Here’s how to make a grand entrance
Tricks to create drama or tranquility for home’s best first impression
NEW YORK— Whether you have an expansive foyer, a narrow hall or just a small area around the front door, your entryway sets your home’s first impression for visitors.
Beyond that, it’s a high-traffic space that needs to withstand muddy boots, wet umbrellas and provide you with a place to stow gear. And that’s a tall order.
Here’s how to you make the most of your entryway:
Clear the clutter: “Entryways set a tone for the rest of the home,” said Aimee Lagos, who founded the wallpaper and home-goods company Hygge & West with Christiana Coop, a childhood friend.
“Having simple storage, such as a shelf for keys or cubbies for shoes, can help keep the chaos at bay.”
In Hygge & West Home: Design for a cosy Life, Lagos and Coop’s new book, a selection of interiors that embody Danish concept of “hygge” — or cosy — design. In the foyer of a Sebastopol, Calif., home a round mirror hangs above a simple, minimalist seating area. On the opposite wall is a row of hooks for coats and hats.
“The bench is beautiful and practical, providing a place to put on or take off shoes, or a landing spot for bags,” Coop said. Be bold: If you’re more of a maximalist, the entry is a space where you can “create drama,” by “using a few carefully selected elements,” designer Cheryl Eisen said.
One way is to cover the walls in a graphic paper — wallpaper “adds texture, depth, and it can make the rest of the elements feel more refined and expensive.”
For the risk-averse, designers advise starting small: Bold artwork or colourful accessories like mirrors and vases can create a sense of drama and are easily changed out if you decide you don’t like the look. Balance fun with function: “While you want your entryway to make a visual impact, functionality is also important,” said Anne Chessin, an interior designer based in New York City and Fairfield, Conn. “You need a place to put your keys, mail, coat and shoes.”
Her go-to entryway formula includes “a fun, dramatic light fixture, a mirror to check yourself before you leave, a console table to set your keys or mail on, and either fun, colourful art or wallpaper.” Spend money where it counts: Splurge on investment or statement pieces and save on the accessories, Chessin advised. For clients in a Tribeca triplex, she created a modern, industrial look by painting the entryway a cool, bright white, installing wide-plank wood floors and splurging on a $3,100 walnut console table. She saved on accessories like a captain’s mirror that she bought for $159 on Etsy and vases she found for as little as $13 apiece at Canvas Home. Camouflage the coat closet: An entry with multiple doors can be a challenge, especially in a small space, said Perry Sayles, a Manhattan designer whose pre-war apartment has an en- try vestibule with a coat closet, and a foyer with doors that open into the living room, kitchen and dining room.
Guests would often mistake the closet door for the entry door, and people invariably tried to exit via the closet,” said Sayles.
His solution: Removing the mouldings from the closet door and covering the entire space, including the closet door, in a hand-painted silk paper from Griffin & Wong.
“Now only the silver door handle indicates there is a closet there,” he said. Consider the architecture: For a narrow entry with no windows, CeCe Barfield Thompson, an interior designer in Manhattan, painted the entry door in Prussian Blue lacquer. “The door stands out at the end of the hallway and also creates a strong connection to the other rooms in the home,” she said.