AN ENTRYWAY should feel like an appetizer on your way to the main course,” said New York City interior designer Laura Krey, one of the many designers who wonder at the neglect this key room often endures.

“You must figure out how to define an area that will welcome you and your guests.”

Rugs, wallpaper and seats can delineate where walls don’t. We asked pros like Ms. Ayres for the irksome decorating gaffes they see most frequently, and for their seasoned advice on what to do instead.

1. The Family Dump

“Life happens—shoes, bags, jackets and umbrellas get tossed by the front door without a second thought,” said Amanda Khouri, co-founder of design firm Murray Khouri in Nashville. That includes the detritus that Covid has littered our lives with, such as masks and sanitizers. Kristen Peña, of San Francisco’s K Interiors, noted that while we must stay safe, “it’s important that your entry has a more-welcome, less-E.R. feel.”

Instead: Take stock of your habits and clutter and you’ll be able to designate a place for everything without sacrificing beauty, said Ms. Khouri. Are your ever-present water bottle and yoga mat adding visual noise? Tuck them in large fat-weave baskets placed beneath a console or a closed storage piece such as an antique sideboard. To corral Covid supplies, said Ms. Peña, add a good-looking lift-top box to the entry table. Another solution, care of New Orleans designer Maureen Stevens: Ikea’s Hemnes shoe cabinet, easily made more stylish by changing the hardware or adding color and pattern with a stencil or even wallpaper.

2. Fugly Rugs

One of the best ways to ruin the view of the beautiful room beyond your entry is “a huge, industrial-strength, waterproof doormat that would look more suitable on a loading dock,” said Carey Karlan, of Last Detail Interiors in Darien, Conn. Puny rugs don’t work either, said Samantha Gallacher, co-founder of IG Workshop in Miami Beach. They look like sloppy floor mats and don’t stay in place, she said.

Instead: “Large rugs in the entry make the space feel like it is designed and intended to welcome guests,” said Dallas interior designer Chad Dorsey. Ms. Gallacher suggests that the rug make a statement as well as introduce the design concept and colors reflected throughout the home. Ms. Karlan favors an Oriental rug. “The thick wool is very absorbent, they clean well, they don’t show dirt and they come in all styles, from contemporary to classic,” she said.

WINNING ENTRY In a foyer in the Pittsburgh suburbs, designer Betsy Wentz refused to play it safe. For the cabinets, she chose vivid Benjamin Moore paint colours that were then layered in lacquer by National Woodwork in Lawrence, Penn. PHOTO: CARMEL BRANTLEY

3. Puny Lights

Foyers with overly diminutive lights aggrieve Philadelphia designer Melinda Kelson O’Connor. “The entry is not the place for ambiguity or mystery. The space should make a statement.” Another hazard, New York-based Kati Curtis pointed out: inappropriately sized fixtures that get lost volumetrically in the space and create a basketball-court ambiance.

Instead: Opt for a striking chandelier and illuminate artwork with perimeter-wall lighting, Ms. O’Connor suggested. “Even a foyer with a low ceiling can have a large, beautiful flush-mount fixture.” Bigger is better, especially in a vaulted space. “Use a fixture that visually fills up the height, adds interest and makes your entry feel more welcoming and less lofty and intimidating,” Ms. Curtis advised.

4. Entryway as Afterthought

Given that it’s the first—and sometimes only—space guests see, it’s remarkable that the foyer is treated like the home’s neglected stepchild. “It is the place where brownies are dropped off and play dates are exchanged,” said Sewickley, Penn., designer Betsy Wentz. Still, homeowners frequently leave foyers sparse and undecorated, which feels lonely and off-putting, said Los Angeles designer Lindsay Pennington.

Instead: Ms. Pennington recommends hanging an impressive mirror to expand the space and choosing a chest over a console if you have room. “Drawers make life easier,” she said. Eilyn Jimnez, founder of Miami’s Sire Design, suggested including vintage pieces, found items and family heirlooms in a curated way. “These items are a great way to tell the story of your home.”

5. Overdoing the Wow

On the other hand, don’t mistake your foyer for a receiving room at the Vatican. It’s too much if you’ve added treatments to floors, walls and ceiling and crammed in bold lighting and furniture, said San Francisco designer Lindsay Anyon Brier. “The entry should be the opening paragraph of the home. It should begin to introduce the plot but not give everything away.”

Instead: One strong design idea can be enough, said Tal Schori, partner at Brooklyn’s GRT Architects. He welcomed both warmth and function into the 3-foot-by-5-foot entry of a narrow townhouse by hanging unique, muted ombré wallpaper, screwing in a glass sconce and installing three brass hooks. Ms. Brier likes to highlight a sole piece of art or a light fixture that is sculptural by day and becomes a glowing focal point in the evening. “Make it spectacular but in a less-is-more way,” said Ms. Brier.

