Foyer

Q: The small entrance foyer (5 feet by 6 feet) to my apartment has a wall opposite the door and an opening to the living room on the right-hand side. How can I make this cramped space look interesting and inviting? I like traditional styling, and I hate clutter.A: Small foyers like yours do present a challenge, but they can actually be fun to decorate.Yes, it's important that a foyer be given an inviting appearance, since first impressions will obviously influence how guests perceive the rest of a home.

The fascinating thing about the Carroll County bilevel home of Corynne Courpas and her husband, Scott Markle, is its dual personality. From the street, their home looks exactly as it did in 1977. It is only at the front door that the home expands, with rooms growing on and out. This is no typical bilevel interior. "This is a split-foyer on steroids," Scott Markle says, greeting his visitor. "Come on up!" A sunroom, a great room with cathedral ceilings and a spacious master bedroom are some of the features that make the home unusual.

Q: Your suggestions for decorating entrance foyers are often interesting, though many of them seem to apply to spaces larger than my own. What should I do do with a foyer that is quite small, with a stairway directly in front of the entrance? Should I concentrate on making it look larger?A: Styling, in my opinion, is the most important element in an entrance foyer. It's essential to make a dramatic design statement at this introductory point in the home.Size really isn't a determining factor in the appearance of an entrance hall.

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Q: Although the foyer in my home is fairly large, it has lots of windows and openings to other rooms. Consequently, there's very little uninterrupted wall space. How can I furnish this area that is too big to be left bare? And do you have any other suggestions for how to design such a difficult space?A: I'd begin by choosing a piece of furniture that can be placed at an angle to some part of the wall. It can even straddle a window if the foyer's configuration doesn't allow any other placement.

Q: We want to brighten a rather nondescript but large weekend home without great expense or extensive alteration. One of the chief concerns is the sizable entrance foyer, which now has an ugly pine floor and staircase and a peach floral wall-covering. Do you have some suggestions for how to make this space more cheerful and still easy to maintain?A: I've chosen this photo, hoping it will provide you with some ideas. While the space may not be exactly like yours, the design principles followed here are probably applicable to your situation as well.

Q: Our new home has a large entrance foyer that probably needs more furniture than our budget can currently provide. But we still want to plan what will be needed to make the space look inviting. Can you suggest a design for a 14-by-16-foot entrance hall that has openings to other rooms on each of its walls?A: What a wonderful space you've got! It has all sorts of potential for being much more than a walk-through area.Entrance halls ought to be welcoming and attractive places that establish the mood for the rest of the home.

In design as well as in relationships, first impressions matter a lot. Despite the overused adage about not judging a book by its cover, our opinion of the whole is obviously influenced by the part we first encounter.This is certainly the case with the foyer, or entrance hall, where guests are greeted. It's important that this seemingly incidental space be well designed, since visitors' perception of an entire home is shaped by their response to what they see first.I have found that an anonymous-looking entrance hall is preferable to one in which a grand design statement has been attempted but unsuccessfully realized.

My small apartment has no foyer. Visitors enter directly into the living room. Is there some way I can create a more welcoming effect?The biggest problem I have with this kind of apartment design is that it provides no shielding for a conversation grouping. It's always awkward -- for earlier arrivals and for newcomers alike -- when there's no transition space between the doorway and the actual seating area.One possibility is simply to invent a foyer, or at least a reasonable facsimile. Depending on the location of the doorway, this can be achieved by placing a divider perpendicular to the entrance wall and to the side of the door itself.

I want to create a brighter and softer look in a foyer with a stained-wood floor and staircase. It's been suggested that I carpet the stairs, but I wonder whether you can offer a less expensive alternative. I'm willing to paint and to buy a small piece of furniture. Because such a space is typically small and filled with architectural elements, there are plenty of challenges to be met.Carpeting the staircase would introduce the color and pattern that your foyer lacks. But paint and a single piece of furniture can help, too. Heather Paper's book Decorating Ideas That Work, published by Taunton Press, shows one foyer idea.

I want to add a console table to my home's entrance foyer, both for functional reasons and to make a design statement in this small and nondescript space. There doesn't seem to be much available, however, apart from straight-legged tables made of brown wood. I realize that these boring sorts of tables could be jazzed up with a grouping of decorative objects, but I'm not much of a collector. Any suggestions? Since you want visual interest as well as functionality, a console alone may not be sufficient.

I want to create a brighter and softer look in a foyer with a stained-wood floor and staircase. It's been suggested that I carpet the stairs, but I wonder whether you can offer a less expensive alternative. I'm willing to paint and to buy a small piece of furniture. Because such a space is typically small and filled with architectural elements, there are plenty of challenges to be met.Carpeting the staircase would introduce the color and pattern that your foyer lacks. But paint and a single piece of furniture can help, too. Heather Paper's book Decorating Ideas That Work, published by Taunton Press, shows one foyer idea.

We recently purchased a 50-year-old home. Its interior architecture is traditional; the foyer includes crown moldings as well as a staircase with a wooden handrail and spindles. This seems to be a good place for a more modern design direction. Do you have some suggestions?Bold colors, unadorned surfaces and simple forms transform a traditional space into a more modern setting. And to illustrate these elements, I've chosen this photo of an entrance hall remodeled by Michael Graves.A designer as well as an architect, Mr. Graves has retained the American look of this foyer while avoiding standard decorative motifs.

After living in apartments and ranchers most of their lives, Robert Wilson and Christine Roppelt-Wilson wanted authentic, country atmosphere -- and they got it, right down to woodpecker pecks in the foyer's paneling.Their "classic farmhouse," which really was once part of a farm, sits on a half-acre in Carney, nestled behind giant maple trees, hedges and flowers that have been there as long as the 90-year-old home.Tall windows, gables and rich red tones add to the home's rural feel. Two outbuildings remain in the back yard.