Decorating in a small room can be quite the challenge. If you do too much, you’ll be labeled a packrat. If you do too little, your home will look barren. And narrow entryway decorating ideas can become even more complicated. While the goal is to get from Point A to Point B in your home, there’s nothing wrong with adding a little intrigue along the way. Here are seven interior design tips to make your hallway more interesting.

Let Your Photos and Wall Art Speak for You

It’s up to you whether you want your wall to be filled with do-it-yourself wall art, high-end art or celebrity art. With any of the three, this is your chance to show off your style the millisecond anyone enters. Everyone from your plumber to your best friend will step in the doorway and be able to see it on display. That doesn’t mean you have to clutter every inch of the wall with frames though. A few small pics or a couple of large wall art options will suffice.

Show Off Your Green Thumb

Not all plants require bright lights and windows. Some air plants will experience moisture depletion if left in the hot sun. Depending on how dim your hallway is, indirect light may be just fine. Choose hanging terrariums, round metal holders, wooden frame holders and plenty of other options to show off these plants. And since air plants don’t need soil, you don’t have to worry about dirt spilling on the walls, carpet or rugs after watering them. Of course you could always opt for plants that need soil to survive, but choose low-light plants in the event that the narrow hallway is on the darker side.

Create an Accent Wall

There are no rules about where your accent wall should be. While you’re brainstorming on narrow entryway decorating ideas with tangible items, consider the actual wall too. If you’re a painter, show off that one creation you’ve been waiting to display. If you’re not much of an artist but have eye-catching wallpaper, get to work with peel-and-stick wallpaper and upgrade that plain solid wall. Even if you just want to paint the wall one color that’s complementary to all the others, that’ll leave an impression too. Test a small patch to see if you like it before moving forward with the whole wall, especially considering you’ll have limited space to create this accent wall anyway.

Walk the Red (Or Any Other Color) Carpet

Feel like a celebrity every time you walk into your home. Invest in a hallway runner. It doesn’t have to be a red carpet. Make it gold, blue, green, checkered, polka dot, stars, flowers, dogs, cats or whatever else you enjoy. Just make sure the dimensions of the carpet are long and wide enough to cover the walkway neatly so it doesn’t become a tripping hazard. Additionally, having a rug straight down the hallway may be your answer to a mudroom and keep muddy boots or wet heels from staining your floors. While soft, light colors (ex. white, cream, light gray, pastels) lighten a hallway floor, they’ll also be a pain to clean if this is a regular walkway. Choose your color wisely.

Set Up Inviting Lighting

You don’t want to come home to an entryway that feels like the beginning of a horror film. Colors like black, pewter, maroon and other jewel tone color palette choices are sophisticated and sexy in larger rooms, but they’re drab in narrow hallways. If you’re not interested in repainting the walls or putting up lighter-colored wallpaper, consider the lighting itself. That one lonesome bulb in the hallway isn’t going to cut it. Invest in LED wall lights, a modern wall sconce set, motion wall lights or illuminated, full-length mirrors. You could even choose a set of small illuminated mirrors that double for wall decor.

Display Your Figurines on Floating Shelves

If you paint ceramics or collect figurines, your narrow hallway could be a good place to showcase all of them on floating shelves. However, be careful about the shelf size and the weight of the ceramics by your front door. This could backfire for two reasons. First, if you have stompers in your home, you won’t want your angel ceramic set to crash to the floor while they’re parading through in winter boots. Second, if your door’s closer doesn’t work correctly and slams shut (or you have a habit of slamming doors), expect a lot of ceramic glue in your future. However, if the floating shelves are far enough away from your doorway that they can withstand a bit of friction, fragile decor may work. Just make sure your guests can easily see them and won’t knock them down either.

Don’t Ignore Your Ceiling

Let’s say you’d rather keep your walls the color they are and the lighting as is. You know you can’t put much furniture or shelving along your narrow hallway. But have you ever looked up at that plain ceiling and wondered, “How cool would it be if I made this a talking point?” You can. Wallpaper doesn’t just go on walls from floor to the top plate. You can grab a ladder and create your own ceiling art.

All seven options above prove that “less is more” can sometimes be all you need in order to have a trendier look for  your narrow hallway decorating ideas. Don’t feel like you have to test out all seven options in your hallway. Remember, you still have the rest of the house to decorate too.