Next on the to do list

The hall is, as with the kitchen, an awkward space. I honestly don't know what the Architects were thinking when they designed the layout because the hall is a ridiculous size/shape. As you walk in the front door you enter a small rectangular area with the bedroom to the left and the bathroom and the rest of the hall to the right. The hall runs across the middle of the flat, with the living room, spare bedroom and the kitchen coming off it at the opposite end. The ceiling has, inexplicably, been clad in yellow tongue and groove pine which gives a lovely (not at all) 80's sauna feel to the space. There is no wallpaper, not since that fateful night when the steamer proved too good at removing things from the wall. We've always said as soon as the whole flat is done we'd concentrate on the hall, so as not to ruin any finish on it while working elsewhere, which means this project is now looming in the not too distant future. In hindsight, this was probably a mistake as what faces any visitors when they arrive, before they've seen the other rooms, is something that looks not even a quarter finished.

Soon enough we will have no excuse but to pull our finger out and get the hall finished but that's not going to be an easy job, the ceiling has to go. It's a hideous relic from the original conversion yet it serves a purpose, it disguises the fact that there are three different ceiling heights, by the front door there's so little head room I actually broke the light bulb trying to put my coat on last week, just outside the bathroom there's a little more height and beyond that there's an extra 2 - 3 feet of space. We're faced with the dilemma of whether to embrace the different heights or to plasterboard where the tongue and groove is now and here's where the problem lies.... lighting. At the moment there are spotlights, they're ugly and giant but there is nothing else that can be put there, not when the ceiling is so low by the bathroom. So, do we keep them because whilst they're not our style they're at least functional, or do we do away with them and work out something else? This sort of decision requires consideration of the practicalities and that's something I'm not overly enamoured with, I don't want to have to think about that, I just want something there that looks pretty and requires little effort and money. I want the moon on a stick.

I'd quite like something interesting in the area where the ceiling is at the highest but that's where the hall is L-shaped and turns to the door for the living room so maybe that's not the best idea, it has the potential to become very dark there. Something like this would be great, but I just don't think it would go and I'm not sure it would give off enough light.

 £75.00 from Next (Source)

I think this is going to require a lot more deliberating. In the mean time, here's a hint of what is going to happen on the walls... (I'm not even joking)

£15.00/roll from Next (Source)

I'm off to Pinterest for some lighting inspiration.