Every part of your home should standout according to its purpose. Your foyer is the welcoming room that sets the tone for the rest of your home.  If your foyer is dark and unwelcoming there are ways to bring in color and light. One of the effective ways to enhance this area is by adding colors to brighten it up. Here are ideas to make your dark foyer brighter.

Image via: Montgomery Roth Architecture & Interior Design

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Combine similar hues

This idea aims to have a bold impression in your foyer. For instance, consider having different shades of blue for your walls, furniture and accents. This will make a stunning foyer with a cool ambiance brought about by the shades of blue. You can also try other shades you like for your foyer.

Choose bold and bright colors

Vibrant colors bring a dazzling look in your foyer. This is an exciting way to enhance the looks of your foyer. You can have pink, green, yellow and orange for walls or corners. A patterned design can create a great effect in the interior. Well-designed pattern can also provide wonderful illusions like wider space and higher ceilings.

Image via: BlueStone Construction, LLC

Consider rustic colors

Having rustic colors gives you a vintage look at your foyer. Among the popular rustic colors are brown, mocha and black. You can also have silver, gold or platinum for this idea. The vintage looks of your foyer will definitely take your guests back in time.

Any of these ideas can truly make a difference in your foyer. Just think of the best colors that would perfectly fit your interior theme.

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The front entry is one of the vital areas at home. Not only that it is the first spot where visitors come to see but also serves as a storage counter. For instance, the front entry can cater your shoes, umbrellas, mails and other everyday essentials.

Since this area is used as storage, it is very important to properly organize everything. This way, you can maximize the space you have and at the same time make the area look pleasing. Organizing your front entry involves thorough planning and appropriate implementation.

Image via: Anice Hoachlander

Here are some effective ideas on how to organize your front entry:

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Deal with your paper trails

Make sure that you manage properly your mails, bills, notifications and other forms of paper trail. This can be done by having a paper tray on top of your furniture to handle the papers. You can also have the hang-on mail holder to save space. Avoid piling these papers and dispose them properly as soon as they are settled.

Consider under cabinet storage bins

These are storage bins that you can pull out is you need and hide if not. These bins can also become bench if needed. The multipurpose storage bins are used to cater newspapers, magazines and other items that can be placed in the storage bins. Make sure to sort out your items and stow away those that are unnecessary.

Image via: LDa Architecture & Interiors

Hang your items

This is a space saving idea that effectively organizes your essential items. There are items that need to be hanged like umbrella, billboard, boots and so many things you use every day. Hanging your items enable you to access and organize your items easily.

These are just a few of the things that you can do to organize your front entry. With these few steps, you can make a difference in your front entry and impress your guests.

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Your front entry at home provides the welcome scenery for guests.  When this area is attractive, pretty sure that you will have a great first impression. This should make your guests feel excited and look forward for more attractions in your home. It’s like a teaser for what they should expect in your home interior.

Image via: Island Architects

The best move to start the makeover of your front entry is to declutter the area. This will provide a pleasant view of the area. A neat front entry backdrop gives a relaxing ambiance to anyone who comes into your home.

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Here are some effective ideas on how to declutter your front entry easily:

Place paper organizers

Your front entry is often the receiving area for daily newspapers, utility bills, letters and other documents. With paper organizers, your front entry will be able to cater these papers nicely. You may use a portable file box as paper storage for easy transport from one place to another. This will make your front entry look beautiful and pleasing to the eyes.

Have a cup of keys

The accessibility of your keys in the front entry is essential. This should not affect in any way your front entry to look cluttered. You can organize your keys by placing them in artistic and presentable cup. The style of your cup or bowl should complement your design. It’s like having a multipurpose decorative item in your front entry.

Image via: Mackle Construction

Be selective with your photos

Too much of something is messy. Placing your photo frames and art pieces in your front entry is great. However, limit yourself to a decent number in conformity with your space. There’s no exact number for this but you will definitely see it if you are in a messy number.

Remember to let go of anything that is not necessary. Keeping it simple and less will make it more attractive and gorgeous.

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In my past month of working officially as a solopreneur I am baffled at how much discipline is needed to work from home.  Most would think I’m speaking of discipline to help you not go park your bottom on the couch and watch 4 hours of soap operas! No – I actually mean the complete opposite.. when to stop working! I find myself waking at 5:00am, working until 8:00am, taking my daughter to school, then working from 9am-3pm, picking up my daughter, and then writing from 4:00-12:00 midnight.. on most days. This is about 12 hours.. yep.. that is an average day if I’m lucky.. so I decided to look at one of my favorite sites – Zenhabits for advice.

