The terraced house is as recognisable a part of the UK's architectural heritage as the stately home or the thatched cottage, but unlike those two rarer beasts, millions of us actually live in them. Though of course they vary in size, character and style depending whether your terrace was built by the Georgians, Victorians or Edwardians, the rough blueprint for the hall is more or less ubiquitous. And if you do happen to be one of the lucky folk who live in a house like this, no, it isn't just you. Decorating the entrance hall of a typical terraced house, in a way that feels interesting and imaginative, is tricky.

Firstly the hall is often one of the largest spaces in the interior. It is also the first part of your house you or anyone else encounters, and it really does set the tone for the rest of your scheme. Often dark and narrow, the entrance hall also has to be practical; a place to dump shoes and coats and keys. And finally it is the gateway to all the other rooms of your home and needs to feel harmonious with them.

'It is easy to forget that an entrance hall is a room,' says designer Rita Konig in her column on the subject. 'It often receives corridor status, but it is, in fact, an important space. As the place for arrivals and departures, it sets the tone for the rest of the house, so it needs to be welcoming.'

Rita's tips for hallway decoration

• The furniture here should be good. The hall table can be quite magnificent – just as it is in many of Robert Kime’s projects. The table also acts as a great landing station: parcels, handbags, keys or shopping can get dropped here on arrival. The space needs to be able to accommodate this traffic.
• It is also important to remember that what really decorates is stuff: pictures, objects, books, plants, lamps and rugs. These things are fun to accumulate over time and hard to find in a hurry. It is in entrance halls that you notice this. Because there is not a huge opportunity to use fabrics and upholstery, the furniture and all the stuff on it become all the more important.
  
• The walls are also an opportunity to be seized. Anywhere that you pass through fleetingly is somewhere you can be more exuberant or unexpected. John Fowler did a wonderful hall once, with old hexagonal stone floors and quite serious-looking antiques set against ‘Madras Violet’ wallpaper by Cole & Son (cole-and-son.com). Entrance halls are a great opportunity for a dramatic, large-scale wallpaper that draws you up the stairs.
• The hall is even better when it smells good. Potpourri from (Santa Maria Novella) can help with this if you do not have green-enough fingers or the time to fill baskets and bowls with bulbs.