In many apartment complexes, condos and loft buildings, companies like to keep things neutral and plain. We understand why, but the more buildings we venture into for house tours and visiting friends, the more we can't help but notice, most everyone's hallway is boring, bland, and a little overwhelming when it comes to color.
Most places like to keep a neutral color on the walls, without turning to white. Condos and communities want you to feel at home and white has always been the fear of a renter. But instead, low lighting and warm tones tend to make hallways and entryways feel the inside of a squash.
This photo is of our own hallway and although our own space is packed full of light, bright and bold colors (and flattering lighting for people and paint choices!), the hallways seem to be sucking the life out of us lately. As soon as we walk out the door things feel deflated and overly orange!
Do your hallways effect your mood? Have you ever not rented or bought into a property because the shared spaces had some questionable taste?
Leave us your thoughts in the comments below!
(Image: Sarah Rae Trover)
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funny you should mention this...my husband (then-boyfriend) and I looked at an apartment once where the entryway and hallway was soooooooooo utterly drab, dark and depressing...but the apt. itself was SO bright and light-filled with HUGE windows! Great big spaces, and so nice and clean and well-kept! Nice wood floors, and a HUGE kitchen and HUGE bathroom! We were surprised, and as it had what we needed, we took the apt.
about a year later, a couple of good friends each admitted to us that when they first came to visit, they were afraid our apt was going to be horrible, just based on the outside hallway! :-) they were pleasantly surprised when they actually came in.
i literally chuckled out loud when i read this posting title!! :)
Oh my...I SO get the inside-of-a-squash feeling.
Recently, our building had a power outage, and the outage really did a number on our hallway lights. So, instead of making all the fixtures the same, our hallways now have some soft lighting with the old fixtures, and some garage-grade flourescent lights in fixtures that don't match the others. It makes me feel like some areas are soothing and others are blinding. It truly isn't fun!
I wish the hallways in my apartment building could be less colorful. Red walls, blue doors, and red/blue/yellow patterned carpet... argh!!
The entryway and hallway of my building is very bland and dumpy. When we first walked into it I quickly told myself that we wouldn't be getting this apartment. But the actual place is huge, bright and airy with hardwood floors throughout and tons of windows. The price was right (mostly because the common room upkeep is minimal, I bet) so we decided to rent it. I still get bummed when we walk in the building but I love our apartment.
I have a fear of apartment buildings for this very reason. I have always rented in buildings where my front door is outside (even if the building itself was gated, you never entered the apartment from an inside hallway), and I think that will always be how it is for me. I know there are benefits to having an indoor-front-door, but I just can't shake the feeling that I'm in a stuffy hotel or something. Having my front door outside just feels more like home to me.
Any tips for coping with the squashiness/gloominess of an interior front door?
After a few years of dealing with a common hall and doors that didn't always lock, one of the things I specifically looked for when moving was my own exterior entrance.
Every single place I've lived in has had dumpy common spaces. Frankly unless you can afford the higher end of the housing market, you're stuck with old and dreary hallways.
My first apartment out of college had a lobby completely covered in mirrors. The hallways were a drab blue with hideous faded posters for 'art'. It was all I could do not take a can of frost or a paint roller to those mirrors.
My last place was a gorgeous brownstone duplex with a lovely skylight in the stairway. But the carpets were ancient and musty and I was itching to rip them up.
Now I live in a place that has dimly lit hallways and vinyl tile floors. And all the hallways stink because there is no trash room--everyone just puts their trash out in the hallway and maintenance comes to collect it every morning. It is by far the worst place I've lived, but so is the neighborhood. I have thought about putting a vinyl applique on my door just to cheer it up, but I am hoping I won't have to stay here long, and the lighting is so horrible it probably wouldn't look that attractive anyway.
my apartment building = ghetto
my apartment suite = great!
I hate building lobbies that have mirrors and harsh lighting everywhere. Who could possibly think that's a good combination?
You can see some of the interior shots here: http://www.flickr.com/search/?ss=2&w=all&q=Gaytonia&m=text
This place is pretty sweet from the outside, I do recall when I went there to check out a place that was needing to be rented out, the hallway downstairs was very very dark and red. I guess it's well suited for this place though lol
My roommate and I are actually quite lucky! Both of our hallways (one to the front entrance from street parking, and one the back one from gated parking) are all shiny wood and white railings for the stairs. Our rent is very low also. I am loving an interior door because I have an escapist naked cat who doesn't understand he shouldn't be outside.
my condo just changed the hallway decor....we actually used the same carpet as in the photo, but in a brown/black scheme. they alternated that carpet with a pattern of brown/black/gold curved lines. the walls are painted gold with accent panels of chocolate brown. it is kinda dark, but it's pretty cool. i feel almost like i'm on safari when I walk down the hall (it's better now than when the panels were painted blue, who thought THAT would match?)
our last condo had the same problem. our place was lovely and bright, but the common areas were drab and depressing. the upside of this was that people who came to visit for the first time were always more impressed with our place because their expectations were so low. another upside were low condo fees because the condo association obviously couldn't care less - not only was the foyer butt ugly, but so were our lawns (and i use the term loosely) and we were always the last ones in the neighbourhood to have snow shoveled which, in northwest canada, is a big deal.
i don't miss the hallways, but i do miss our place.
I live in a 1960 era 14 unit building w/ interior doorways and while not fancy, they are light filled, thanks to the windows in the front landings and a couple of years ago, carpeting was placed over the tan/beige vinyl tiles and the treads painted a nice blue, walls are white as are the ceilings and we have outdoor type florescent fixtures to light the halls so I can't complain about that. Our main entrance where the mailboxes are is OK, again, capeted, bins for jumk mail and a cheap 80's era pendant and not much else.
I once lived in a 20's era building with interior halls/doorways and originally there was I think ugly carpeting and I forget the lighting, florescents I think but they redid them w/ nice tan/brown carpeting but I did notice that the halls were originally terrazzo, at least around the edges of the halls tho and they installed new energy efficient chandeliers that went w/ the buildings style and in general spruced up the halls and thankfully I lived in one wing, about 2 doors in from the end hall exits which had windows to let in light and even the center section had windows looking out to the grassy area, the only non lit halls were the basement for obvious reasons.