The Detroit News. The foyer sets the tone of the home. With today's open floor plans, it seldom is set apart as a separate room. Gone is the big room that signaled the ostentation of the 1980s. Today's foyers are more practical, meaning that the square footage that used to be devoted to them is now in a larger living room or bedroom.
Flooring is important.
Travertine marble, limestone, slate, cantera and other natural materials are popular, particularly with borders or inlays done in complementary or contrasting textures and colors. The latest trend is to take the flooring tiles and extend them up pony walls, those partial walls often found in entryways. Buyers may want full columns, running from floor to ceiling, or short columns, connecting the ceiling and pony walls. The columns can be painted to look like marble. To give foyers even more presence, some builders are beginning them outside, in courtyards.