big enough to make sense for your goals.
small enough that it makes sense when compared to surrounding spaces.

Davidro's answer is "100% accurate and totally useless." Reminds me of an old lawyer joke that I won't tell for fear of insulting my fellow attorneys. LOL!

Topman, how big is you house overall? How deep (long) will the foyer be? What is the ceiling height. Other then the dining room/study off to the right, what other rooms open off of the foyer? How fancy will your front door be? Will you have any windows in the foyer (sidelights around the door? a transom over the door? glass in the door itself?)

And, if you take some square footage from the dining room/study, will it still be large enough to accommodate a full sized table and at least 6 chairs?

I KNOW, I KNOW, after saying Davidro's answer wasn't helpful, I didn't answer you at all! Just asked a whole bunch of questions. "Just like a d----d lawyer" my DH would say. But before we can offer you any opinions, we really do need to know more.

That was wonderful, Buckhead!! Loved reading that! OP, I don't have a definite answer to your question, but intuitively I feel like that space needs to be in proportion to the overall dimensions of your home AND relate to the style of your home. A "cottage"-style house would have a very different foyer than a grand Georgian with a sweeping staircase.

Loved reading that and mine seems to match too - although it was just luck because we didn't put that much thought into it!

Some of it is defined by whether you will have a staircase in it or not. My current foyer is 7' wide with no staircase and leads into the family room. If there was a staircase, it would have to be quite a bit wider to make it not feel cramped. We will have less "floor space" in our new foyer because we do have a staircase in it (which I really wanted to be highlighted rather than tucked into a corner like our current one) but I think it will feel "large enough" because we have a large cased opening on one side opposite the staircase into the dining room. The door will open so the view is of the dining room and the larger cased opening.

It also depends I think on how the foyer is designed (a plan would help). If it is 5 feet wide with no sight line through the house, it might feel more cramped than if it was the same width but had an open feeling to surrounding rooms and the rear of the home.

Thanks for all the responses.

@Bevangel: here my answers to your questions.

The house will be about 4000 sq ft. The foyer is quite long indeed, about 12-13 feet leading into a kitchen then family room. The foyer actually opens to one side only and I can either use that area as a study room or a living room. It could be slightly smaller since we do have a formal family room and another small home office at the back.

Since my foyer is only open up to one side, I do want to make it a bit wider so that it creates a more formal/grand entry. The ceiling height will be 10 ft. We plan to use french front door (and if wide enough, may have sidelit as well). We also plan to possibly use some built in shelf on the wall since we have a long foyer or put a bench or something as decoration.

Will a 7 ft foyer (with french door) be too cramped with all the above with your experience?

If you have a 7' foyer you can have a door with sidelights - we do right now. I would definitely do the sidelights - I think it makes your entrance more grand than a single door. If your foyer is open to one side, be sure and have your door swing open so you can view the open side. How big is your study? Ours is 12 x 13 and has built in bookcases. That takes up about 15" so it could be smaller if it did not have those. It still feels like a cozy room and there is room for a sofa, coffee table, wing chair, side chair, and smaller side tables and it fits perfectly.

Glad y'all like that. I did, too.

Topman, since you mentioned shelves and a bench, it goes on...

"4. Shelf near the entrance

When a person is going into the house with a package:

(a) He tries to hold onto the package; he tries to keep it upright, and off the ground.

(b) At the same time he tries to get both hands free to hunt through pockets or handbag for a key.

And leaving the house with a package:

(c) At the moment of leaving people tend to be preoccupied with other things, and this makes them forget the package which they meant to take.

You can avoid these conflicts if there are shelves both inside and outside the door, at about waist height; a place to leave packages in readiness; a place to put them down while opening the door."

Definitely for a 4000 square foot house, I would expect a foyer that was wider than 5 ft! A 5ft wide "foyer" is what you find in 1800 sq ft homes.

And, if the foyer is 12 to 13 ft long and has 10 foot ceilings, anything less than about 7 ft wide would be totally out of proportion. Instead of a foyer, it would feel like you entered the house thru a hallway. I've seen that too and it is "grand" at all.

In your case, I'd probably to make the foyer about 8 to 9 ft wide. That's wide enough for a nice door with sidelites and, at 8x12, the overall room will be big enough that you can hang a nice chandelier...just not too big! Put a pretty hall table with some flowers along one one wall and hang some good artwork above the table and you'll be all set.

