3 Interior Designers Transform The Same Foyer

[Narrator] These three interior designers

have been given a photograph of an empty foyer.

They have free reign to design it in any way they please.

My name is Mandy and when I design a foyer

I really like to think about my favorite elements

which are organic touches and vintage materials.

I'm Noz and when it comes

to designing an entryway or a foyer or a foyer

I love thinking about energy and big moments.

I'm Erick and when designing an entry space,

my style is to create something that feels like a warm hug

as soon as you're walking into this space.

[Narrator] No clients, no restrictions, just blank space.

So this original room is sad

and it just feels a little confused.

This little closet door here is a little stumpy

but then it has a really big forehead.

There's not much life to it.

The setting looks

like there might be something beautiful outside

'cause they see all the natural light trying to come in

but it's being blocked

by that giant door that's really not doing anything.

This is so cold.

The space feels like austere.

It doesn't feel friendly.

It like, it's kind of haunted.

Like is this haunted?

Like we're haunted, right?

With this door,

I'd like to essentially keep it the same size

but I wanna change out all of the materials

so we can keep the opening and just throw in a new door.

I'd like for it to be wood.

So something kind of like this

where it has a lot of texture to it, it feels rustic

it just kind of feels like you're bringing the outdoors in.

I think there's so much to work with here,

but it's not where it needs to be.

Things that I love about it.

These two sidelights are amazing.

Sidelights are basically non-moving windows

that go on either side of a threshold,

a threshold being a door,

and then this clerestory window over top,

that's so beautiful.

But other than that, this is kind of a boring pants, right?

Also, you've got fogged glass here, so you can't see anyone.

You can't figure out who's coming to your front door.

Is it an Amazon delivery

or a person who's gonna steal your packages?

I don't know.

We need to get glass in the door.

So for the entry door, I am thinking

of really figuring out a way to really let

that light come through

so that the space feels larger and bigger.

And you could also experience the outdoors

while you're sitting inside or walking past.

I believe maybe by introducing some glass,

maybe turning that into steel frame doors.

With the molding, I definitely wanna make sure

that the molding stays 'cause there's something very classic

and traditional about it.

But I think adding the steel frame doors

are gonna make it feel a little bit more contemporary.

I am gonna do just stationed glass panels on the side.

So the only two doors that will open

will be the French steel doors.

I'm really feeling like playing

with curvature and semi-circles and arches in this space.

I love the high ceilings, but it's too many lines.

It's too much rectangular energies.

What if we did an entire arched everything

for the front door?

So we've got an arch front door

but then we even have an arched set of windows around it.

I've personally never seen anybody do that before.

So we're gonna try it here.

I would like to do

kind of like a herringbone formation up here just

to add a little bit more visual interest.

This is a really small room

and I really love texture and layers.

So this kind of just adds

like a layered element to otherwise plain glass

and just kind of makes this whole small space feel artistic.

I recently worked

on a project where the whole theme was underwater

and I love the idea of imagining

like what if this room were also a part of that house?

Like what if it was like a mermaid

and she's opening a bed and breakfast

and this is the entryway?

I love the idea of the stained glass

almost feeling like the surface of dappled water

and the way that the pieces come together

feels almost the way that it looks when you're underwater

and looking up to the surface of the water

when daylight is shining through it.

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So it looks like there's some kind of like sad,

I'm just gonna keep saying sad,

a sad plaster finish on here.

That plaster is very beautiful, but this coloring

with the flooring doesn't really work well for me.

So I'd like to replace it with this warmer color.

This is a Portola paint, Roman Clay.

The color is Yosemite and just adding it to this wood,

you can see how it immediately like warms everything

up and makes it feel cozy.

So looking at the walls right now in the original room,

they just feel like there's no life in them.

So what I want to propose is doing a wallpaper

that has a beautiful landscape

that is gonna bring the outdoors indoor

so that when you're standing inside and looking out,

it almost feels like you're outside looking in.

If you wanted to take it to the next level

you could always commission an artist to come

do a beautiful mural

and really just bring that whole space to life.

The original space has a door to the left.

I don't know where it goes, but it's a real door.

We're gonna turn that into an arch doorway.

