Focal Points for Foyers

“You only have one chance to make a first impression.” This old adage not only applies to meeting new people, it applies to your home as well. Take a moment and think about the foyer of your home, is it simply a means to enter and exit or does it contain something that catches your eye?


Some foyers are rather simple and small, consisting of a narrow hallway that steers you toward the other rooms of the house and a set of stairs. Rather bland and boring but…It doesn’t have to be that way.

This is the purpose of a focal point.
Instead of seeing a narrow hallway with a door in front of you and stairs off to the left, and thinking ho hum, your eye is drawn to the focal point and your perspective has now been broadened. It is even better if whatever you choose to have as your focal point also has a story behind it…now you have a conversation piece.

Below is a picture of a focal point where I chose to ironically have an imitation of life, imitating art. Better yet, when guests comment about it, I get to share the humorous story of its origin.

There was a yard sale…my two youngest at the time were at that brief tender age of 5 and 7 when buying stuff with your own money was really cool. The next thing I know, there is a mighty struggling at the front door with this gargantuan circa 1970’s plaster wall art that weighs almost as much as the five year old!

It was my mother’s day gift they exclaimed proudly as they huffed and puffed.  I was deeply touched and horrified at the same time! I could not not display it; but figuring out how and where was a challenge my heart would not let me walk away from.

After deciding that the colors in the picture worked particularly well with the existing colors of the foyer I asked my husband, who is master of all things mechanical and manly, to hang the heavy piece for me. Once it had been sufficiently molly bolted into the studs I pilfered our "e-bay special" chess table from the living room to create a grounding effect for the heavy piece. The multicolored lindenwood inlays in the table plays off of the other colors in the art. The final touch shows my humorous taste for the ironic…imitation life imitating art…sprigs of silk plants in roughly the same configuration as the art.

Total cost…less than ten bucks...

Remembering that day every time I walk through my door…priceless.