Hallway Wallpaper Inspiration: Five Ways to Make an Entrance
Set the Tone From the Front Door
A hallway sets the tone for the whole house, so it's worth a little drama. Because it's a space you move through rather than settle in, the hall lets you be bolder, richer and more characterful than you might dare elsewhere — and the payoff is a home that feels considered from the moment you step inside. Here are five hallway looks to inspire you, each one easy to make your own, because every design is printed to order in the colour way you choose.
At Claret & Key, every design is drawn in-house and made especially for you in our Cheshire studio, so any look here can be yours, in your shade.
The striped hallway
A stripe is a hallway classic for good reason. Hung vertically, it flatters the height of a stairwell and leads the eye up the stairs, bringing elegance and a sense of order to a narrow space. A wide Regency stripe feels grand; a fine ticking stripe feels calm and considered.
The moody, dramatic hallway
Because you don't linger in a hall, it's the perfect place to go dark. A deep, moody floral or a rich botanical turns a hallway into a jewel box, all the more striking for the contrast as you move from the hall into lighter rooms. It's a bold move that always feels sophisticated.
The floral welcome
Nothing says welcome quite like flowers. A soft floral or a trailing design brings a hallway warmth and character, and looks especially lovely climbing a staircase. Keep it gentle and tonal for elegance, or a little bolder for a real statement.
The characterful heritage hall
For a home with a sense of history, a damask, a heritage floral or a classic design brings a settled, gracious elegance to a hall. It's the entrance of an established home, considered and calm, with a sense of having always been there.
The nature-led hallway
Woodland, birds or botanicals bring a hallway a fresh, characterful charm and a lovely connection to the garden beyond. It's a welcoming, uplifting choice that draws you through the space and into the rest of the home.
Making your look your own
Whichever look you love, it's yours to tailor: your colour way, your scale, your finish. For a busy hall, our hard-wearing Heavy-Grade paper is the sensible choice; all our finishes are printed to order on FSC-approved, PVC- and VOC-free paper.
Order a sample and see your chosen look in your hallway's light before you commit.
Frequently Asked Questions About Hallway Wallpaper
What wallpaper is best for a hallway?
Designs with rhythm and movement work beautifully — a stripe to flatter the height of a stairwell, a small or mid-scale pattern to draw you through a narrow hall, or a bold, dramatic design, since a hallway is a space you pass through rather than sit in.
Is wallpaper hard-wearing enough for a busy hallway?
It can be. Hallways are the hardest-working walls in the house, so our Heavy-Grade paper (300gsm) is the tough, durable choice for high-traffic halls and stairwells, standing up to bags, coats and busy feet.
How do I wallpaper a staircase and landing?
A staircase is ideal for wallpaper — the vertical rise gives a stripe or trailing design somewhere to soar. Carrying the same design up the stairs and across the landing ties the upstairs and downstairs into one considered whole.
Can I get hallway wallpaper in a custom colour?
Yes — every design is printed to order in your chosen colour way and scale, so your hallway makes exactly the first impression you want, made especially for you.
Poor customer service - rolls are only available as one off 10m runs, so if you need 11m.. unfortunately you’ll be paying double for a second roll! Unless your walls are 8m or less, I’d avoid. Wrongly assumed Claret & Key would be slightly more compassionate about the situation and even help with a slightly discounted second roll, considering we only needed 1m. How wrong we were!
Store owner replied:
Hi Emily,
I'm sorry to hear that you are disappointed with the service.
We sell our wallpaper by the roll, and we are unable to manufacture shorter rolls. This will be the same for most manufacturers as 10m rolls are standard, and most rooms require more than 1 roll to complete the job.
Thanks,
Claret & Key
I really loved this paper and thought it would look nice in my attic space. Delighted with the end result. Great service, excellent quality of paper and it really transforms the room. The eves are very low so the space was not utilised so making a feature with the wallpaper has created a cosy space to relax in. Thank you. M
Love this wallpaper. It’s just enough to show a statement but not so loud that it overpowers the space. Being able to pick the color is such a great thing also. You’re not stuck with 5 options so it can match your style and colors of your space. Would recommend to anyone looking for wallpaper. Very happy and my installer said its super easy to install this pattern.
This wallpaper is thick and sturdy. It’s very easy to work with and easy to apply. It was my first time hanging wallpaper and this paper was very forgiving. Great product!
I love how everything turned out and the price point was great. It was a bit challenging to piece together. Being from the USA, it was kind of a challenge to convert all the measurements to figure out how many rolls I needed and then where to cut the rolls to line up the images based on the design repetition. Luckily, I had plenty of wallpaper to work with on the roll.
Absolutely beautiful design and texture. Got the heavy duty wallpaper and put it up without any previous wallpaper experience and it went up very easily and beautifully. Definitely recommend.
Extremely helpful and supportive when I needed advice on measurements, with fast delivery too. The quality of the wallpaper is excellent, and I’m really pleased with the overall service. Highly recommended!
Gorgeous wallpaper, but the measuring option on the website left us short by 1 roll. Had to order another one but when it came the colour match was perfect. Thankfully I wasn’t paying for a decorator, otherwise would have been disappointed in having to pay for them to return. Otherwise great quality wallpaper and design compared to other similar products available.
First purchase from claret and key and truly impressed. Beautiful quality wallpaper. Pretty yet not too fussy. Easy to hang, cut and match. Would work in any room
Good tracking and delivery service too.
Definitely recommend and would reuse for future projects.
Everything went really good. Apart from the quality of the wallpaper which is fantastic, the staff were exemplary in their communications, friendliness and professionalism. They really did go the extra mile to help me.
A great experience all round.
Thank you.
Patrick
Lovely pattern and paper quality.
However, I wish that I had paid more attention to the roll width measurement.
For some strange reason your paper is narrower than a standard roll. This caused me a great deal of problems when papering my lobby, a small area but that made it more difficult because I was left with a narrow space to fill on 3 walls with a very long drop.
Although I love the paper I probably wouldn't use it again just for this reason.
Why you would produce paper not of a standard width is for you to know and me to wonder but it has made my small project very difficult.
Used this paper to make a dark study cosier. Absolutely loved the colour - the background is a perfect match to our existing panelling painted in Farrow and Ball Old White. First time using paste the wall and it was a revelation so easy and much less mess. Quality of the paper is great but noted the rolls are slightly narrower than most wallpapers. Loved the pattern match which meant little waste what we had left we used to recover some old box files which was easy. I thoroughly recommend.
