Foyerless In A Designer World

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Ahh, we’re back.  Hot tea at the ready, mind focused on the question…Who (our imaginery problem owner), What (no foyer), Why (because house was built to make the most of the space footprint) Where (everywhere) and How-how multiple solutions will help our foyerless householder find out what will and won’t work.

As you recall, (you do recall-right?) we talked about the ‘life reality’ of our problemista versus the ‘dream’ she (or he) ENOUGH WITH THE PARENTHESES ALREADY! needs/wants.

The life reality says she won’t be entertaining couples very often if her hubby continues to work swing shifts, her heating bill can be cut a little if there is a buffer to the outdoors and her solitary comfort can be increased by more coziness for the living room where she often reads in the evening while he works.

Her dream for a gracious home and dinner parties can be turned into weekend brunches and occasional dinners, weeknight girlfriend events like wine tastings and pot lucks or invited guests to speak or present products which interest her and her friends.

In other words, she will more likely than not be more comfortable keeping it casual-since they both work.  Having looked at and discerned what her real life is and likely will remain for some time, she is now free to assess a foyer design to best meet her needs.

I like to ask a lot of questions when I begin a job for a client- questions that tell me about their life, their family, habits, desires, background and preferences for indoor-outdoor activity, hobbies, guests, work and the function and dream they expect from their home.  This tells me the things I am asking you to ask yourself right now and the answers tell me where to go from here.

So, where do we go from here?  To the front door.  Come on, let’s do it!

For the sake of visualization unity, let’s imagine the front door opens to flatten against the left wall, which backs a bedroom and that the living room flows to the right with windows on the front wall spanning most of the room.  Straight ahead is the dining area in full view, though it is a separate room. To the far right in the living room, opposite the bedroom wall is a fireplace.  There is a small coat closet which is behind the front door when it is open.  Back to back doors-an ergonomic nightmare.

Since our homeowner likes the view from the front windows and enjoys the firelace on cool evenings, we’ll position comfortable chairs to the left and right of the fireplace and design our foyer from that aspect rather than from closing off the front dooor view to the dining room.  You might change this approach if the room stretched it’s length in front of you, but this ones length is to the right of the door.

My most desirable option would be to have wall space for at least three feet to the right of the frontdoor on the window wall.  That wall space can become the anchor for several options.

One option is to build what is called a pony wall.  A pony wall can be as tall as you’d like. but does not go to the ceiling.  It can be topped with a heavy molding to give it visual strength and will be attached to the permanent wall to the right of the front door.  It can be painted a dramatic color to set it apart from the rest of the room, creating a ‘room’ visually. If there is not much wall space to the right of the front door this can be the best option, provided it does not close in the space to caustrophobic conditions.  To avoid regretting your decision to build this wall, I suggest you bring a piece of furniture to the position the wall would be in and vary the height with books or other solid objects to see how it feels and looks.

A second option is to place narrow (8″ or less) bookcases back to back.  These are available at home stores everywhere and on line, too.  The height of both should be the same and they can be trialed by the approach above-placing apiece of furniture in the position to test the comfort level of the height.  This option in great for apartment dwellers too, no construction.  The shelves should be removable leaving you with the option of hanging a picture in the recessed space or placing art objects on varied shelves.  The side facing the door should NOT hold books.

A third option is a folding panel sceen, usually three or four panels wide.  This solution makes the most of a very narrow wall space to the right of the front door.  Available with empty spaces in the panels, these can be filled with fabric or lace for a more sheer effect.  This will take the least amount of space in the living room, a consideration for smaller room and an easy move for apartment dwellers.

An even more breezy solution is to suspend 2 fairly large pictures from the ceiling-back to back.  This works best with unframed canvasses-a fairly modern aproach.  The open area below the canvasses gives an open effect very desirable in houses and apartment with little or no moldings.

Then there is also the curtain appraoch.  Hang a nice curtain rod about 2″ from the ceiling and use either rod pocket or tab top curtains suspended to the floor-they MUST go to the floor to look good here.  This method allows for seasonal changes.  Velveteen in winter, sheer in summer.  You may have to make them yourself or special order them to get the length you need.  Measure floor to ceiling, twice, add 8″ for the hems and subtract the rod to ceiling measurement. One of the nicest features of this method is being able to draw back the curtains to the wall when you don’t want or need the foyer effect.  Drafts will be banished in winter and for extra zip you can hang a picture from the ceiling in front of the drape.

You may have even more ideas to implement after reading these, feel free to contribute.

Next, we’ll talk about the amenities a foyer can provide-besides privacy and how to achieve those.

• Posted in: Thinking Outside The Box
• Tagged: Dream, Foyer