Your entryway, as the first step into your home, should set the tone for the rest of the house. It gives your visitors the first impression and tells them about you and your personal style. In my home, the entryway encompasses two areas, from a small formal entrance with a view directly into the kitchen, to a second area in the hallway(the next wider spot which can accommodate a top-marble console table) heading to the living room. Though is an awkward, unconventional space, I embraced and worked with it. Most importantly, an entry needs to be functional, a place where you can dump the stuff in your hands but also stylish and memorable.
Dilemma: when opening the door, the first you see is into my kitchen. In order to create a visual distraction, I placed at the entrance of the kitchen two "servant" sculptures, which I'm seasonal decorating.
To give that sense of entrance, I added a very practical indoor-outdoor rug which stands up to dirt, since this is an area that gets a lot of traffic.
A coat closet which conceals our outer wear is on the left-hand side by the front door.
Adding a big mirror makes the space seem bigger and is very practical for checking on the outfit and make-up before heading out of the door.
When working with small spaces, every little piece of wall space should be used, without overloading it. On the small wall behind the door, I created a stylish but functional moment for hanging an umbrella or the shoe horn.
The tiny space made it impossible to have a console table, right at the entrance. So, I placed it in the next wider spot, in the hallway, right off the entry, leading to the living room. This transitional spot on the way to the living room was the perfect place to showcase a sleek console table and a statement bold painting.
The console is a perfect furniture piece to introduce not just functionality but also style. That servers as a perfect place for all those items you have in your hands when you enter and leave the house. I did focus on making the functional elements stylish, with beautiful organizational items like a small box, storing business and appointment cards, a basket for mail under the console table and a hand bowl for the keys, change and other small items. The red lamp injects a pop of colour and additional light and the vase with branches a bit of life. The gorgeous black and white stool is a place to seat and take off the shoes.
As you have seen, that's a lot I accomplished in a relatively small space, but it can be done and you can have it all, style and function.