Hi Dave, what can be done, is put warm color LED downlights with 360 sensor on the ceiling, the sensor and warm white color will match with your decor and mostly any color theme you use. Let me know if you need any more info.

It is a location for a statue, a sculpture (example in HOUZZ on tall sculpture). Something inviting, something that does not arrest/block your step and movement but moves you on to the lounge room, however, it should arrest your eyes, give you a quick message, a note, while you are moving forward. (I am personally also inclined to place a tall mirror there to keep tabs on my walk and figure and shape while moving through life. Then you would come to this corner and look -at yourself!) That would require the bricks to go or leave them till you have the time and guts to get them removed. Until then they can act as a plinth, a platform for the artwork. (I would personally never sit in this corner. Indoor plants may attract and be home to all kinds of critters.) spmm says further up: "it would be good to have something that LIFTS the eye". That is a great point! (Houzz) image from the link above.

providing the underlying structure of the floor is suitable you can run the floor boards in the any way you want and widthways boards in the hallway should make the space feel more spacious as it flows the same from inside to out and the herringbone floor would seem a little fussy unless it's a formal front entry

Thanks, anzella. I’m pretty rapt with the outcome so far. I’ve only just done it. I still have to pretty it up with a few ornaments, fill and paint some gaps etc, but it’s getting there! I got so keen to see a glimpse of the end result I skipped a few bits! The big advantage is the faux wainscoting makes the whole hallway look decorated, as opposed to just one wall, or one little area. And a friend said it definitely makes the hall appear wider as well. (I was concerned it would close it in). The job really didn’t take that long, so don’t be too put off. I spent more time measuring and re-measuring and recalculating and triple checking the size of the wainscoting frames and the gaps than anything else. The trick is to make sure the gaps between the panels are all the same. Check out some how to’s on YouTube. I opted for quite wide (630mm) frames with a 270mm gap. This gives the illusion of more space; well, compared to the examples that have smaller frames and are only 100mm apart. I thought they looked a bit too ‘busy’. I was nervous about using the saw, but it turned out to be very easy. I still have all my digits! Liquid nails and a spirit level took care of the rest. I’d never worked with timber before, so if I can - you can too! I prepainted the timber before it was cut, and pre-assembled the frames prior to gluing them to the wall. And it wasn’t an expensive project either. Even the extras were cheapies. The narrow hall table is a Hayman from Fantastic Furniture $89, Target pot $39, Target rattan circle $20, Kmart hat rail $11 + about $15 for a couple of hats to throw on it. I‘ve seen a similar effect done without the timber chair rail or wainscoting - just with two paint colours. If that appeals to you, it‘s less work! Tbh, doesn’t have quite the same ‘wow’, but it’s nice n simple and it can work just fine. It still has the valuable effect of making the whole area look decorated/balanced. Maybe combine that (or go the faux wainscoting) with the great print layout in your pic. I’m sure it’d look great! And like I said, if I can do it, you can too! :-) Sing out if you’re thinking about doing anything similar and have any more Q’s. Wanna see something really scary? Check out what the hallway looked like before the floorboards and skylight! Big diff. Huge!