Design Ideas for Underutilized Hallway Spaces

If you're apartment dweller like I am, you need to utilize every square foot you have. The spaces that I notice going underutilized the most are hallways. Hallways are mostly thought of as walkways, so the biggest priority is to keep them clear. While this is a very important priority, it can make us ignore the other possible uses for all those corridors and causeways.

All that blank space also takes away from the design and ambiance of other rooms. Instead of carrying the feel of the living room or mingling the designs of bedrooms that line it, many hallways just sit there, bare and vacant. Why waste all that space when you can make your hallways useful and beautiful?

There are a lot of ideas that will utilize your hallway without taking up much space. You can use the walls to displays photos of friends and family, or you can use it as a mini art gallery for all the great paintings and prints you can't find room for anywhere else. You can also combine the two ideas together and make your hallway a family art project. If you use only one wall of the hallway, it can serve as an accent wall.

Putting up wall hooks in your entryway corridor creates storage for coats and jackets. This is especially useful in houses or apartments without a mudroom or a closet near the front door. If you have a wider hallway to work with, you can go the extra mile with hanging storage space and put up hooks to hold everything from garden tools to your commuter bike.

You can also use your hallway as a pantry; this is great for homes with small kitchens and places that might not have any pantry space at all. If you only have a little space in your hallway, you can stick to wall hooks for hanging pots, pans, and other cooking gear. If you have room to get more adventurous, you can hang up shelving and racks to store just about anything that you would otherwise keep in your pantry. Flavored oils and vinegars, spices, or anything in a gorgeous ceramic or glass containers will make this type of storage space a centerpiece. If you want to keep your hallway storage strictly decorative, you can create a curio wall by putting up small box or flat display shelves to show off your weird or cool odds and ends.

Hallways are also good places to put up information, since everyone in the place will be passing through at one time or another. You can use your halls as a posting area for interesting news article and stories, as some of my fellow dorm mates did when I was at college. A front hall is also a good place to keep your bulletin board and to-do lists for easy reference when you're heading out the door.

If you're a bibliophile like me who always finds yourself short of book storage space, just look to your hallway. Normal bookshelves will only work in wide hallways, though magazine display style shelves will work well in most situations. This works best if you stock books that you want to display, like coffee table tomes, you all time favorites, or very carefully wrapped first editions.

For those of you who are graced with a hallway with a lot of windows, turn it into an indoor garden. You can place houseplants on shelves and windowsills or hang them from ceiling hooks. Plant stands are an option, but only for extra wide corridors. Your new houseplants will brighten up your hallway and improve your indoor air quality. For more on houseplant maintenance and finding easy to care for plants that will clean up your air, see "Top Ten Plants for Controlling Indoor Air Pollution".

These are just a few ways you can turn your hallway space from a blank slate to a home and design asset. Try them out, or think up your own - it's not hard to put your hallway to work!