Any ideas on this would be amazing! Houzz had a technical glitch which stopped my post from showing.

I should mention, I've used some testers and think I like F&B Stiffkey Blue (if I'm brave enough to go that dark) and I've already purchased these lights:

Oh my goodness I love your inspiration photo and don't see why you couldn't achieve the same sort of thing - love the lights you've bought by the way. Personally I am a big fan of dark paint in hallways. We had white in our last house but because hallways end up being dark by nature, the white just looked dreary. It never looked clean and bright as it did in other rooms - just shadowy and bleak. In our new house, we thought "embrace the dark, don't fight it" and all that and I have to say it looks infinitely better. No amount of white paint can make a dark hallway "light and bright" so, in my opinion, you're better off trying something other than white in these sort of scenarios x

Having said that just a word of warning, because it is such a dark space, remember any paint colour will look darker. We were going to go really dark as the inspiration photos i had were taken in bright rooms so we actually ended up going for a more mid colour which, when painted in our dark hallway, actually looked the same colour as the dark options in my inspiration photos. So you may want to get a few testers just with differing levels of darkness x

Thanks @jessa61 Yes, I'm starting to think Stiffkey Blue might be one or two shades too dark. Now that B&Q are offering Valspar again I think I might go and explore some other colours.

What a lovely quirky space to work with. New lights are perfect. I’d suggest you should remove the half wall, if cost feasible when you can, and reposition the radiator. If you need some kind of railing when the wall is removed match it to the stairs. As jessa61 said, definitely go for a mid colour in the shade you like, and I’d keep the darker colour under the picture rail keeping the ceiling and top of the walls white. It’ll help reflect the light. I’d take down the curtains as well and not have anything there. If you do need something, go for as sheer and light coloured as you can. Show us the finished job. 😃

Thanks @Amanda Malloy I'm so pleased you've said that. The curtains are gone, not to be replaced and this weekend we're knocking down the half wall. It's a bigger job than it should be as the cabinet actually covers the fuse boards, so having to get those moved first :)

Just another voice, if still need encouragement to take on the darker colour! I agree with both comments before me, on all points, shape and angles sometimes work better if hidden by one darker colour which makes them melt away - which ones you want to melt and which ones you wish to stand out.
My house layout is very similar and we went for very warm dark grey on the largest wall, which we then filled with art - the glass helps to reflect light.
Good luck&please, show us pictures of the final result:-)

We have a similar problem in our quirky hall and stairs. We used the dado rail trick (which you can do yourself if you’re handy with a mitre cutter and straight edge) and after much debate and trepidation (oh and 50-odd tester pots) we went for it and used F&B Railings up to and on the dado and matt white above and on the doors. Its, um, striking 😀. Love your lights, can you say where you got them?

A dark colour is just what it needs - rooms off the hallway will appear bigger and brighter. You have some lovely windows on your landings, creating light and interest. I have a narrow hallway and will be painting it Juniper Ash from Little Green Paint. With the tester try painting a large piece of card and moving around the hallway and landings, the you will get used to the colour.

I agree with everyone here. A dark colour will look really striking, it’s just the right space for it and will probably open it up. If you are into artwork it usually looks much better on strong colours too. For the tester, completely agree with ianthy. I use some spare lining paper, check at different times of day too. Glad you are going ahead with removing the wall too. Go for it :)

I would remove the half wall, the radiator and the wide bottom step, make it a normal single step down.

With a rounded edge.

The step to have a rounded edge

am an early adopted of moody, esp in small, badly lit areas. my go to for painting trims doors etc is to take same colour as walls & add 2 4 or 6 parts black to it. if you can take that to ceiling even better. whatever you put in the space will pop so great photographs, paintings or feature lighting becomes equally important as colour. your doors/ windows will become frames so make sure you have something nice sitting in front of them -

Well the half wall is down :) I have a carpenter on the way to look at boxing in the pillar with the fuse boxes and cutting the step either diagonally across or circular. I'm thinking about replacing the carpet with a runner and assume I could do that with either shape?

I'm either going for F&B Stiffkey Blue (2 in from the left, second up from the bottom), F&B Hague Blue (2 in from the right, second up from the bottom) or Valspar Play me a melody (first column, second from the top). Stiffkey and the Valspar are looking a bit too blue and Hague Blue may be too dark so going to paint bigger areas and see how they come out.

@karen7390 your hallway looks fab. Which colour is that?

@Heather C-B the lights are from Dunelm but I may return them as the glass keeps spontaneously smashing when we're nowhere near them! I saw B&Q had the same ones for only £10 more (so £65 each) so maybe they're possibly better quality.

Thanks for the heads up on the lights! We too have a (strange) stair step in the hall and we were persuaded by a carpet fitter that it’s nigh impossible to put carpet on an arc and our carpenter said he wouldn’t be able to easily build a curve either so we have a diagonal

Love the Hague blue btw. We have a bedroom in Stiffkey which was meant to be Hague (tester patches got muddled up 😬 by the painter) and it’s somehow just blue. Hague has more to it. Good luck!

Our hallway is Dulux Heritage Midnight Teal @CarolineB

@Caroline B our hallway is Dulux Heritage Midnight Teal.