Creating a great entryway to your home is one of the most important places you can focus your attention when polishing up your home's interior design. The foyer welcomes not only your guests but, more importantly, your family and yourself on a daily basis. Walking into your own home and feeling warm and comfortable, maybe even, dare I say it, a little extra happy, is a wonderful thing. It’s a gift to yourself and one that is both simple and rewarding. It’s completely conceivable that you could have breakfast, spend an hour or two dreaming and planning, a bit of time gathering what you need, and have the entry completely transformed by lunch.

The key to a great entry is two-pronged: the first element to master is function;

the second is creating a great feeling.

Function:

Wrangle the things that normally pile up. Be honest with yourself about what your entry normally looks like with the plan that later everything will find its place. (Thank you Mary Poppins for that bit of wisdom.) You could make use of a closet organizer, hooks, baskets, bowls, trays, or a table or wall shelf. Try to imagine the flow of the ‘stuff’ that comes in and where you could put it that is both easy (since it's more likely to get used this way) and visually appealing (a space just feels better with less visual clutter, so tucking things into baskets and bowls or behind doors does help).

Feeling:

The second element is to think about how you want to feel when you walk through the door and to add elements that convey that feeling. Think about meaningful pieces that you own, things that remind you of a time or place or person, that might go well in the entry. Choose a color palette that makes you happy and add a few touches of that. You don’t need to paint the entry in its entirety – it should flow well into the rest of the house and shouldn’t be cut off with color to look smaller than it (normally) is, so keeping the walls the same color as the room next to it makes sense. Adding color or texture works well in little touches in an entry – small art, accessories, or a rug. If you are using pops of color, don't be afraid to go bold!