Enhancing Your Home’s Foyer Space
Making a good first impression with your home is important; it can make you feel good about arriving home, paying the mortgage, and receiving guests. A good first impression can also enhance a home’s market value, which is beneficial to those who are planning to move in the near future.
Create Open Space in Your Home
A simple and focused way to create a good first impression is with a nice foyer. Smart design choices can make a narrow entry hall feel more akin to a foyer.
Removing Walls & Using Railings at Stairways
Here at Wentworth, we have had success with foyer remodeling by removing the wall at the side of an enclosed stairway leading to the basement. Doing this has many benefits. Frequently, an entry hall is only 3 feet wide, and taking out the wall adds 3 inches of width from the adjacent stair to the space—a 6-foot wide space feels more like a foyer than a hall. Opening up the wall:
- Gives the illusion that the home is larger because the stairway is continuous for two floors.
- Provides the potential for more architectural detail in the form of railings, moldings, or even wainscot.
- Allows for more decorating opportunities (homeowners frequently hang art on the wall that was formerly concealed at the basement stair)
Removing the wall at the side of a basement stair is a remodeling opportunity that can be utilized by many homeowners to enhance their homes, regardless of the shape, size, or style.
Two Stairways in One Location
Many homes were built with a stair going up to a second floor and beneath it, a stair going down to a basement. The basement level is often a finished living space and easily integrated with the main home. If the basement is still unfinished, the addition of a door at the bottom of the basement stair provides separation from the unfinished space. If necessary, we can install a new basement staircase of oak, which usually harmonizes with the home’s existing staircase. Even a cost-effective painted wood stairway will be attractive with a carpet runner leading down to the basement. Frequently, our carpenters replicate the old stair railings for the new, which makes the work look original to the home and allows for a seamless design.
Below are before and after pictures of a home where we removed the wall in the front hallway and installed railings to create an open basement stairway and more spacious entryway:
Before:
After:
Home Remodeling in Washington, DC
Whatever your home’s unique situation, the Wentworth team can find the design potential and work with the space you have. We have experience remodeling many older homes here in DC, Montgomery County, Maryland, and Northern Virginia—feel free to view pictures of home remodels we have completed in your area.
Contact our award-winning design-build team to get started on your project, and let us help you open up your home and create a spacious, welcoming foyer!
