First impressions are a strange thing.

A good first impression counts for more and colours your experience.

This is also the case for homes, so a nice entrance hall is a wise investment. Grey slate floor tiles can turns a “wow” into a “WOW!” experience.

Architect Tommie Wilhelmsen has designed many modern entrance halls. He likes to use grey slate tiles, but only if they are a good fit.

– I often choose grey slate and natural stone tiles for projects where the site or building already has a lot of stone. Then it fits in naturally, contributing to a pleasing whole. So I rarely use it in isolation. The important aspect is to achieve cohesion, he says.

The area around the property also plays a role in determining whether Tommie Wilhelmsen uses grey tiles in the entrance hall.

– I always try to work with natural materials such as wood and stone. They give timeless and lasting colours. With a property that lies close to a rocky area, or in the mountains, grey tiles in the hallway will work really well, he says.

He focuses particularly on connecting outdoor and indoor areas by using the same material throughout. In this respect, it’s good to have a material that can withstand snow, frost, rain and wind.

– Wood has to be treated in a completely different way when used outdoors compared to indoors. Slate, on the other hand, is so maintenance-free and versatile that it can be laid in more or less the same way both places. This gives the property a nice cohesive feel, he explains.

Designer Halvor Bakke also praises grey tiles in the entrance hall.

– It’s great to use slate in areas with a lot of traffic. I also often continue slate into the bathroom and shower. It’s rugged and cool and it’s really fine to let the slate guide guests further into the cabin or house, he says.

Halvor Bakke points out that grey slate tiles are not just ordinary grey tiles. There are several shades of grey and each of them has its place. So whatever the look you want for your hallway or bathroom, slate can be the solution.

– I think it’s nice to use the slightly darker version in the mountains and in modern homes. It can also be used in the bathroom, if you want a slightly more exclusive spa feel, he says.

If you’re a pragmatist, there’s no reason to choose anything other than grey floor tiles. Natural stone has properties that make it resilient and hard-wearing.

– Slate is so maintenance-free that you can bring in water and gravel without damaging the surface, which is practical for an entrance hall. This also makes it particularly suitable for winter cabins, where ski boots can bring in a lot of snow.

Kristin Hansen-Øvre, an interior designer and owner of OJ! Design og interiør, explains that slate is just as suitable, whether you have a large or small hallway.

– The material is so versatile that you can easily use it for any size room. There are also a few tricks you can use to make a small hallway seem bigger. For example, the size of the tiles has an effect.

She also recommends that it’s best to have closed storage space for coats, etc. in the hallway, to give the floor materials a chance to shine.

– How you experience a room starts as soon as you come through the door. So it’s important that the first thing you meet isn’t piles of coats and shoes, and puddles of water. So, if you can, I recommend putting coat hooks and shoe racks somewhere else. This also gives guests the opportunity to admire the interior properly, she explains.

If you want to create the illusion that your hallway is larger than it seems, she recommends using one of the world’s oldest illusion effects: a mirror.

– Use mirrors, and preferably as large as possible. Besides checking that you look presentable before leaving your home or cabin, you can use mirrors to make rooms seem larger. They’re perfect for smaller hallways.