But I also like secrets.

You know like Victorian houses that are converted

into bed and breakfast.

A lot of them have all kinds

of different stairwells or secret doors.

I'm gonna add a symmetrical, extra faux door

on the right hand side of the entry just

so that it feels when you walk

in like there's more space than there really is.

It gives you the illusion that the house continues

but it's not real.

So this door is really interesting.

It's tall and it draws your eye up to the ceiling

but then once you get

to the ceiling there's nothing very interesting about it.

So I would love to do a coffered ceiling

and trim it out with wood

and then the wood will be the same texture as the door,

just to give you a little bit more visual interest

and also give you an opportunity

for a statement piece of lighting.

The ceiling is also very angular in the before space.

So what I wanna do is create coved ceiling lines up

at the top.

That way everything in the space is more curvy.

What is going on with the walls in this space?

I'm not sure.

It looks like somebody's DIY plaster job.

Oh gosh.

I work with this incredible decorative artist

in San Francisco named Caroline Lizarraga.

And one of the things that we've collaborated

on a couple of times is her resin drip.

It's so beautiful.

Basically she mixes literal solid gold into resin

and which resin is like a goopy, liquid plaster that sets

and we drip it down the wall, which is ridiculous.

It's like kind of ludicrous.

I love the idea of doing that in some kind of a gold.

For the flooring,

I wasn't a fan of the mahogany red wood that was there

and I love concrete floors

especially when they're polished.

There's something very earthy

and I love walking barefoot on concrete.

So for me, the foyer was a place where I really

wanted to bring that in so that when you're walking

into the space, you connect with it right away.

Concrete is a great, great material to use in foyers

because if you're in a place where it rains a lot

or it snows or it gets warm,

it really adapts to all climates.

So it's easy to clean.

If it's hot outside, usually they keep cool

so when you walk in, the space feels a little bit colder

so it really just adapts to any setting.

I'm not a big fan of these floors

because I feel like this wood tone doesn't really make sense

with the way that the rest

of the foyer is currently designed.

So to kind of tie in

with the new wood door that I'm going to install

in the door here and then the coffered ceiling up top,

I would love to do a nice wide plank white oak flooring

with a lot of texture on it so that when you walk

in it's immediately like wow, it's an artistic room.

As much as I love a wood floor,

I'm gonna be really honest with you,

this is a bed and breakfast.

This is a very high traffic entry where tons

of different people are coming in and out of this doorway.

So I don't think the hardwood would hold up

in a real bed and breakfast.

So let's get practical for a moment.

Stone floors is a very, very durable

and frankly really beautiful way to cover an entryway

and doing like what looks like in organic

almost like giant slab terrazzo stone floor

but it's actually deliberate cuts that exactly

replicate a bigger version of the stained glass.

And we're gonna mix Carrera marble

and we're gonna mix amazonite.

So this is my little fake miniature rug.

And again, with the idea of bringing the outside in

having this little element of green

we'll just kind of add to the coziness of the space.

That particular rug is from Empire collection

and I love that it's striped.

I love that it looks plush and cozy

but still like not a shag rug.

So I just wanna put a piece of furniture in here

that makes a lot of sense for what you would do here.

It's a place for you to be able to put a holiday display

at different times of year

or florals all year long or books or like a welcome note.

So I want there to be a table.

I am obsessed with this Wendell Castle table

and what I really like about this one is it's organic.

There's literally a hole in it, which is just kind of wild.

I don't know the shape of his table feels literally

like it could be a piece

of coral that came out of the ocean.

So in the original space, there isn't much furniture

and I wanted to keep that still very minimal, but just

with the right pieces that had intention behind them.

I being Mexican, I love antique benches that are sourced

from either old churches or monasteries

and I just find it very welcoming to be able to sit

and just either put your shoes on

or have a conversation before someone leaves the house.

So for the bench on the right,

it's for functional reasons.

So we are a no shoes house

so I just assume that everybody is a no shoes house.

So it's a place for people to come in

and put their shoes on or take them off.

And the bench itself, I reupholstered it

in this runner that is by Block Shop textiles

again with strong patterns and lines to kind of continue

with the idea of these lines

and patterns that are in the stained glass and in the rug.

