A guide to choosing paintings for your hallway and corridor: styles, themes and placement tips.

How to choose a painting for the hallway?

Tips for choosing art pieces for the hallway:

• First of all, you need to choose canvases that will match the overall style of the hallway in the apartment.
• Canvases should be placed at eye level.
• For walls in nude and subtle tones, a bright and color-saturated painting would be the ideal solution, and vice versa.
• When choosing the size of the painting, you should take into account the dimensions of the room, for example, large images are more suitable for a spacious hallway.
• It is not recommended to choose too aggressive plots.

What kind of painting to hang in the hallway?

Several options that can be used to decorate the room.

Modular

This type consists of several paintings that together represent one image. This design always looks very stylish and is distinguished by its uniqueness, which allows you to completely change your view of decorative items.

The photo shows a modular diptych painting in the interior of a modern hallway.

Panel

Provides an excellent opportunity to create an interesting accent on one of the walls. With the help of such an interior decoration as a panel, you can achieve stunning effects in the room. This decor will be an excellent solution for the classical direction or the Art Nouveau, Baroque or Rococo style.

Poster

It is a universal decor that allows you to add bright colors to the interior. Posters with original graphic images, unusual art photographs or other drawings, in a neutral frame will be an excellent decoration for a wall or niche.

Oil or pencil paintings

They look very impressive, unite and complete the design of the room and perfectly organize the space, creating a spiritual, ideological and rich atmosphere in it.

The photo shows a hallway with a painting done in oil painting.

Embroidered

Large or small images, embroidered with a cross, with a correctly selected plot, are considered to be a rather original element of decor, capable of enlivening almost any setting.

Painting themes

Thanks to a certain theme, the canvases not only attract attention, but also set a certain color scheme and mood for the room.

Flowers

Various images with peonies, poppies, roses, lilies and other flowers help to create a homely and peaceful atmosphere in the room. Delicate or bright, calm or dynamic floral compositions allow you to choose the most ideal option for the interior being created.

N photo of the hallway interior and a modular painting depicting poppies.

Abstract

Energetic, bright and expressive abstract drawings are very popular for decorating modern hallway interiors. Various shapes and colors combined with each other evoke new associations and moods each time. In these free images, both the owner of the house and the guest will be able to see something close in spirit.

Reproductions

Fully convey all the technique, structure, color palette and subtle author’s style of the artist. High-quality canvases imitating expensive originals will undoubtedly become the most worthy decoration of the entire hallway. For example, Japanese reproductions in the form of various landscapes, pagodas, national fans, sakura or geishas in traditional clothing will bring a special exoticism to the space.

The photo shows a corridor and a reproduction of the painting by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai “The Great Wave off Kanagawa”.

Panoramas

Large-format images of the city, with great depth and a wide angle of the observed space, allow you to achieve the maximum effect of presence in the room.

Technology

Paintings with luxurious thematic technical drawings and stunning transport scenes inspired by high speeds form a fashionable and incredibly stylish design.

Nature

Canvases with images of animals, birds or canvases with waterfalls, rivers and mountain peaks fill the environment with complete harmony and beauty, creating an atmosphere as close to nature as possible.

3D canvases

They are the dominant feature of the entire interior, emphasize certain details of the room and set the overall tone for it. Volumetric 3D drawings, due to the depth of perception, visually expand the boundaries of the hallway and add additional space to it.

Location and selection of paintings according to Feng Shui

Following the philosophy of Feng Shui, it is best to hang paintings with calmer subjects in the hallway, for example, with still lifes, landscapes or images of a person. Drawings symbolizing powerful and unrestrained streams of water, such as waterfalls, mountain rivers or seas, will also be appropriate.

• To attract money and prosperity to your home, you can place a painting of a turtle or an elephant on the wall in front of the door.
• A painting of peonies is especially suitable for attracting love.

The choice of art pieces should be approached especially seriously, since the plot, location and meaning of the composition determine how strongly positive energy will prevail in the space.