Thank you Leo Babauta
You don’t need to do all of these things — pick just one, and try it. Then try another and see if it works. Experiment to find what works for you.

And enjoy the simple work life.

• Start early: Going into work early was one of my favorite tricks — it was quiet, before the phones and chatter and meetings started, and I could get a lot of work done in peace. By the time everyone else was getting started, I’d gotten two or three big tasks checked off.

• Limit your hours It’s ironic, because so many people work long hours and think they’re getting more done and being more productive. But they’re throwing brute hours at the problem. Instead, cut back on your hours and set a limit — say 6 or 7 hours a day — and get your most essential work done within that limit. If you know you’re only working 6 hours today, you’ll be sure to get the important tasks done first and waste less time. Limits force you to be effective.

• Make a short list Make a long list of all the tasks you need to do … then make a short list of 1-3 things you really want to get done. Choose so that, if you got only these tasks done, you’d be proud of what you did today. Start with the most important task, before checking email or reading online.

• Batch distractions: What are your common distractions? Perhaps things like email, reading blogs, Twitter or another social network? Set a time for these, preferably later in the day: say, from 3-4 p.m. Don’t do the distractions before then. By grouping them all into one time period, you allow yourself to do other work first, but still get in your distraction time. Another approach might be to do them for 10 minutes at the end of each hour — but stick to that 10-minute limit!
• Write shorter emails: If email takes up a lot of your day, the simple change of limiting yourself to 3-4 sentences per email will make a big difference. First, it’ll drastically shorten the time it takes to write or respond to emails. And second, it’ll shorten responses to your emails, which means you’ll spend less time reading email.
• Limit meetings: The fewer the better. Some top Google executives just do 5-minute meetings — anyone who attends these meetings had better be prepared, and concise. If you can get out of meetings and just get the notes, or find an alternative way to communicate, it could save you hours per week.
• Automate: The fewer repetitive and routine tasks you have to do, the more time you’ll free up for creating and important work. So automate wherever possible: have people fill things out electronically, or get info from your website instead of emailing or calling you, or use a service that automatically processes payments or ships your product, and so on.
• Eliminate paperwork: I used to deal with a lot of paperwork, and even then I knew it was a waste of my time. If businesses and organizations could have paperwork filled out electronically, it would save a lot of paper, copying, filing, and duplicate effort. Whenever possible, eliminate paperwork in favor of digital. This might be more of a long-term move.
• Clear your desk: This can be done in a few minutes. Clear everything off the top of your desk. Only put back a few essential items. Everything else should be: filed, given to the appropriate person, given a permanent spot in a drawer, or trashed/recycled. Make quick decisions and then get back to work.

• Get away: If you can get out of your office, you can find a peaceful spot where you can focus on important work. Find a spot where you can work, turn off the Internet and do your work, and then turn the Internet back on so you can email or upload it to the appropriate spot. Working from home is a good option here. The more you can do this (it might be once a week, or an hour a day, or half of every workday), the better.
• Take breathing break: Every 15-20 minutes, get up from your desk, and take a breathing break. It could be simply walking around the office, saying hi to someone, or even better, getting outside to get some fresh air. Walk around, get your blood circulating, perhaps massage your neck and shoulders if you feel tension. Do some push ups if you want to get fitter. When you get back to work, remind yourself what you want to be working on, and clear away all distractions.

• Practice a focus ritual: Every hour or two, do a refocus ritual. This only takes a minute or two. You might start it by closing down your browser and maybe other open applications, and maybe even take a walk for a couple of minutes to clear your head and get your blood circulating. Then return to your list of Most Important Tasks and figure out what you need to accomplish next. Before you check email again or go back online, work on that important task for as long as you can. Repeat this refocus ritual throughout the day, to bring yourself back. It’s also nice to take some nice deep breaths to focus yourself back on the present. More focus rituals.
• Schedule big blocks of creative time: Not everyone can do this, but when possible, put a big block of 3-4 hours in your schedule for creating or doing other important work. Make this time inviolate, and don’t allow meetings or other things to be scheduled during this time. Be ruthless about clearing distractions and doing the work you love during these blocks, taking breathing breaks as necessary. Rejoice in your creativity.

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