Stairways and hallways are places to create beauty and establish flow in your home.

Sesigner Sappho Griffin and her client envisioned an English- cottage-in-the-city feel for this quaint, cozy 1930s home in Halifax. Daring colour and lively patterns were introduced, and period-appropriate architectural details were added.

To create a cohesive look throughout, Sappho lavished love on the home’s connecting spaces and the views from one area to another. “Sightlines are especially important, so we made sure the colours and patterns would blend from one room to the next,” she says. As well, the hallways, stairway, and upper and lower landings were designed with intention, bringing them into the home’s charming aesthetic. Here, Sappho explains how the Henhouse Interiors team worked their magic so you can bring their tricks of the trade to your home’s connecting spaces.

How to elevate your hallways

1. Make visual connections. “There are a lot of different colours going on throughout the house, but we made sure the mix was calm and cohesive, not chaotic,” says Sappho. “The palette for the downstairs entry and upstairs landing are a unifying factor because the stairs run up through the middle of the floor plan, not off to the side. We pulled colours from the dining room wallpaper because it’s a strong element that’s visible from every room on the main floor. That’s what inspired the pink trim and dark blue stair rail.”

2. Trim doesn’t have to be white, says Sappho. Why not think outside the box and have some fun? “White trim creates a high-contrast look that felt too new and stark for this house, where we were going for a muddier English palette,” she says. “We landed on a pale, dusty pink for the trim in the entry hall and upstairs hallway for a softer visual impression.”

3. Look for other places to be playful with paint, too. “Upstairs, we created interest and contrast by painting the exterior hallway doors a deeper beige pink and bringing the dark blue from the main-floor dining room up to the stair rail on the landing,” says Sappho.

5. “Put some quirk on display,” says Sappho. “The pastel drawing outside the primary bedroom is a portrait of the homeowner in the 1970s. It adds a bit of kitschy personality, plus, by happy coincidence, the colours worked perfectly with our scheme!”

6. Mix 3D objects into gallery wall displays. “Two ceramic bowls and a carved sparrow that the client picked up on her travels add some dimension to what would otherwise be a flat display,” says Sappho. “Stick- ing with a restrained palette of black, white and tan makes it feel visually unified.” The gallery wall pulls the stairway into the overall aesthetic and ensures the area isn’t a blah forgotten blank space.
 

7. The right rug is well worth the wait. “Vintage rugs elevate any space and we’re big believers in hunting to find the perfect one!” says Sappho. “We searched local flea markets and online sellers to find one that would ground the landing while also complementing our specific colour palette.”

8. Use design elements to create dynamism, leading a person’s gaze from one area to another, much as an artist does in a painting. Says Sappho: “The wallpaper in the primary bedroom features small bouquets of lily of the valley. Its repetition and light background pull attention into that room, where we’ve repeated pale blues and pinks in the lighting, bedding, rug and art.”

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