‘My hallway ties all the other rooms together’

A bold, punchy wallpaper featuring colours from adjacent rooms sets the tone for the rest of Gemma Cronnie’s contemporary new-build home

After seven years in their threebedroom Gateshead semi, Gemma and Andrew Cronnie moved house on a bit of a whim. ‘It was Christmas 2019 when Andrew suggested it,’ says Gemma, ‘and by the end of January we’d moved into a brandnew, four-bedroom detached house. I’d grown up in new-build homes and used to work for a developer, so I knew what to expect.’

Having shortlisted 35 house types across the region, the pair returned to the first Bellway estate they’d visited in Killingworth, Newcastle. ‘We’re party people so loved the layout, with its open-plan kitchen-diner and living area at the rear,’ says Gemma. ‘The house was already built so we part-exchanged and moved in within 20 days.’

THE PROJECT

Having decorated the front sitting room in orange, yellow and green, the kitchen-diner in greige and navy, and the downstairs toilet in pale blue, the hallway needed to provide unity between all of these spaces. ‘I wanted to bring those colours together without it looking garish,’ says Gemma. A friend who works for Lust Home suggested a bold, patterned wallpaper. ‘They had lots of fresh, modern designs – not just geometrics and palm leaves – so I thought I could do something really funky with the space,’ she says.

To gauge how their hallway would look, Gemma created a mock-up in Photoshop with their shortlist of three designs. ‘We loved the terrazzo effect, but it looked too busy and imposing on all the walls,’ she says. ‘So, we decided to only do the top half.’

WHAT WE DID

After installing a half-height dividing batten rail, Gemma found a greige paint in the same colour as her kitchen units. Inspired by strip panelling she’d seen on Instagram, Gemma made a backdrop for coat hooks from MDF and mounted it behind the front door. ‘I used the same wood from B&Q as the halfheight batten to give it the same language,’ she says. The hooks with coloured shapes

As the new-build house had already been fitted out by Bellway Homes, Gemma was unable to pick the flooring, but the neutral laminate is practical for the couple’s miniature schnauzers, Ellie and Tilly

As a starting point, Gemma ordered around 15 wallpaper samples before picking a terrazzo-effect design that pulls out colours from the adjoining rooms. ‘I wanted something bold that felt modern rather than chintzy,’ she says