ODD ARRIVALS

The funniest foyers designers have stepped into

“I walked into a foyer and noticed only the enormous, completely-out-of-scale lantern, hung way too low, and a complete lack of furniture to balance it. The embodiment of inhospitality, the room offered nowhere to drop your purse, your key or mail and certainly no spot to sit.” —Rebekah Zaveloff, co-founder and director of Kitchen Lab Interiors, Chicago

“Suffice it to say a dearly departed taxidermy dog is best left to a more private part of the residence.” —Fernando Wong, landscape and interior designer, Palm Beach, Fla.

“An entryway doubled as a laundry depot. It’s so awkward to see someone’s dirty underwear before shaking their hand, and it’s always a mistake to leave your undergarments by the front door.” —Isabel Ladd, designer, Lexington, Ky.

“I had a client who was obsessed with Star Wars. He had a curio cabinet full of Star Wars memorabilia, as well as a life-size cutout of Princess Leia, in his entryway.” —Mary Patton, designer, Houston

Reprinted by permission of The Wall Street Journal, Copyright 2021 Dow Jones & Company. Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Original date of publication: May 28, 2021.

Rooms inside a house are pretty straightforward: a dining room is used for dining, a bedroom for sleeping, a bathroom for bathing, and so on. How you approach designing your outdoor space is an entirely personal decision, but there are some basic rules to follow. Among them:

Focal point: Establishing a focal point is an essential part of smart design for an outdoor room. Focal points help guide the eye to a favorable part of the room and away from a less favorable area. They can also act as points of interest.

Vertical space: If your outdoor room has a wall or two, or even a suggested wall, take advantage of the space by using urns or vases with tall ornamental grasses or patio trees, climbing vines or espaliered shrubs. Also think about using hanging outdoor lights, chandeliers, wind chimes, pedestals, and raised planters.

Style or design: If you have no clue how to decorate, consider the architectural style of your house along with its proportions and the exterior materials that are used. Also, look at the house for patterns and details you can replicate in your outdoor room.

Mistake 1

Forgetting It’s Outdoors, Not Indoors

Some enthusiastic decorators get so carried away that they forget they are furnishing an outdoor room. Maybe you’ve seen someone’s patio that looks like they pushed the living room sofa, lounger, coffee table, and even fake plants outside. Or, they’ve relegated the old sofa from the den to the patio or backyard. Don’t even think about it.

It’s always good to reach for a seamless transition between your interior and exterior, but using the same furniture (or something very similar) is taking it too far.

Mistake 2

Too Much or Not Enough Furniture

You’re thrilled to finally have a designated outdoor room. Inside those three-or-so outdoor walls, you have amassed your favorite patio furniture—that Brown Jordan Tamiami set you scored from an estate sale last year, along with Grandma’s porch glider, your husband’s beloved couch from the deck of his former frat house, and the kids’ plastic dining set. No wonder it looks more like a patio furniture yard sale rather than a cohesive, carefully curated and arranged outdoor room.

Tying It All Together

The furniture pieces don’t have to match, but something should tie them together—materials, color, height, scale, era, etc. Too much of anything crammed into one space is probably not the look you’re after, nor is it functional or liveable. Select items from your collection that look good (alone and together with other pieces), are comfortable and will hold up outdoors.

If you’re starting from scratch, either buy new or used items in good shape that go together—again, through materials (wood, aluminum, sling) and design (shape, style, era, if old).

Minimalism and Nonexistent

In our cluttered worlds, many people prefer the KonMari method or the simplicity of minimalism. This can be lovely, just don’t forget to add a hint of personality, like adding a piece of pottery, a plant, maybe a pillow.

Then there are those who are either indecisive or procrastinate when it comes to furnishing any room, and leave it empty. This is space you could be enjoying. Do something!

Mistake 3

Under Accessorizing or No Decor

Picture this: you go to a store to purchase one of those comfortable deep-seating outdoor sets with two connecting sofas and matching ottomans. Maybe you buy a table or two with a frame that matches the set. This type of set is usually all tan, beige, taupe, fawn, off-white, or greige.

After coming home, you set it up in your outdoor room, take a few steps back, and wonder what’s missing.

Accessories. And by that, we mean outdoor accessories, not something you move from your living room to the outdoor room. Outdoor accessories should be waterproof and able to withstand the elements, although you will wisely bring them inside or under cover during the offseason or weather events, like tornadoes, hurricanes, storms, etc.