And another reason why I want there to be a table

in the middle of the foyer

is once in a while I'm really about feng shui.

And that really comes

into play anytime there's an entryway or a foyer.

For me, one of the principles of feng shui when it comes

to entries is you don't want all your money leaving

the house.

You don't want the energy to just go straight

through the front door.

So you always want there to be something

that disrupts the flow of energy from where you are

inside the house and where you are outside the house.

On the opposite side of the space,

I wanted to introduce a table where you could have a bowl.

For me, the house is set somewhere

where there's either oranges or apples or something

like fruit trees that you can just constantly go out, pick,

bring back in.

And as your guests and family arrive

it's easy for them just to grab it and feel at home.

I think lighting your entryway is really important too.

I want there to be a lot of glowy, happy energy.

So I wanna add sconces on either side of the door.

It's just something that directs your eyes

but it's also very lovely and glowy.

I'm gonna pick these ones from HWE.

They're so beautiful.

I love the sort of soft pink glow.

It feels sort of

like a faded piece of coral or a seashell, like

it's an ocean color that is a beautiful warm tone contrast

to all of the aqua in the space.

So for the light fixture on the table, I wanted it to

be something that felt a little bit more art deco

just to juxtapose it off of that antique table

so that there was something old next to something new.

And just at night when you turn that on,

it's gonna create this beautiful ambient light

that when you're standing, coming

into the space from the outside in,

it's gonna create this beautiful soft glow

that is just really gonna make the space feel

like you want to go in there right away and explore.

So the chandelier is a beautiful kind

of like arts and craft style chandelier.

And I really wanted to highlight the detail

that I added in the ceiling.

And I feel like this light, because it illuminates upwards

that's a beautiful way to do that subtly.

And the materials on it are kind of like an antique brass

but also like a patinad greenish tone.

And all of these things kind

of tie into this organic, earthy color palette.

So for the lighting across, I wanted to add

arm sconces that fell a little bit more farm style

but they are contemporary, they're new.

So it's a nice balance

with the other light fixture

that feels a little bit more art deco with the sconces

they feel a little bit newer and the shape really plays nice

with the linear lines of the door.

I also offset them from the bench

because I think right away you would expect them

to be right over the bench with the art piece under.

But by offsetting the whole thing,

it adds another element of curiosity.

The center life fixture.

This piece, it's from The Paradise Collection

by Lindsey Adelman.

I have absolutely loved this piece for so long

and it actually literally is one of the things

that inspired me to think about

an underwater mermaid fantasia, it's ocean glass,

done a million different ways

across lots of different translucent colors

with beautiful chains that could feel almost like moss

or algae growing on top of them.

The draping off of this is what inspired me

to think about the resin drips on the wall,

which I think are really cool.

So there's just lots of gold dripping, draping luxury.

For the walls,

I've decided to do kind of a gallery wall style

hanging system and I wanna do a big mirror

in the foreground here and then a smaller mirror over here.

And then on the opposite sides

of the mirrors I'll hang images of the outdoors.

And that way, when you walk in all

of the reflections of all the artwork as well

as the view outside will kind of make you feel

like you're enveloped in an outdoor area.

I am gonna put a mirror over the table so that again

it catches some light and it makes the space feel bigger.

But there's also something nice

that when you're right about to leave the house,

it's a final little check

of just how you're feeling, how you're looking

and then you can really step out

into the world feeling confident.

Obviously people love having a mirror by the front door

'cause it lets you kinda like check yourself

before you exit and go into the world.

But what if you just made that a whole collection?

And that allows me to sort of play

with a mix of vintage pieces, antique mirrors.

So as always, I've added a tree right here

and it just brings the outside in, it cozies

up that little tiny room, it's already gonna be dead space

because we have a bench right here.

So by putting this in,

it's just a way to give a cozier element

and making use of a space that would otherwise be empty.

So for the art right under the sconces

I wanna source something that's gonna feel

like it's playful.

So adding a landscape next

to a landscape just makes it a little cheeky and fun.

And it continues with the theme

of bringing the outdoors indoor.

This is probably the wildest

most ludicrous space I've ever designed

and I'm really excited about it.

