The Three Kinds Of Entryways And How To Best Decorate Them

Entryways and similar spaces in any home are often a mixed bag. While some feature rambling foyers that open accommodatingly into other rooms, others are slender landing pads designated by a simple throw rug and maybe a standing coat rack. These spaces, however, can be important to house those things we use daily going in and out, as well as set the tone of a home as you greet visitors. While their size and particulars vary, there are three kinds of entryway that most homes possess. Whether you have a foyer, a mudroom, or a hallway, each requires their own treatment when it comes to augmenting them with furniture, storage, and decorative accents.

The suggestions below can help you identify which you have and how best to create a stylish room out of what can sometimes feel like a transitory space that lacks personality. They can also help you deal with clutter that tends to build there in the course of daily life, leading to a stylish point of entry no matter how large or small the space.

Whether it is larger or smaller, many homes have a formal front foyer, a room that your entrance opens into and connects with the rest of the home. This defined room is the first one that visitors encounter and serves as a transitional space between the outdoors and inside. Many foyers are centrally located, with door or arched openings off on either side of it to access living spaces like dining rooms and living rooms. Some foyers even feature stairwells or closets for storage.

The foyer, as a standalone room, is often decorated as such, with its own décor elements like artwork, rugs, and lighting. They often make the most of closed or semi-closed storage to help battle the clutter that can sometimes collect in entry spaces, including closets, cabinets, credenzas, and stylish racks. Foyers usually have some sort of landing surface, like a table or console that allows you to set things down as you go in and out, including a bowl or basket to hold things like keys, sunglasses, mail, leashes, and other items.

If you're lucky enough to have a distinct foyer in your home, treat it like a small room of its own, creating a place to introduce your home and set a tone for what's beyond. This can mean tying it in decoratively to other areas of the home and adding personality and warmth. This is also a place to take advantage of the benefits of a small room with fun architectural elements like frame molding, wainscoting, or paneling. Or, make a bold statement with a stunning wood or brick entryway accent wall or a bold wallpaper design.

Add personality and warmth to a boring foyer with elements like pretty (and washable!) rugs on the floor, plants, lamps, mirrors, artwork, or family photos. Larger foyers may even be able to accommodate a small seating area like a bench, settee, or pair of chairs. If you feel like it's a vastly underutilized space in your home, you can find ways to make it multi-functional, like adding a desk to use it as a workspace or lining the walls with shelving to create a small home library.

A mudroom is a far more utilitarian space that connects the indoors and the out. While the foyer is more about greeting visitors at the front end of the home, mud rooms are most often found to the back or side of houses and mostly used by its inhabitants as an entry and exit point. A mudroom can be a space like an enclosed back porch or a connecting room between the garage and the kitchen. Sometimes, mudrooms are combined with other functionalities like a laundry room, pantry, or back stairwell.

Mudrooms were a popular and necessary space in farmhouses or country homes, where inhabitants would have entered to prevent tracking mud and dirt through the home. Offering a place to remove outdoor clothing and shoes goes a long way toward keeping a home clean. It can also keep the clutter of everyday living out of the kitchen and other spaces beyond.

Mudrooms are usually more sparingly decorated, but that does not mean they cannot be outfitted with functional storage and beautiful accents. Tile, laminate, or other easy-to-clean flooring is a must, with washable rugs and mats that have a lot of durability. Storage should also be one of the top considerations, with hook racks, cubbies, shelves, and other places to store coats, shoes, bags, and other outdoor items neatly and compactly. You may also, depending on your outdoor storage, use this as a place to store things like outdoor tools, cleaning supplies, sports equipment, or other things that may be needed both indoors and out. Mudrooms can also house things for your pet like food/water dishes, litter boxes, and kennels. Some may include an extra sink for washing up.

Ways to make your very functional mudroom an enjoyable space include adding short term seating like a fun wooden bench or a counter-height surface with a stool for unpacking groceries, sorting laundry, or opening packages. A mudroom table setup, if you have the room, is great for messier crafts and play. You can also assign a mudroom a secondary function as a potting bench room, temporary greenhouse, or workshop. 

Hallway entryways are usually less of a dedicated room and more of a transitional space. They can include everything from an actual small enclosed hallway to a walled-off or partitioned area near the front door. Some smaller homes or apartments have entryways that possess no definition at all, with the door opening directly into the living or dining room. This can make things a bit more difficult to style, but there are still ways you can visually separate the space and use it to your advantage.

Since these spaces are often smaller and the wall space is limited, they usually have much more compact storage and furniture needs. They still, however, need to be functional in order to hold items like coats, bags, and shoes. Storage needs to be maximized for efficiency in a small space. A smaller space becomes cluttered much more easily than a large foyer or mudroom, so closed storage is usually a necessity to keep things controlled and out of sight from the door.

If you have a small hallway or undefined corridor as your entryway, how much you can add will be determined by space available. Wall-mounted racks, shelves, and other kinds of storage can be invaluable, as can pieces that offer dual roles, like a credenza that holds shoes or a bench that can store backpacks inside. Very small spaces may only be able to accommodate a hook rack, wall sconces, mirror, or a piece of artwork on the wall, but they can all add functional value and personality to the tiny space.

If your doorway opens directly into a larger room, there are some stylish ways to create a defined sense of an entry space even without one. Consider adding a room divider or partition to create privacy between spaces, like a bench or low console with an attached divider. Or, use a open bookshelf as a divider to create storage on either side. You can also create a wood slat accent wall divider, which can be a great element to give the zone a sense of definition, but will not block your line of sight or airflow.

If the entry is too tight for actual furnishings or dividers, adding a rug or a full length mirror along the wall near the door can help ground the space. Retractable valet hooks for clever coat storage can also be great for small space storage that doesn't take up extra room. You can also easily create some zone definition through the placement of your furniture, like using the back of a sofa or an angled chair as a divider.