Outdoor decor and accessories include:

• Garden statues
• Pottery, containers, urns
• Wind chimes
• Hanging ornaments
• Outdoor wall art
• Pillows and cushions
• Candles
• Lighting fixtures

Of course, you can have an outdoor room with too many accessories, which becomes busy, excessive, confusing, and overstated.

Mistake 4

No Plants

In planning an outdoor room, you thought that you had included all of the components: a nice deep-seating set, a few occasional tables, and a container or two. Hmmm—what seems to be missing? How about the green stuff, as in potted plants, patio trees, a dish garden, or even a vase of cut roses from nearby bushes?

Plants can help soften an outdoor room. If chosen wisely, you can even add a sweet-smelling plumeria or gardenia into the mix, for a pleasant experience when light winds kick up the scent in the evening.

Mistake 5

Poor Furniture Arrangement

Think about seating arrangement and creating conversation areas when you design a patio or outdoor room. The settee or chairs should be close enough to carry on a conversation without shouting, leaving enough space to move around. Chairs should be gathered around a low table for drinks or plates.

If you line up patio furniture against the walls of your outdoor room—sort of a “firing squad” design approach that doesn’t always work indoors or out—you’ll have a nice big bare spot in the middle of the room. Which is great if you plan on using the space for dancing or a little after-dinner karaoke.

Mistake 6

Color Issues

Mistakes with color design occur when either too little color is used or the wrong colors are used together. Much of the outdoor furniture available comes with cushions in neutral tones, like white, tan, beige, or gray. Neutrals provide a subtle background for colorful pillows and accessories in a few well-chosen or favorite colors. It looks bland or incomplete if the set is left alone, with no accents—like it was pulled out of the box and then you got distracted.

On the other hand, using too much color can be a bit loud, but if they complement one another, the effect can be lively and vibrant.

Some suggestions:

• Primary colors: As a refresher, primary colors are red, blue and yellow. These can work outdoors by allowing one color to take a dominant role while the others are used more sparingly. For example, the same hue of blue is repeated throughout the outdoor room and surrounding landscape, followed by a smaller amount of yellow. Red is used as an occasional accent.
• Earth tones: This would include browns, tans, greys, etc. Punch it up a bit with a bright orange or royal blue pillow and pottery.
• Analogous: Three colors side-by-side on the color wheel, like yellow, yellow-orange and orange.
• Favorite colors: You know what these are. Hopefully, no mauve or dusty rose.
• Colors in the garden: Echo colors from the garden, like those purple irises, orange calendula, a blue similar to the pool water, or even green—there should be plenty of that.

Mistake 7

Proportion and Scale

Let’s take the space of your outdoor room—say it’s a 12 x 12-foot gazebo. Now gather all of the elements that go into that room—outdoor furniture, accessories, and plants—and fill it up. If you have, say, one tall bistro table with a couple of matching chairs and an 8-inch pot of calla lilies left over from Mother’s Day, your outdoor room might look kind of bare. Minimalism is nice, but neglected or not well-thought-out is another thing entirely.

Overcrowding

On the other end of the, umm, scale, let’s say you have an overabundance of patio furnishings, and you can’t wait to crowd them all into your new outdoor room. There might be no space to walk, not to mention everything looks like you’re holding a garage sale under a tent.

In a well-proportioned outdoor room, the space should be designed for your favorite activity. This might include dining, relaxing, or entertaining. How about an impromptu game of badminton? Good luck with that. Choose furniture that is attractive, functional, and that fits the space. Add accessories sparingly at first, with smaller objects placed in front of larger ones, whether they are potted plants, statuary or other types of garden decor.

Courtesy of www.thespruce.com

A striped couch can add a touch of whimsy, a cottage-style vibe, or a conservative air of business to a room, depending on the color and types of stripes on the fabric. If the couch is covered in bold colored stripes, keeping stripes to a minimum on the rest of the decor will keep the look from becoming overwhelming. Your selection of throw pillows, pillows, wall decor, and floor coverings, as well as the fabric or finish on other chairs, will determine whether the striped couch creates casual flair, an eclectic vibe, or is simply used as a splash of pattern in otherwise basic room decor.

by Kathy Adams

There’s a reason why so many masterful paintings and well-designed rooms are composed of neutrals, accented by a few spots of intense, fully saturated color. It’s a central principle of art and interior design: Bright colors appear more vivid when surrounded by neutral colors. Neutrals provide a unifying function for rooms, enhancing the beauty of bright accent pieces by drawing the eye toward luminous spots of vivid color. People are instinctively drawn to this ordered color scheme, finding it more soothing than rooms where colors with equal intensity compete for their attention.

By Anya Deason