But as a bed and breakfast

like as a space where it's about being transported,

it's about having a new experience

when you're on holiday, I think would be so much fun.

I absolutely love the foyer.

I think it's so cool and inviting

and it's all the elements that I love from the character

to the old and new and just very durable and approachable.

So this room is, it started out quite sad

and now it feels kind of stately

and warm and sophisticated while still being,

you could imagine a family living here

and for it to not feel too museum-ish.

Wow. Oh my gosh.

Oh my gosh.

These are so different.

A lot.

Wait, this is amazing

because yours is actually like everyone's

where did you even think that this was gonna be?

Because I envisioned this as like a mermaid

like bed and breakfast because I don't know.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Because that's the first off, they came to you.

Yeah, no, but so where are yours?

Like what are yours meant to be?

Mine was set somewhere in the countryside.

[Noz] Amazing.

It could be in Spain, it could be in Mexico.

[Noz] It's just beautiful.

[Erick] Thinking somewhere where I could see a lot of-

Yeah. Orchards or-

[Noz] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Erick] Like some beautiful apple trees

and just a vacation home.

Amazing and then what about yours, Mandy?

Like, where did you envision this?

[Mandy] A cabin in the woods.

Nice. Oh yes.

[Noz] Amazing.

[Erick] A very chic cabin.

[Mandy] Yeah.

[Noz] Yes, naturally.

[Mandy] Yeah, I wanted to bring more wood, more glass.

I mean I think we all kind of felt that way.

We wanted to like dress up the glass a little bit.

I love that we all, yeah and we all did it differently.

And then the paint dripping.

The dripping resin thing is something that I do

with a decorative artist friend of mine in San Francisco.

She's the one who created it.

She's such a freaking brilliant artist.

But I thought if we did it on a cove ceiling,

'cause we've only ever done it

when there was a straight line

for the drips to come down there.

No, I love the curves.

You could like push the resin up into the cove

and then cover it all in gold and then...

[Mandy] I love it.

It just sort of looks like gold,

like sweating down a humid wall.

I don't know.

I love it.

It's so pretty. I love gold sweat.

I know, I want that.

What was kind of the vision for your glass?

Living in LA we're so influenced by Frank Lloyd, right?

[Erick] Yeah.

So it's just kind of a nod to that.

Amazing.

And I just like the lines, the shapes that it creates.

[Erick] And you changed the ceiling, which I love.

[Noz] 100%.

Yeah, I think we all did that in different ways, right?

Like I raised my ceiling.

I opened up the wall.

Yeah, both of you took the window.

Like you took like the the clerestory way up the wall

which is so good.

Wait, who makes this bench?

I need it.

I just wanted to source some old antique Mexican bench.

[Mandy] Amazing.

Send me the link.

Again, I always try to put like my heritage and stuff, so.

Noz and I going mad over it.

I was like, where do I find one?

So I sent it in and I found this one that I love.

Amazing, I love it.

And again, it just had a lot

of patina and age to it.

[Mandy] Yeah.

So I wanted you to walk into the space

and already feel like it was cozy and warm and lived in.

It has that feeling.

Yeah.

It's so cozy.

Like I feel like your spaces make me feel

like I should like go in and like relax.

Yeah.

[Mandy] There's great music playing immediately, you-

[Erick] It's an experience.

Grab an apple.

Yeah, that's why I put the apple.

Grab an apple. No, yeah,

I put it, that's funny that you brought

that because- Pour a glass of wine.

I put them there for that same reason.

Like I want people to walk in

and just grab an apple and feel like you're at home already.

And just.

It is that immediately.

Super, super inviting.

And like versus the original render.

I mean all of us went for it.

Yeah, we did.

I took my shoes off.

No, I love that.

I love that, I thought that.

So I was like, oh well this is like a bed and breakfast.

So people would theoretically-

You're right. Just go upstairs.

But I was like, yeah, I'm a resident.

I'm a shoes off household.

Are you guys shoes off?

I am. Yes and no.

I'm like, I don't force people to take 'em off

but then when I do it.

Yeah.

But then I'm like, follow my lead, follow my lead.

[laughing]

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