Interior painting design ideas

Interior paintings can completely change the visual perception of the entire hallway.

Narrow paintings

Horizontal or vertical narrow canvases will look best in a more spacious room with high ceilings.

The photo shows a narrow painting with the image of horses in the interior of a modern hallway.

Vertical

They allow you to visually raise the ceilings and thus make the corridor higher. Vertical canvases are perfect for placing on narrow walls.

In frames

Framed canvases that match the furniture in the hallway will create a unified style and emphasize exquisite taste. When using more than one painting in the hallway, it is also advisable to select frames of the same color and texture for them.

The photo shows a canvas in a white frame that matches the light-colored furniture in the hallway.

Black and white

Canvases in black and white tones are a separate unusual and original artistic solution. They are able to create an extraordinary and unique design of the hallway.

With backlight

Paintings with wall lamps located above them will fill the interior with a play of colors and shades. In addition, the backlight will create additional comfortable lighting for the eyes in the hallway and make its design truly original and attractive.

The photo shows a hallway and black and white paintings with backlighting in the form of wall lamps.

Placing a painting on the wall

Several of the most successful options for placing paintings on the wall:

• Opposite the front door. It is better to decorate the empty wall opposite the front door with an attractive, eye-pleasing composition. It is not advisable to place paintings with aggressive images on this wall.
• Above the chest of drawers. A small painting will look especially good above a chest of drawers. Small canvases with a single semantic direction, hung in a row, also look no less organic.
• Opposite the mirror. If there is a mirror in the hallway, it is undesirable to place more than one painting opposite it, since the effect of multiple reflections will lead to a visual reduction in the area.
• Above the door. By hanging a canvas above the door, you can visually lower too high ceilings in the hallway.
• In the corner. The corner composition allows you to enliven the corridor space and favorably emphasize its volumes.
• Along the stairs. To decorate the wall along the stairs, you can use canvases of any size, the main thing is to maintain a diagonal arrangement to achieve a harmonious look.

The photo shows a hallway with a small painting located above the chest of drawers.

Correct placement of paintings will not only allow you to show the design of the room in the most advantageous light, but will also correct the geometry of the space.

Tips for choosing paintings for hallways of various shapes

With the right arrangement of canvases, you can radically change the geometry of the space.

• Narrow. Medium or small canvases, located on the walls in a row horizontally, will help to visually expand a narrow hallway. You can also make this room shorter by placing one bright and large painting on one end wall.
• Long. Paintings, arranged in one horizontal line at the same height, will favorably emphasize the length of the corridor.
• Small hallway. In a small hallway, small canvases will look best. When using large paintings, you need to take into account that they are not too bright and colorful, but contain calm and neutral subjects in light colors.

Photos in various interior styles

Paintings used in various stylistic concepts.

Classic

Paintings with various landscapes, portraits, animalistic and botanical sketches, as well as tapestries, frescoes or panels will be especially appropriate in a classic interior. You can decorate the canvases with both thin and voluminous frames with silver or gold elements.

The photo shows a classic hallway with a wall decorated with a canvas depicting birds.

Modern

This style involves plot canvases or graphic panels with drawings of personal taste preferences. They will allow you to completely change the artistic perception of modern design, add even more aesthetics and creativity to it.

Scandinavian

Not too pretentious black and white products in strict frames or retro sketches with a snow-white passe-partout will perfectly match the restrained Scandinavian style.

The photo shows a hallway in Scandinavian style with small black and white pictures on the wall.

Provence

Luxurious floral themes, marine motifs, beautiful still lifes in the form of antique vases with fruit or bunches of grapes will make the atmosphere of the French style even more cozy, pleasant and calm and will bring a certain charm of country life to it.

Loft

Bright and large posters with various inscriptions, abstraction, geometric patterns with strict lines or canvases with modern paintings and graphics will be appropriate in the loft-style hallway. Such a design will fit very harmoniously into this direction, which does not welcome unnecessary details.