Like a movie theater preview of coming attractions, the foyer is the first glimpse visitors have of your home. It’s the place where you build expectation, show off your personal style and, hopefully, wow your guests with the “feature presentation” that awaits.
All the more reason to lose that shopworn “welcome” mat and grapevine wreath hanging above a brass door knocker.
“We form our impression of people within the first few seconds of meeting them. It is the same with our homes. Our entryway should not be the neglected afterthought. It should be a fun teaser or glimpse of what is to come,” said Cynthia Stipe Merrick, president of Cynthia Leigh Designs in Alpharetta. “I think it’s the most neglected space in the house.”
Merrick did foyer overhauls for retiree Pat Stephens and her husband Harry, owner of Datamatx, at both a $2 million Reynolds Plantation home the couple bought to resell and at their Alpharetta home.
The challenge in the Reynolds Plantation home was the lack of any true foyer, Merrick said. Instead, the front door opens up into a dining room. Merrick used a long rug and a series of hanging light fixtures to demarcate the transitional space. “The rug and lighting pulled you into the room,” Pat Stephens said of the effectiveness of that directional design.
Creating a sense of transition in such open spaces is critical, said Merrick, especially since she is seeing more and more of these kinds of entryways, part of a growing trend toward open floor plans. In the Stephenses’ main Alpharetta home, Merrick compensated for a spacious foyer with a winding staircase by using oversize features including a substantial bench for seating and large wrought iron sconces.
“Normally I would look at those as being something outside, but they worked inside the house beautifully because it’s got high ceilings,” Pat Stephens said. “Everybody that’s ever been in my house loves it. They walk in the house, and it feels comfortable and elegant.”
When creating an entryway, Merrick likes to keep things spare and simple and avoid clutter.
If you are going to do a landing pad -- a piece of furniture for mail, keys and other household clutter -- “don’t make it look like someone crash-landed there,” she said with a laugh. You want to express your individuality, but not offer visitors a keyhole into your organizational chaos and frantic life.
Instead, emphasized Merrick, the entryway is a place to tell a different kind of story through a vignette highlighting your interest in art, or a yen for antiques.
In a foyer Merrick created for another Alpharetta couple, she mounted clocks on a stairway wall set to the time in Los Angeles, Vancouver and Atlanta, then stenciled the cities below where each of the homeowners’ children lives.
Allow your lifestyle to dictate the look of your foyer and avoid cliches, Merrick said. “A wreath is great, but does it really reflect your own style? Don't limit yourself to the traditional ‘welcome’ mat. There are many fabulous rugs out there -- it really doesn't need to say ‘welcome’ on it. I know that a round table in the entry feels safe and the hotels all do it in the lobby, but really, is that the best that we can come up with? Be creative.”
And do a little reconnaissance. Appraise the first view visitors will have of your home. “Try to look at your entryway and see what others are seeing when they first walk in,” Merrick advised.
Great first impressions
Interior designers and contractors offer their advice for adding impact to your foyer.
Rodolfo Castro, residential designer, Castro Design Studio
- If possible, open up a sightline from the entry to the back of the house, which also will make the house feel bigger.
- Add paneling or a great wallpaper to dress up a smaller foyer.
- Consider designing the foyer to be a bigger space that acts not only as an entryway, but as overflow space for entertaining such as a place where the kids' table is set up for Thanksgiving dinner.
Steve Prittie, contractor/owner, Hawthorn Inc. Design and Construction
- Especially in older homes from the '50s and '60s, the foyer space can feel constricted. One way to open the space up is through subtraction. "Lose the coat closet," Prittie advised.
- Replacing square 7-foot doorways with arched 8-foot doorways creates height, draws the eye in and opens up the space.
- Sidelights and a transom above the front door are a way to bring light into a too-dark foyer.
Mark Sunderland, interior designer, Mark Sunderland Interiors
- Your front door is the first impression your guests will get of your home. For that reason, Sunderland does only dressage red or black doors, and always in high gloss for maximum impact.
- Foyer "don'ts" include fake plants on stands and chairs with round tables covered in fabric, which Sunderland called too "cookie cutter."
- Sunderland likes chests with drawers for greater functionality, rather than the usual console in the foyer. He likes to place a silver tray for keys that references the trays kept in old Southern homes, for calling cards.
- If your space is limited, instead of furniture, use details such as a great hanging light fixture or judges paneling to add visual interest.
Cynthia Stipe Merrick, interior designer, Cynthia Leigh Designs
- Save the cubbies and the shoes for the family's back entrance, not your main foyer where you greet guests. If you live in a condo with just one entrance, stash unsightly items such as shoes and what Merrick euphemistically refers to as "stuff" in ottomans tucked under a long table.
- Use candles, music, light and texture such as a really great rug to engage all of your visitors' senses upon immediately entering your home.
- Light is a neglected feature of most foyers, Merrick said. Don't settle for the builder-grade fixtures in your home, but source something unique that reflects your own tastes.
Mark Williams, interior designer, Mark Williams Design Associates
- For a simple trick that yields big impact, Williams recommended painting the entire room, including trim and ceiling, a single saturated color. "Just make sure the color complements the next series of spaces that you move into after the foyer," Williams advised.
- Use a console to display a collection of objects in front of a piece of art. If you have a little more space, a larger console or foyer table can really look great with some very simple fresh floral that you can change every week.
