How to Decorate a Ranch Hallway
Ranch-style homes present many decorating challenges due to their relatively low ceiling heights and horizontal design. There are several ways to decorate areas in a ranch home to give an illusion of space, especially in hallways. By using appropriate color palettes and adding accessories with simple designs and patterns, it is possible to create ranch hallway decor that enhances the architecture of the home with stylish flair. Does this Spark an idea?
Things You'll Need
- Paint and painting supplies
- Vintage mirrors
- Foam brush
- Hammer
- Nails
- Black-and-white photographs
- Black and white frames
- Floating shelves
- Flameless candles
- Small baskets
- Small paintings
- Framed photographs
- Electric drill
- Screwdriver
- Screws
- Prepasted wallpaper border
- Wallpaper brush
- Craft knife
- Long area rugs
Instructions
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Use paint. Choose a light-colored paint, such as soft white, creamy tan or light gray, for the hallway walls. Because ranch houses often have low ceilings and narrow corridors, a light hue visually expands the space and makes it feel much larger than its square footage indicates.
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Hang mirrors. Adding a collection of vintage mirrors to one of the hallway walls creates a feeling of expansiveness and light. Paint the mirror frames all the same color to give a cohesive look to a variety of mirror styles. Use a foam brush with interior paint to make application easy, especially for frames with more intricate designs.
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Display photographs. Frame black-and-white family photos in black frames and hang on one side of a hallway to add a personalized touch to the ranch hallway decor. Using black and white exclusively gives the gallery of photos a clean, modern look and feel, and it creates an area of visual interest in the hallway area as well.
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Add floating shelves. Taking the narrow nature of ranch homes into consideration, incorporate floating shelves into the ranch hallway decoration to give the space a stylish accent without taking up too much width area. Display flameless candles, small baskets, small paintings or framed photographs on the shelves in odd-number groupings for optimal visual appeal.
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Incorporate a wallpaper border. Add height to the ranch hallway decor by using a decorative wallpaper border on the top area of the walls. Choose a prepasted border that coordinates with the decorating scheme of the adjacent rooms to create a seamless, designer look to the hallway. By wetting the pasted wallpaper side with warm water and adhering with a wallpaper brush, it is fairly simple to create a wall accent that gives an illusion of higher walls in an often height-challenged ranch home.
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Lay down an area rug. Accent the floor area by accessorizing the narrow hallway with a decorative area rug to add texture, pattern and style to any ranch hallway decor. Select a long, narrow rug or grouping of rugs to run the entire length of the hallway to give the hall a feeling of added length that anchors the space and serves as an element of design at the same time.
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Tips & Warnings
Place framed photographs in groupings on the floor until the desired effect is obtained to make picture-hanging easier and more efficient.
Brush out any air bubbles with a wallpaper brush for a smooth application of border.
Lay area rugs on rug pads to secure them in place on hardwood, tile or carpeting.
For long hallways, choose several long area rugs in matching designs to give the hall a feeling of cohesiveness.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Comstock/Comstock/Getty Images
