination in dark-colored rooms is less noticeable.
- Visual originality of the stylistic design of the hallway.
- When darkened tones are used, wide possibilities for decorating with bright lighting open up, which makes the room festive and unusual.
As a rule, darkened shades of cool colors (blue, black, green, brown) are used.
Owners of apartments and houses rarely use such design concepts because they are afraid of reducing the already small space. Darkened tones of walls or floors contrast favorably against the background of white or beige interior items.
However, the contrasting combination of dark wallpaper in the hallway and a light floor visually lengthens the corridor. Most often, such design techniques find application in homes decorated in avant-garde and loft styles.
Basic rules for combining the color and texture of doors in a residential area
Any product made in dark colors has an expensive and elegant appearance. But it’s one thing to purchase a door for your home, and another thing to successfully fit it into the interior. It is very important not to make a mistake with the choice of balance and palette - dark canvases can become both an accent and an addition to the overall design.
There are several options that have already been tested in practice:
- Doors are black. They fit perfectly into an interior where the walls are white and the floor is gray. This is a fairly classic type of design.
- Wenge color. It is better to combine such canvases with wallpaper in pastel shades (beige, pale peach, light gray), and the floor should be either the same color as the doors themselves or a light brown shade.
- Brown linens. They go better with olive-colored walls; another good solution would be to fit such doors into an interior in beige tones.
- Plum, blueberry and eggplant shades. An excellent option is to decorate the room in lilac and pink, but at the same time delicate tones.
Saturated door color: good or bad?
For any interior, this design option can be a good choice. The main thing is not to overdo it in style and create the right balance between dark and light shades. Then even the darkest saturated colors can become a successful accent that will delight and attract attention for a long time.
Pure black doors can also be used. But in this case there are some requirements:
- the room should be spacious;
- the smaller the furniture, the better;
- It is necessary to have decorative elements of the same color;
- It is better if the walls are light.
Dark woods
There are several main types of wood that are used in modern production. They largely set the tone of the finished product. Many varieties of such trees are very rare or even on the verge of extinction. Therefore, a widespread option is to create some imitation of the material using coloring.
The following types of wood are most widely used in the manufacture of interior doors:
- Ormozia. A species of tree that is not widely distributed because it has almost disappeared. Growing area: New Guinea. Varieties of this breed can also be found in the Philippine Islands. It is very valuable, which is why finished products made from it are so expensive.
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- Paduc. This is a guest from West Africa. The sapwood from this species has an interesting coral or red tint. The tree very quickly changes color on the log house and becomes brown. It has a strong structure that can withstand almost any weather conditions.
- Wenge. A tree species that is common in East Africa. There are various chocolate shades - from light to almost black. Excellent resistance to pressure and any temperature.
- Nut. A type of wood with a brownish-gray tint, it is protected from cracking, which is why it is widely used by manufacturers not only of doors, but also of various furniture in general.
- Red tree. By the name you can already guess what shade this breed has. And the photos confirm this.
- Ebony. Found in tropical forests. Each of the varieties has a deep dark shade, but the description of the characteristics of all is approximately the same.
- Rosewood. Another type of tropical tree. A breed with maximum strength, which explains its wide range of applications.
In the video: what material is better to choose interior doors from.
Recommendations from experts
When designing a dark hallway, the following tactics are used:
- Entrance to the living room. If the design of the room involves darkening, then it is important to visually increase the area due to enlarged or sloping doorways into the room that look like an arch. It is better to fence off the space with a special light curtain, but not with a door. This technique will add more light to an already dark space.
- Smooth transition from decor to interior items. If the room is less than 5-6 sq. m. It is better not to decorate the walls and floors in dark colors. In this case, it is better to use furniture, paintings, lighting fixtures and carpets in the desired dark colors.
- Mirrors. Multiple use of reflective surfaces visually increase the space.
- Portable modular systems. Bulky pieces of furniture should be avoided; it is because of them that the room turns into a cluttered attic. It is better to give preference to compact, easily transformable modular systems.
- Bright accessories. Using brass, copper, crystal and other shiny glassware will add sparkle to the space.
- Proper lighting. Choose multifunctional lighting devices with the ability to adjust the sharpness and brightness of the light. Bright lampshades and fringe are allowed.
How to glue wallpaper correctly: from the window or from the door
This is the second question on which every Internet user has his own opinion. Nowadays, most wallpaper is glued end-to-end, and, therefore, there is not much difference from where the wallpaper can be glued. And yet, it can be noted that it is much more convenient to start gluing wallpaper from the window, since the light falls in such a way that the shadow will not disturb you. In addition, if there were errors when gluing the wallpaper, then if you glue them end-to-end, they will not be so noticeable (this also depends on the lighting). To avoid problems when gluing wallpaper, you should carefully examine the wall to be pasted for any unevenness or other imperfections. If you find even a slight unevenness, you should putty it.
It is easier to glue wallpaper from a window, since the light falls in such a way that the shadow will not interfere with you during this operation
For convenience, you can draw a vertical line, and subsequently use it as a starting point when gluing wallpaper.
This will help you glue the strips more evenly to each other: therefore, the result will be better than when gluing without using such a trick.
Advantages
Among the main advantages of creating an environment in dark colors are:
- With the right design solution, the room will look neat and tidy.
- Due to the light, the atmosphere will look unusual and original.
- A wide range of choices for decorating with accessories and fittings, which allows you to create any unique style.
With a combined contrasting decor of the space, a mix of different color shades looks good: black and white, dark blue and light blue, coffee and beige.
Types of decoration
There are several types of color decoration of premises, namely:
- gluing dark wallpaper in the hallway;
- tiled space cladding;
- application of paints and varnishes;
- the use of plastic panels imitating natural materials;
- connecting several methods simultaneously.
The most common stylistic solutions:
- Painting a specific area to deliberately emphasize a desired detail of the space (painting, carpet, chandelier).
- Painting the ceiling space in a dark color with the further installation of many diode lamps to create a “starry sky”.
- The dark floor in the hallway using natural materials creates elegance and rigor.
- In small rooms it is better to install modular compact systems with mirrors.
- The combination of a large mirror in a dark frame located opposite the entrance will visually increase the area.
- Interior doors in dark shades can be an excellent addition to the interior to create a more panoramic view of the entrance space.
Successful photos of dark hallways avoid clutter and an abundance of furnishings to avoid cluttering the room.
Advantages and disadvantages
The high popularity of using brown doors in both office and residential spaces is due to a number of advantages:
- look expensive, solid and noble;
- goes well with most light shades;
- depending on the shade of brown, they suit both “cold” and “warm” interiors;
- emphasizes the shape and dimensions of the space.
With all the obvious advantages, there are also a number of significant disadvantages that you need to know before deciding to install them:
- visually reduce space, not suitable for small rooms and apartments;
- with insufficient insolation they can look gloomy, creating not a stylish, but a dull interior;
- easily soiled: dust and traces of fingerprints are visible on them much more noticeably than on their light-colored counterparts.
