http://www.stencil-library.com/docs/cat315.htm

Yay! We have the same dilemma. Can't wait to hear comments.

Some ideas I've had but haven't implemented:

-paint the door at the end - and perhaps even the inside of the front door - a crazy bright color..

-hang thin framed tackboard or magnetic board (or maybe multiple) with fun postcards and memorabilia.

-collection of mirrors

- i love those Brocade Home cut out felt area rugs, they sell long runners too.

anything on the floor that'll "break" the length is good. Also, if you're feeling cookie, a banner hanging from the ceiling (like a second ceiling) with various angles throughout would make it feel less "straight", add pattern and different "sagging" heights and it'll be hard to look at the hall when they're staring at the ceiling.

I dream about a long hallway, I collect posters from Pearl Jam shows and have run out of room.

I long, for a long hallway...

I went to an open house once that had a very narrow hallway leading into the main living area, and he had put a looong cluster of framed baseball photos, postcards etc. all the way down the hall, just above elbow-high. It created a cool, irregular stripe down the hall and the prints were small enough that you could see them from a very close distance. You could do it with any theme that speaks to you, too, which is pretty darn cool.

My sister had a similar situation: a l-o-o-n-g hall immediately in front of you as you entered her apartment. In her case, the hallway was needed only to access the living room; another opening from the living room to the hallway and other rooms was at the far end of the hallway.

In the hallway, we gathered fabric, top and bottom, floor to ceiling, just beyond the first doorway to the living room (on the right in your photo) and continued the gathers around one side. This made an entry with room for a little table and lamp by the front door and blocked the view of the hallway from the front door. She then used the long narrow space behind the curtain for storage. Another curtain, gathered only at the top, at the other end of the hall, closed off the space. An array of trouble lights provided illumination.

She made good use of this storage space. The whole idea depends on there being more than one access to the rest of the apartment from the room first accessed from the hall.

We have the same set up. We installed picture rail molding at 90" high (10' ceilings), then painted walls below the molding (which is stained oak) a tannish gray color. Kept ceiling and top 2' of wall white.

We also painted the back of the front door bright red. Finally, we installed 3 identical pendants made out of bent pine veneer from Costa Rica. Originally we thought about art but realized that it just wouldnt be seen.

Next step is to find 3 10' carpet runners, either identical or complementary. But that's going to be expensive...

3 suggestions:

Make it a fun bowling hallway - picture it! paint those ball lining triangles on the floor and paint bowling pins at the end of the hallway...

Paint the hallway walls with graphic patterns (squares, swirls, etc). Maybe painting a scape of sorts in a monochromatic sequence would add sucha dramatic element that you'd forget about the narrowness, like, maybe a Bob-the-Builder blue on the walls overlayed with tree branches painted in a darker tone of BTB blue, with small sconces that accommodate votive candle holders between the painted branches.

If you own the apartment, how would you feel about knocking down the wall to the study, and converting the space into a study nook of sorts? the break of the hallway would provide lighting in the space, I'm sure, and I think would create a really interesting space.

Good luck!

i like Caroline K's suggestion but also wanted to throw out the idea that you could hang artwork from the ceiling. it seems there's enough height and if you space it out enough with lights between every few feet, then you could look up and down the length of the hallway to admire it.

and i know you already painted it, but a vibrant colour with white edging and broken up by the white doors would also add some interest. in that line, painting vertical stripes of varying thickness would add some interest that doesn't have to be viewed from any particular angle.

We used a FLOR Hopskotch area rug to liven up our long hallway. Everyone loves it, and even though our kid is long gone to his own space, it's good for rainy day entertainment as well.

Dang. I just checked the FLOR website and it looks like Hopskotch has been discontinued. We just got ours about a month ago. Guess we were lucky....

wow. I was literally about to post the same type of question. I rent an apartment where my hallway is about 30 feet long and 2 1/2 feet wide with 9ft ceilings. A recent roommate reshuffle has left me figuring out what to do. Here are the things I've been thinking of:

1. Paint the hallway (currently dingy beige) a dove-grey or greyish blue color. I was also thinking about painting stripes or sections, but I'm not sure if I want to go to all that trouble for a rental (or if I can keep the tape straight from floor to ceiling!)
2. Hang Chinese lanterns from the ceiling to bring the height down.
3. add mirrors near the doors coming off the hallway (the hallway has little/no natural light). Also planning on adding small shelves where votives can go when we entertain.
4. Hang artwork in sections. We tried gallery style with the last roommate and it just didn't work in the hallway.

Would love to hear other suggestions!

Use strategic painting to force perspective?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_perspective

...it might drive you insane, but it would almost certainly impress everyone that passed by...

I have the same problem, except my bathroom is also on the same side as the office. There are some great ideas here.

u might want to try to add a window above the door to get some natural light in there, looks a bit dark.

I love maps, my friend had a giant map of the world when u walked in and pins in it where she had visited and pictures, postcards etc.

What a wonderful "problem" to have! One that seems to have been posted MANY times here on AT.

Run with the long hallway (not literally!) and have fun with it. What a fantastic opportunity for a gallery space. Cover the wall (one side only) with artwork of all kinds. Or frame a bunch of pieces all identically (same frame size, color, matting, etc.) and disperse them along the length of the hallway. You SAY the hallway's too narrow for artwork, but it's not. Only viewed from a maximum of 18" you say?! What? That hallway looks to be 3' wide! Plus, do you ONLY view artwork straight on? No, you can see it from some distance as you're passing. If you're still concerned about it being too narrow, go with the multiple objects all framed the same, but go with small objects that won't overwhelm you when viewed up close. You can always put small objects/artwork in a large frame with a large mat to both set them off and to help fill up that wall.

