How to Change Up an Entryway

You may have heard the saying everything's bigger in Texas. Having lived here twenty+ years, for the most part, I'd agree. When I first moved here, one of our favorite things to do was to drive around and look at real estate and the different architectural styles. I had never seen so many homes in such different neighborhoods built on such a grand scale. {Spoiler alert...I'm planning to bring back a series from my old blog called "House in the 'hood" -stay tuned for that soon.} As you might imagine, these Texas sized homes are blessed with very large entryways. While it allows so much room for welcoming guests, shuffling kids (and all their "stuff") in and out to school and extracurricular activities, honestly it can be a conundrum as to how to best use the space.

You might remember the dining room centered around art that we featured a few weeks back. Well, we are back in the same project today in the adjoining entryway to point out how to elevate an often forgotten or confusing space to style!

Design & Styling by Nancy Lane Interiors | Photos by French Blue Photography

As you can see from the before picture below, this entry felt dark and heavy and just not functional according to my client.

Before

I agreed with her on the heaviness of this before space- the dark stained console on top of the deeply saturated rug definitely contributed to that feeling.

Just as we considered existing artwork and furniture in the dining room, we made sure to repurpose what we could in the entryway as well. We moved the console upstairs to replace a long table that had no storage. We replaced the artwork next to the coat closet with the mirror that used to be above the rounded console to reflect the gorgeous light streaming into the dining room windows and right into the entryway.

Now onto the changes we DID make! The mismatched rugs before the redesign broke the entryway up unnecessarily. Due to the size and length of the entryway, we used two custom geometric rugs in the same sisal with cotton texture, both for continuity and lightness in the space. Plus, that texture is great for catching dirt on kids shoes and sports equipment before it gets tracked into the home. Customizing the size ensured that we wouldn't have any furniture legs awkwardly set on the rugs, and they clearly delineated each space through the entryway into the main rooms.

Because this area was also directly next to the dining room we redesigned, we also focused on bringing the caramel and deeper blue tones into the entryway as well to complement that space.

The biggest takeaway for the client here was how important scale can be. Remember the rounded console that took up about half the wall? By switching to this 9 foot storage console one might think would be too big for this entryway, we actually made the space feel just right! We also love the geometric tie-in of the rug pattern on the face of the console.

As an added bonus, this piece serves up big in functionality, giving my client storage outside of her coat closet for all of her various holiday decor that is usually set up in the entryway! She even has a gift wrap station hiding in there - how smart is that?! She can quickly grab a bag or wrap a quick gift just before she heads out or welcomes guests - I definitely need that in my house too.

A lot of time, thought, effort, and planning goes into our full service furnishings and renovation projects. If you’re thinking of upgrading your home in the near future, trust us, now is the time to start. We would love to hear from you! Reach out through the contact form to set up a discovery call!

Not ready for full service but have a frustrating entryway or space in your home that has driven you crazy for ages? I'd love to help you solve your design dilemma with a Chit Chat Design Consultation. We offer a limited number of these one time consultations every month. Simply fill out our contact form and we'll be in touch soon!