- Hey guys, welcome back. And today we're talking about entryways, which are one of my
favorite things to design. Now, why? Because after I've been. (laughing) Because after 30 years of
designing hotels and homes, the fun thing about entries is once you get the componentry together, it's eye candy all the way. (upbeat music) Just take a look at
some of these, you guys. Oh my God, they are just amazing. I adore this one with the pink
wall when you first walk in. That's fabulous. Or how about this? Oh, this one's in Paris
with that railless stair curving up around and over. Oh my God, that's amazing. And I adore this one with
the round wood based table. That's fantastic. Or this one, clearly an art collector, where he has just this sinuous little curve seat in the middle and then nothing but gallery walls, baby. That just taking it home. Oh my God. I just, they're also different. And I just adore every one
of them for their uniqueness and their incredible
sense of style statement. Okay, so now your home's entry is your guest's first impression. It's super important that it manages to
accomplish three things. It of course needs to welcome the visitor. It needs to function as an entryway, and there are some elements to that. And it needs to crush your style goals. So I'm gonna give you my seven rules for doing killer entries and they'll work regardless of what kind of space you have. But to know how to do a fabulous entry, we have to jump back into our
history book for a second. Now way back in the day, when
someone came to your home they were transitioning
from filthy streets and horse-drawn carriages
or tons of walking 'cause that's how everybody got around. And usually it was in inclement weather. Now the formal space of
the entry became that space where they transitioned from the outdoors and all those other kind of nasty elements to the intimacy of a
person's private home. So now we know why
entryways are so important. Here's my seven rules
that will help you create a fabulous one and make sure
you don't leave anything out. Super important. The number one rule when
you're designing your entryway is to never fight your architecture. And it doesn't really matter
what you're dealing with. Maybe you have a grand
staircase or a formal hall. Maybe it's just a simple
wall or even nothing. In the case of a lot of small spaces, you fall straight into the
room from the entry door. So you can include all the elements in any condition of an entryway. It's just a matter of
how you interpret them. So now, number two is to
always plan for a surface. And if you've got the room,
a little place to sit. It can be a stool or something like that. The reason the surface is so important is because the surface acts
as an anchor to the entryway. And what that means is it can be filled with anything or nothing. It can be a floral arrangement, plants, just a candle and a trinket tray. It kind of doesn't matter. The point is that, and this is going back
to our history lesson, it was often common for people to leave what they called
their calling card, which was simply a card
with their name on it. And it let you know if you were out that they had come by while you were gone. But what's fun about that is
that that's the origin story of what is now today's business card. And the thing I love about surfaces is that this is a major
style statement opportunity, and you don't want to miss it. Take a look at this beautiful, round, exquisitely simple table
with just a beautiful little kind of X folding table underneath it. That's fabulous and it does
everything it needs to do. Or you mean I need to double up and add some storage underneath, like they have on this picture
with the basket underneath. Or, oh my gosh, I love this one with just the simple little olive branch coming out of the top. Or, ooh, this one's sexy too. The table is pushed into
the corner of the entryway. And then there's a little stool with an orange top on the side. These are all fabulous solutions. They can work in small spaces, but they get the job done
of having that furniture anchor piece as the
front point of the entry. And also, those little
stools were sort of important because again, thinking back to the way entries used to function, people would arrive at your doorsteps with shoes that were filthy and they often needed
to transition from that into something else to
enter your home with. So the third rule is super important that actually has to do with shoes. It's flooring. Now flooring in an entryway is significant because people are transitioning from the outside to the inside. And so often you'll want either
super hard flooring choice. Or if you don't have a choice, you definitely want to
have some type of rug or matting or some kind of flooring that gives them the ability to transition from their street shoe bottom
to something that's okay to walk through the rest of your house. Now in many cultures, it actually allows you to use the stool that's in the other rule and
sit down, change your shoes or take your shoes off completely as you walk through the rest of the house. So flooring is a very important option. Another good tip to remind yourself of is don't always think about just of an area rug inside your entryway. You also want to consider having some type of rough weatherproof mat at the outside of your front entry door. That just kind of scrapes
the first layer of dirt off and can be very welcoming. I think this little one that
says hello is very cute. And don't forget guys,
flooring opportunities are a real style statement option here. So I love this one that's the jute rug next to the staircase. That's fantastic. Or the black and white stone. Now that's only if you have the ability to change out to hard flooring. But if you only have
