The first room that anyone will see when visiting you is the hall, so make it as inviting and welcoming as possible. Choose warm color for the décor and make sure the lighting is sufficiently bright and yet warm to enable your visitors to see everything well. There is nothing worse than arriving at a home on a dark and stormy night, to walk into a murky, gloomy entrance hall. Equally, if you have a porch or standing area outside the front door, make sure that this is well lit, too. Lights with infra red sensor are especially useful here as you can leave them turned on when you go out so that on your return they immediately light your way home.
Sadly, all too often the hallway is merely a narrow passageway with the staircase leading from it and it can be very difficult to make sense of the space. If you have a hall like this, one option you may want to consider before doing anything else, is knocking it through to another room to create a living room hall, or even a dining room hall. Rooms are becoming increasingly multi functional and if you look at your space laterally like this, you can often bring to mind some excellent solutions for making the most of what you have.