Whatever you do, though, you need more than one light fixture at each end of the hallway. THAT is just a recipe for doom and gloom as you're walking down it. You can add more lighting without investing in an electrician. Buy one of those light socket converters that has an electrical outlet on the side and will still allow you to screw in a lightbulb. Plug in some rope lighting and run it down the hallway. Or plug in an extension cord, run it down the ceiling to more light fixtures along the length. Cover the extension cord with some molding.

Aaaaaah.... I see SO MANY opportunities here! These are just a FEW of the many, MANY options/possibilities. Those who hate their long hallways don't know what a "diamond in the rough" they have!

Another thought... .people often think dark paint on the walls make a space seem smaller, but not always. Dark colors can, in fact, make the walls seem to recede, expanding the space. Possibly leave one side of the hallways painted light like you have it. But paint the opposite side a deep, rich dark color. Put the artwork I mentioned before on the wall of your choice, but my suggestion would be on the darkly painted wall.

Someone mentioned it already, but I was thinking FLOR tiles. I haven't checked out the patterns they have recently, but something funky could look great in the hall. You can take the tiles with you if you move, and swap them out if a few get grungy.

Or, how about a giant vinyl graphic on the wall? Its flat, and non-permanent.

Just don't paint racing stripes down the hall. While house hunting, I saw a condo where someone had done that... it wasn't cool.

I say follow the Ellsworth Kelly path:

http://pratt.edu/~edeboer/spectrum.html

All you need is painters' tape, a level, and a dozen sample-size cans of paint.

I too have a super long hall, extending from the living room, behind the kitchen, and all the way past two bedrooms, a bathroom and finally to the laundry room! its kinda dark though (lol a sky light would be nice). I think it would be nice to paint it "frenchy style" with one color 3/4 of the way up and then another color above that that (including the ceiling). I put framed drawings and movie posters. I also use part of it as storage space.

stripes

can you make openings in the wall adyacent to the office? I like the idea of painting a wall in a dark color, I would paint the east-facing wall darker and make openings on the other to have "windows", and I would put artwork on the darker wall too, aligned with the wall openings.

You could do quite a lot by simply improving the lighting and leaving the space empty.

The space is long and narrow and will never be a place anyone wants to linger no matter what you add. In fact, the more you add, the more crowded and less appealing it will probably seem. I would argue that the great benefit to this space is that it could make a rather impressive entrance by emphasizing the length.

My first thought would be to slightly drop the ceiling in the center and create a soffit light that runs down both sides of the hall. Here is an example of that sort of idea.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thebarleybarn/531972333/

This light would emphasize height and length of the space. Add a floor mirror at the end and you have now doubled the apparent run of the hall. Put the lights on dimmers so that the amount of light can be adjusted to your needs. You don't want to overlight such a small space.

If you go with this style of light, make sure you use a flat paint. Satin or gloss will only emphasize any imperfections in the wall.

You could do black and stripes all around, like the Time Tunnel!:
http://www.televisionheaven.co.uk/timetunnel.htm

Whadaya mean, "no"?

Laure's idea works. And it works because the mats match the trim and create "picture windows" along the expanse that encourage the eyes to "LOOK OVER HERE" and then "LOOK FARTHER DOWN" instead of being faced with a long tunnel hall.

Let me try something and I'll be back...

THANKS FOR THE IMPUT EVERYONE! I've been scouring the ATNY pages for similar solutions, but these are such a great addition!
I always knew it was a great and unique space to have, and my concern has always been to make the most out of it, and do something beyond the norm.
Currently, my feeling is to go with alternating large, and clusters of small black-framed pieces for the long parallel walls, and I love the idea of making the door pop out with a strong color.

I thought that installing a wardrobe mirror at the opposing end would be a neat way to bring said color down to the other end.

Finally, does anyone have more suggestions for a mid hallway light fixture? We're renting and accident prone, so anything with wiring or destruction of the walls is unlikely.

Staring at the crummy pictures i took, Kind of makes me want to try a little trompe l'oi action where the daylight splls onto the long solid wall.

THANKS AGAIN SO MUCH AT COMMUNITY! Keep it coming!

Since I'd never get the shading right, I used a navy blue trim color on the baseboards here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/96179754@N00/2654565598/

I painted the door surrounds the same color. The doors do not have to be painted the same color.

And I added "art" to the right wall, a big piece.

Notice what your eyes do...notice how you process the hallway differently. You are drawn to the nearest thing first, the doorway on the left. Then over to the right side for the art. Then to the second doorway. Then to the end of the hall.

Second thing I did, I put up crown molding, same as the trim color. With a space between the top of the molding and the ceiling...for rope light.

From below, you won't really see the rope light if the molding sticks out...and it doesn't have to be fancy molding either. A 1"x1" would probably work fine.

It will bounce light off the ceiling making the hallway glow. There are probably some ReStores in the area too:
http://www.habitat.org/cd/env/restore_detail.aspx?place=91

This post for Kansas City shows a lot of molding:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/chicago/green-stores/salvaged-goods-in-kc-054588

And depending on the doors you have, you might be able to pick up ones with glass panes.

Rope lighting is very economical to run. I posted some links to various rope light images in this thread:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/la/lighting/do-you-leave-your-porch-light-on-054599

Anything that draws your attention away from the distance will make the hallway appear less lengthy and be more visually interesting.

If you do not want that image up, let me know, I will take it down immediately.

Buy a flipbook (like this one) and frame the pages in sequential order all the way down the hall.

I was trying to come up with ways to make it less narrow but I think I would embrace the lenght and tell a story with that wall.

May be a hieroglyphic or a story with pictures like this one:
http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m139/jntttt/longwall.jpg