apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Two approaches. Since your living room is sunken, you can paint the entry, the closet wall, and both sides of the hallway in the alternate color. That would make the elevated portion seem a separate gallery. If that's too much color for you, then, leave the closet wall and entry the same color as the LR, and paint the hallway wall that has the open door and on around the corner.

I know this is off topic: but is that a C&B petrie couch? How do you like it? I bought one a few months ago and I am having second thoughts...how has your served you?

Since these areas are completely open to one another - I would not paint the hallway a separate color, otherwise it's going to look choppy and contrived.

Sticking to one color throughout will help your space flow and feel more spacious.

You didn't include a picture of the other side of the room -- does the wall with the archway on the right in the second pic extend straight into the living room as a single plane?

In any case, nothing says you have to paint the entire hallway the same color if you're presented with uneven room boundaries. You could paint that wall with the closet door (and red "thingy") a different color altogether, preferably turning the corner into the entryway so those two walls read as a solid mass, and not just as an arbitrarily painted wall.

Similarly, you could keep the same living room color on the wall turning into the hallway, and change the wall color at the inside corner. Changing color on outside corners tends to make the wall look flimsy and two-dimensional, while turning the corner with a color makes the wall(s) read as a solid mass.

I do vote for having a different color on on the raised "hallway" wall opposite the living room though. Having four walls the same color creates a closed "box;" keeping one wall different will make the space feel open-ended.

Thanks for the comments so far everyone- much food for thought!=)

Spiralcma- Yes that's Petrie, I love it so far and it was also bought a few months ago... how is yours working for you?

Nashdp- The wall with the archway on the right in the second pic extends into the dining room; pic is here

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/lighting/good-questions-lighting-fixture-for-my-dining-room-065336

S=)

The couch was awesome at first--- but then the buttons on the seat started to really be a pest. (And they make it not so snuggly) The cushions are so flat already and I feel like I am just tearing it up. And there's only two of us that live here! I am thinking of putting it on CL, but I just love the look of it so much! I can't decide....

Ditto the point Nashdp made, always end a color on an INSIDE corner. It is next to impossible to get a clean line on an outside corner.

Spiralcma- There's only 2 of us that live here too! I don't think I have used mine enough to flatten the cushions, but I know what you mean about the buttons being a pest, now that it is the winter months I wear lounge pants around the house, so I don't feel them so much, but I can imagine in the summer it would really bug me too. Even if it wears down on me, I love the look of it too much to sell it on CL...

When there's no clear separation of the rooms, painting everything the same color will look better.

You could always get a nice chunky piece of fluted moulding (or maybe something similar to what you have around the doors), paint it white and run that up the wall to act as a visual divider. I would put it in the entry to the hallway and then it doesn't look so arbitrary when you switch colors in the hall. If you paint everything before you put the moulding up you can be a little messy and then you just have to touch up the nail holes.