Hallways in A New House on a New Landscape

Every house has a hallway. Some have several. The hallway provides a place for rooms to open onto, rather than opening onto each other. The hallway gives privacy and can take it away, too. Hallways can be wide or narrow. Cluttered or free. In my mind I’m looking down the hallway of my childhood home, which actually has two looks.

Early childhood, the brick rambler house had a short hall way which extended from the kitchen, past the living room, dining room, basement door, my room, the bathroom, and ended just beyond the doorways of two bedrooms. At its end was a low bookshelf which encased a set of encyclopedias. Upon the wall hung a picture my mind does not readily identify anymore, but I can see the colors of it, even though I couldn’t tell you what in the hell it was. I think because the hallway had only one ceiling light, and seemed a bit shadowy at that end, it has muted the overall memory.

Teen years saw an addition to our little brick rambler of a house. With the addition of two siblings (boy, girl) there was a need for another bedroom, bathroom, and some other spaces to be discussed at another time. The hallway becomes the place which illustrates the expansion best. For post-renovation and add-on, what was a short hallway became a very long and seemingly endless hallway. From the kitchen door you could see far away down the hallway to the bedroom at the end of it.

When my father cut through the existing hallway, I realized behind that wall all those years was the closet to the master bedroom. Once past that space, the hallway opened out into a wide space on the left side that was an open office space for my Mother, who worked from home. The hall took a small left turn after that into a large family room, but also led straight into the new master bedroom.

That’s the thing about halls; they give you directions to go, or they can expand into open areas for storage or airy living space of their own. Wide hallways can boast shelving and furniture to line them with. I am more fond of uncluttered halls with a plethora of pictures. I find the hallway to the place to hang the photos which mark the passage of your life, and those within it.