Customize your home’s foyer so that it helps you stay organized, efficient, and keeps in aesthetic concord with the rest of your house.

After decades of increasingly large homes being built, we’ve begun to see a reverse: younger professionals, retirees, and even families are looking for the virtues of small homes. Small homes are sustainable, both environmentally and economically, and can be built virtually anywhere. This “small” trend is huge in the Washington, DC area, and with good reason. Small homes offer great locations and access to amenities but having a small home doesn’t mean you have to be shortchanged when it comes to functionality and comfort.

It can be hard to find space for everything you need, even if you pare down to the basic necessities. The key to making a small house a comfortable home is to maximize every bit of it for functionality and for comfort. This starts with the foyer.

When talking about a small home it might seem initially silly to even mention a foyer, which conjures up some kind of palatial, chandelier-strewn entrance leading to a grand staircase. But just because the name sounds fancy doesn’t mean it has to be huge. It’s simply the entryway. You can customize your home’s foyer so that it helps you stay organized, efficient, and keeps in aesthetic concord with the rest of your house.

The point of a small home isn’t to jam everything in and be cramped; it’s to be able to breathe and relax. That’s why these five foyer design ideas for small homes are designed to make the rest of your home work well. A custom-designed foyer takes into account your needs, wishes, and space, and makes everything work together.  

5 Efficient Foyer Design Ideas for Small Homes

At Closet America, we want to design your foyer for both functionality and looks, so that it sets a tone for the rest of your house. Your foyer should help you avoid clutter, create storage space, and welcome those who enter. You might not think it can be done in such a small space, but our small home design experience that allows us to serve homes in DC, Maryland, and Northern Virginia shows us it can be done.

Here are a few of our custom-designed features.

1. Custom Mudroom Furniture

It starts with what you can store. We take precise measurements of your space and consult with you on aesthetics in our free home visit. It’s important to understand what you need to store, why you need to store it, and how quickly you need to get at it. Most of the time, the foyer is for items you’re going to be using frequently. They need to be there, just about always.

But that doesn’t mean they should be strewn about. We design a storage solution that fits perfectly in your space and is stylish enough to be a conversation piece.

We know you have a lot of stuff. That’s why our custom mudroom furniture includes:

• Lockers (with or without doors). Stylish, fun, and sporty, these lockers are good for shoes and for any equipment you or your family needs.

• Slide-out chrome baskets. These are made of stainless steel and are guaranteed-durable. They tuck away neatly under a bench or the shelving units.

• Hooks. Chrome hooks can be at any height, for you or for the kids. Perfect for placing that raincoat on the way in or grabbing your bag on the way out.

We’ve done custom mudroom designs for so many of our regional neighbors. Your custom-designed foyer will not only fit your space but also your lifestyle.

2. Stylish Colors

Your foyer is the first impression of your home. Don’t think of it as just a utilitarian space; have fun with it. Make your foyer part of your home’s overall aesthetic by harmonizing its color scheme with the rest of the house. That doesn’t mean it has to be the same color. You can get creative in the foyer by adding a burst of patterns that reminds people that owners of small homes don’t have to skimp on character.

The best part is that your custom mudroom has the ability to feature different materials and finishing options, which means it can serve as a part of the overall look. We’ll work with your tastes instead of you having to force yourself to accept those storebought factory finishes.

3. Smaller Custom Components

One thing about a small foyer is that you don’t have a lot of room. You don’t really have space for a huge piece of furniture. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have amazing and stylish options that can be customized to fit your needs.

Some of our clients in the region have opted for a media center-style cabinet, which is often thinner and sleeker and designed to be flush against the wall. These aren’t as open as some of the mudroom design options but they have a lot of storage space, large, deep drawers, and adjustable shelving; which is important as your shoe choices change throughout the seasons.

A media center is meant to display, and if you want your foyer to be a place for pictures or art, a custom-designed media center can be the perfect solution. It will add instant taste and refinement to your foyer, especially with our exquisite woodwork designs.

4. Maximized Light

This isn’t always easy in a narrow room, but you want the space to be bright. Some tips include:

• Small windows over the door

• Mirrors to reflect and amplify natural light

• Smaller overhead lights that aren’t too overwhelming

• Soft lighting that mimics and enhances natural light

The best part is that our media center designs often come with the kind of soft light you need to accent your foyer in a natural and beautiful way.

5. Overhead Shelving for Seasonal Items

We know that seasons change rather rapidly here. Muggy summers are followed by brutal winters. Or, if you prefer, soccer season is followed by ice sports. It’s flip-flops or slush-proof boots. You’re always switching. In a small home, you might not have space for everything.

One trick that we can do is to install overhead shelving in your foyer. This is similar to our overhead shelving for garages. It helps you rotate out seasonal items, keeping what you don’t need out of the way but not out of reach.

We will work to make sure these overhead shelves are sightly, fit your space, and don’t distract from the rest of the foyer.

Your Small Home Needs a Custom Closet Company

A small home requires careful planning. After all, you probably moved there in order to simplify. If you’re tripping over things or pawing through overstuffed closets every time you want your nice boots, you aren’t exactly living up to your home’s true potential.

At Closet America, careful planning is what we do best. Our process is simple, personalized, and extremely effective. All you have to do is schedule your free design consultation and we’ll take it from there.