- [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.
[upbeat music]
- 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]
[upbeat music]