Help-thinking of dado or panelling for hall?

[ebaxter]

Hi, been living in our house for just over two years now and finally turning our attention to the hall. It's quite a large space with some built in cupboards, approx 2.5 m x 5m and all of our rooms lead off it. This ,Means I have lots of doorways and two sets of stairs one up and one down but nowhere to really place any furniture.

Aside from the door frames ( which are nicely detailed, painted eggshell) oak doors and coving it just seems to have vast spaces of walls that I don't know how to fill. Have got some pictures up and probably need more but it's the walls low down that still seem a huge expanse.

We were thinking of panelling our small entrance hall as this gets bashed so much and I just thought why not continue this through. I then thought, mess, cost and more time so why not just a dado and then I can paint the top and bottom two different colours to add some warmth to the room.

Thinking nice neutral, cool but slightly warm colours with all the woodwork in white eggshell aside from the doors and staircases. We are lucky to have a nice Berber type beige coloured carpet.

Does this just sound really dated? Our house was a 1930s bungalow that we have completely remodelled and its kind of a mix traditional and contemporary. I love a homely look and having two kids and a dog our house needs to be practical. Thought being able to paint the bottom darker would hide all the marks they make and make the room seem more welcoming ( our ceilings are 2.6m by the way).

Any opinions or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,

Emma

[NotGoodNotBad]

Ours is like that - dado with darker colour underneath. It's sponge-patterned so doesn't show marks at all, and I've been able to touch up the odd scrape without it showing. The upper parts of the walls, which are plain, are much grubbier.

Dated? Dunno. Who cares?

[justaweeone]

We have put butt and bead up to dado height in our back hall and it is painted in a F &B eggshell .Easy to wipe clean with dogs and children.

[primallass]

I am planning t&g panelling for the hall too. We live on the coast so it fits with the New England style we like.