Real homes: my gloomy hallway

The dingy hallway has never reached its potential.

First the shiny lime green highlights, bequeathed by the previous owners got whitewashed – but with such limited light in the area, it just looked grubby, particularly one side of the space – and so efforts have since been focused on that one wall.

The new front door, with glass panels was meant to help. But still the troublesome hall wall stayed resolutely gloomy. Perhaps it needed some colour?

So it got a half-wall flash of brightening yellow – a dado rail-less spilt-screen effect, kind of thing which, to my disappointment, looked absolutely awful. So the lovely sunny yellow filled the rest of the wall... For a joyful few weeks, it seemed like it had worked (though painting the radiator to blend in was an ugly mistake). But the allure of the yellow was short-lived – being simply better than white wasn't enough. But the colour did make me happy. So last week, after saving up (to the tune of £300-odd – eek!), this giant mirror was specially cut and fitted – an idea shamelessly stolen from my neighbours' living room. And, lo, suddenly there was light, or at least a sense of space.

Only now the yellow looked even wronger... (excuse the dust, the result of some ongoing woodwork). The shade was chosen to pick up on the yellow in the painted staircase, but all of a sudden, as most of it was covered by a big piece of mirror, it looked a bit random.

And so today, since I have a day off, I am abandoning the idea of paint as a brightener and embracing the hall'a natural gloom and the dark side. OK, well I'm embracing dark paint...

Grey, specifically. I figure if the wall and the floor co-ordinate, the sense of space thing will only be stronger. Will it work? Can I ditch my #interiorstwat colour faddiness and shake off thoughts about dark grey walls being so 2011? And what colour will the radiator be?

In a few hours I'll know. Wish me luck...