7 Ways to Maximize a Small Entryway

"We designated an entrance simply by painting a small outlined square just inside the front door," designer David Kaihoi says of his tiny Manhattan one-bedroom apartment. The space becomes a functional spot with a coat and bag rack, plus room to stash boots.

It doesn't have to be just a place to hang up your coat and drop off your keys. A Lepere table and Tom Dixon chair create a mini office in the entry of Robert Passal's Miami apartment.

A bold graphic wallpaper will make an eye-catching first impression. Plus, if you don't have a closed-off foyer, it will delineate the spot from the rest of your home. Designer Ashley Whittaker used Osborne & Little's Maharani wallpaper for the entry in a Manhattan apartment: "Billy Baldwin said you should start with a dark space and work your way through the apartment, lightening rooms as you go."

Antiqued mirror, hand cut in an emerald shape and inlaid with brass, visually doubles the width of the entry of a 1,200-square-foot NYC apartment designed by Philip Gorrivan. The silver-leafed ceiling enhances the light of the space.

To give presence to a standard entry door and separate it from the kitchen, designer Kelly Giesen created a "foyer" in her Manhattan apartment by framing the door with closets and a transom all dressed up with mirrors and molding.

This wooden console and the Ocelot wallpaper by Farrow & Ball help transform the nook inside the front door into its own entryway in One Kings Lane's head stylist Andrew Stewart's 400-square-foot studio apartment.

A pop of bold color will certainly wake up a tiny entryway, like this bright yellow-painted door in a Chicago apartment designed by Richard Bories and James Shearron. "In small, modern apartments you have to create dramatic moments that offset the lack of detail — but don't hog the space," says Shearron. "Bold, graphic gestures like that look cool in small spaces."