the ability to do a rug, make sure that rug screams your style. So now my number four rule is that a guest should always be welcomed with great lighting. And that's super important because again, remember, they're
transitioning from outside whether it's night or day and they're coming into an inside space. And that space is foreign to them. So they need to make sure
that they have enough lighting so that they have good visual cues. Plus the fact that lighting is
another fun style statement. So go to town on it. Get a fabulous pendant or a chandelier. Oh my gosh, these are all amazing. I love this starburst one in this one. That's fantastic. Also make sure to layer your lighting. So add a pedestal lamp or
some type of tabletop lamp if you'd like. Consider something as an
accent perhaps if you want. But there's a lot of ways to
do lighting in an entryway that looks good. So make sure that you have multiple layers and that the space is well lit. Okay, so now my fifth element
that's super important. No, sorry. So my fifth rule is all about storage. And storage is super important because so often most of your visitors will be transitioning from outside and they'll have outerwear. So hats, coats, you name it. Muttens, mithens. (laughing) Mittens, muffs, all kinds of things. And you need to do something with that. If you don't have a built-in
coat closet or a butler, then you need to do
something with those things. So we need to think about storage options. And there's beautiful
things that you can get that are sort of quasi-units
that you can use, like this one from Renovation, or I think this one's from Pottery Barn, which is really great. It has hooks and all those
little storage drawers, which is fantastic. If you've got a little bit of a nook, you can build something in. Or if you just don't have anything, think about freestanding coat trees. Those are fantastic. Look at this one. That's amazing. Or hooks. I love good hooks when
they're placed the right way. Everything looks artistic on them. So it's lots of options and you just want to get
everything out of the way and up off the floor. Also, for some climates, and you guys know who you are in the UK, you want yourself a brawley
stand or an umbrella stand because people will be
coming in from outdoors, they'll have wet umbrellas and you don't want that going on your rug or your wood floors. You want that to go into
something that contains that water until you can deal with it later. So I love this little sweet little one that's kind of hexagonal shaped. And then I love this sassy little one that's in some apartment in New York. That's also great as well. And then it's always nice to have a little bit of extra storage. So for instance, in this console table, they've thrown a couple of extra big baskets underneath there. So if people have some mittens and some random flotsam and jetsam, you can just throw it all in there. So now the number six
rule is to always consider having an eye-level
mirror in your entryway. Now, there's all kinds of elements around the feng shui of
a mirror at an entry, which is all good. But I have a far more pedantic reason which is that when guests
transition from outside to inside, often, I know I do, I want
to double check to make sure that I'm not looking a
little too disheveled or sporting hat hair.
(woman screaming) That's never fun. And it gives me an opportunity to kind of like double check on things. So another opportunity for
a huge style statement. I love this one that has
like an assembly of mirrors, which is really beautiful. Or I love this one that's
done on the end of the hallway and it's a full length so
you can check your shoes. And just remember to
think about the idea that it's a style statement so you can play with it
and really make it amazing. Mirrors are also helpful in
reflecting nature from outdoors if you have fixed sidelights
or a glass front door, and that also helps to bring
some of the greenery in and create a nice transition. But most importantly, you need
to remember about a mirror, now, what is it? Repeat after me. It's a major style statement. So you can go to town on one. So now my seventh rule
is a super important one because it's kind of subtle
and it's all about nature. Now, whether it's dried,
fresh, a living plant, fresh cut flowers, it
really doesn't matter. But remember, on a subconscious level, we're moving from the
outside where nature is to the inside where a
lot of times it isn't. So this eases that transition
and gives you the opportunity to really kind of make a lovely statement. In hotels, we always
did massive cut flowers and arranged them weekly. That can get a little expensive but there's a lot of different options you can take a look at. I love this little fig tree
in a corner by the staircase. That's fantastic. Or this fabulous round table with I don't know what happening in lemons and oh, that's fantastic. Or there's something as simple as just these little cherry blossom
twigs that are great. So there's a lot of different options. This one's even fun, the little cactus. That's a cute little fun statement too. But it brings the nature in, and it works on a subconscious level to help the transition of the guest. Now, because entries have
so many components to them, there's a lot of
different choices to make. So I've linked to a few down below, but if you want my full list, which I've divided out
by style for you guys, you want to make sure
you go to my email list at lisaholt.com. Get on that. And I'll be sending that
out in a couple of weeks. Oh, that's really gonna help you guys out with a ton of different options. Now, guys, the next thing you
want to do before you leave is you want to go over here
to my newest mistakes video. This one will really help you out in terms of making any mistakes. Be sure and like and subscribe. You can click right
here to go to the video and I'll see you guys next week. (upbeat music)
