Photography: Elise Scott / Styling: Bea + Co
When choosing furniture for and decorating interiors, one of the greatest secrets of interior designers is to set the right mood from the moment you and your guests enter your home. While your hallway has a job to do as the entrance to your home and a thoroughfare to the workings within, there’s no reason not to up the styling ante with an injection of colour and some well placed, on trend pieces. Creating an inviting entrance by learning how to style a hallway console table beautifully sets the scene for your personal style and create a functional surface to aid household organisation.
Let’s start with the basics.
Hallway console styling checklist
Keep it simple – don’t crowd the surface with too many objects
Stick to the theme – coastal, classic, country
Form follows function – add a marble or ceramic dish for keys, beautiful baskets for shoes, hats and to hide clutter
Hero an artwork – allow a bold artwork to take centre stage
Less is more – style minimal, low-lying beneath artworks and lamps
Work in triangles – form the base for a triangular arrangement with surface objects and artwork at the apex
Style from the top down – fabulous flowers or simple, striking leaves straight from the garden
Play with colour – make a statement with colour – whether or not you repeat it elsewhere in the home
Bring nature inside – a plant is the perfect addition to a console and breathes life into the space
Be bold with texture – use this space to add interest with different finishes and shapes
Change it up – don’t settle for just one arrangement of objects – rotate your favourites with the seasons
Drawers –make handy hidey holes
Upcycle a favourite – pare back pre-loved pieces to make them work for you
Add a chair – a single chair in a similar style to your console invites relaxation
27 hallway consoles to inspire
Monochrome moment
The proportions of this all-white hallway offer endless space for streamlined storage without compromising on style. The console is placed as a destination at the end of the hallway which, when approached from the right angle, is met with a full-length mirror to check one’s look before stepping out.
Wall-hung hallway shelf
When space is limited, elevate your hallway display with wall-hung custom shelving to act as a console to display a solo, knockout item without interrupting traffic flow. Picture rails make it easy to display an everchanging selection of artwork.
Statement striped hallway console table
Colour doesn’t have to be on the walls and architecture of a home to appreciate its heritage detail. When set against walls that are painted all white, the modern striped console sings against the strength of design in sweeping staircases, high ceilings and robust skirting boards.
The home is now transformed, with a taste of things to come in the entry where new oak herringbone floors (try Royal Oak Floors) and walls painted in the soft tone of Porter’s Paints Newport Blue elevates a table, chest and mirror from Dusty Luxe.
Photography:Dusty luxe
The owner of this renovated home named her homewares store Dusty Luxe after her own interior style, brought brilliantly to life from the moment you step inside, anchored by this classic timber console table.
Rich restoration
Fresh flooring and a lick of paint highlight tongue-and-groove wainscoting and heritage architecture in Josh and Jenna’s restored hallway. With enough determination, the original bones of a once-grand home can return to their former glory, as does the chest of drawers masquerading as a console.
In the light-filled hallway, all eyes are drawn to the evocative artwork, ‘Skate’ by Michael Rich, above a Grazia & Co ‘New York’ marble-topped console table.
Bold strokes
Herringbone detailing in the flooring is as much a feature as the bold artwork in this generous hallway. A marble-topped console hugs the wall beneath a striking painting that provides all the visual movement needed in such a thoroughfare.
Architectural wonder
With original floorboards in wonderful condition and vast ceilings framing bucolic garden views, this hallway keeps things simple in terms of styling with antique pieces that speak to the history of the home, including the mirrored hall stand.
Louise has filled her home with pieces that exhibit a sense of history, including a bench salvaged from an old church, and vintage poultry prints BED gifted from a close friend (find similar on Etsy). “A lot of pieces in my home are gifts or family pieces that have been handed down from my mum and grandma,” she says.
Farmhouse favourites
This modern farmhouse avoids tokens of country life and a jumble of collected pieces by carefully edited displays. Purposeful and sturdy, this truncated church pew serves as a mini mud room as the entrance – part console, part perch – with a place to store umbrellas tucked into the corner.
Coastal charisma
The muted tones of vases and vessels draw from the surrounding natural environment of this light-filled coastal home. Matching baskets beneath the bleached oak console hide the comings and goings of daily life, while neat drawers keeps tiny things in check.
Art deco elegance
Light floods into this renovated home via the restored stained glass doorway and new steel-framed French doors that lead to the new part of the home. A lean, yet striking console heroes unique objects and provides a surface for an ever-changing display of fresh blooms.
Blackbutt timber floorboards line the hallway overlooking the pool.
Views for days
The width of this hallway allows for handy hideaway storage in a console unit that’s deep enough for larger items such as sporting equipment and school bags. You’d never know what lies beneath the lush vignette of plants and favourite interiors books.
Reclaimed hallway table
Painted all-white, this simple upcycled vintage console disappears into the wall behind, whilst working double time in the decor stakes.
Coastal style hallway table
Textured baskets and carefully chosen objects celebrate the colours and objects found in the ocean. A dark timber console with hard-carved detailing forms the surface for a generous display, while a hint of a striped feature wall beyond is another nod to nautical style.
Modern hallway console
Sleek in form and confident in character, the refined, tapered legs of this console echo the chic lines of the statement light fitting above and seem to tiptoe atop the symmetry of the parquetry flooring. The minimalist styling gives the spae a sophisticated edge.
Moving a statement piece of art to a new spot in your home is an easy way to create a whole new look. (Photography: John Downs)
Art is essential
A colourful artwork hung above a unique stone-topped console completes the space and adds sophistication to the terrazzo flooring beneath.
Bench seat business
In the absence of a conventional console, a wall-hung grid frame forms a neat display, while a woven bench seat provides a waiting spot and hides clutter – ideal for big families.
Framed special moments hang in this hallway above a half-moon console that hugs the wall without shape corners. The pop of unexpected red from the chair elevates the otherwise monochrome palette.
Well-placed wall hooks
We love it when form and function meet and this wooden wall hook is just the thing above an antique timber chest that acts as a console. Keep hats, bags and coats off the floor while also letting them add colour to a white wall.
Fun features
Streamlined cabinetry with bursts of colour in hooks and accessories make a cheery welcome. Baskets lining a high shelf keep clutter out of sight but within easy reach. The playful tone is continued with fun wallpaper in understated monochrome.
More monochrome
A pared-back palette that speaks of style but continues the flow through the home with touches of timber. Artworks hung in tryptic above a narrow console lend and easy elegance. The lamp serves both as a gentle mood light on arrival and, with its glass base is visually weightless. Boots are handy to the front garden and incidentally stylish.