PS - in my current foyer I have a paneled door with sidelights, a 6 x 9 foot rug and a chest with a mirror above and lamp, etc. I personally would prefer that over the bench or the shelves as it fills up the wall and there is plenty of room to walk in front of it. If you had a long wall you could do a chair on either side of the chest . . .

What buckheadbilly posted comes from pp 623-6 of A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander.

This is a classic book on how to get design right from cities all the way to your sleeping nook. It can be a fun read if you want to see what makes some spaces work and others not work.

I especially like the part about (127) The Intimacy Gradient which explains why I never liked Master bedrooms with doors that open to the same deck or porch as the family room.

Here is a link that might be useful: A Pattern Language at Amazon

Thanks for all the good suggestions!

@athensmomof3, it's very helpful for me that you listed out the items you have in your 12x13 room. The study is 14'7" by 13'9". My current plan shows a 6 ft foyer now, so in order for me to have a 7-8 ft foyer, I will need to cut the study area by 1-2 feet. Do you have french door plus side-lights in your 7-ft foyer now?

Yep I do - not much wall space but I would say 8 inches or so on each side of the door trim. It does not look dinky at all.

Our study (new house so no furniture yet but this all definitely fits) can definitely seat four comfortably. My husband works from home occasionally but his work is such that he works from a lap top so he doesn't need a desk. This will be more of a "guys retire for scotch to the library" room than an office per se. . . although I expect he will go there to take phone calls or work on medical records - sort of a quiet reprieve. My thoughts on a sofa is that no one ever sits 3 to a sofa so you might as well get the smallest full size sofa and do chairs elsewhere.

Our square footage got way huge and we needed to downsize so this was a room that was downsized. Thankfully we have a living room around this size now and realized it could still be functional. Some famous decorator (Bunny Williams maybe?) said you need to but a tv or a computer in a room to ensure it is used these days. I have my laptop on a secretary in my living room now and since I have done this it has become a room we use every day, versus a room we never use.

Good luck!

Thanks for the source, klabio! I had a link to some text and could tell it was from an old book on design but couldn't quite figure out what it was.

"A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander"

Great book. Somewhat utopian at the beginning but the residential design section is perfect. Except for the part about communal bathing :)

Love the Pattern Language references.... they are so detailed, but so true. I have looked at this book, and Traditional Construction Patterns so much!

Topman, my foyer is similar to what you are discussing, so I thought I'd show you a few pics. Mine is 7'6" wide, by about 16' long. It is a straight wall on one side, and open to the other side. We have double french doors, but they are narrowish -- like 27" each or so. Ceilings also 10'. I feel it is a pretty "room," not grand, but a nice sized entrance. Enough space to stand, make the greeting, say your goodbyes. A comfortable place to set your purse while fumbling with keys, or a package. It is wide enough to not just feel like a hallway, but not so big that you wonder why you wasted the space. I was originally going to put our piano in the space, but everybody laughed at the idea, but it was plenty big.

So here are a few pics, hope it helps. It opens to the dining room, and the second pic I'm trying to show how it all relates....
Foyer pic:

From dining room to foyer:

mythreesonsnc, thanks for posting the pictures! That definitely helps. Indeed you were not alone. I did think about putting a piano too. :P I initially thought about not using too much molding/trim around the entrance to the study/living room right next to the foyer so that the study/living room will not be as defined and the foyer may look more open. I have a baby grand and the living/study area is where the piano will go.
That way the foyer may be a bit more open/grand cos I was worried about it being opened to one side only. But looking at your pictures, the foyer actually does look spacious enough, which also means I definitely would need to make the foyer on current floor plan a little bigger.

Thanks!

Ours is is similar to mythreesoncnc- 7' x 14' with 10' ceiling with one room coming off the side. I really like it. It seemed really big and useless on the plans, but IRL it feel like the right size.

We also did a lantern type fixture. Our library/living comes off one side. We have french doors to this room but they are usually open. We opted to do a single 42" x 96" door. Can I just say I love having a huge door. And it has a little window so that I can see who's outside.

Here's a pic: The library is on the left and on the right is a little alcove with a powder room and coat closet off of it.

PPS7 and Mythreesonsnc,

Your foyers look great! Thanks for sharing.

My foyer is 8 ft. wide exactly. It is double height so I know that won't help you much, but here's how the door with sidelights fits in if that helps at all.

There are all kinds of things you can do to make a single story foyer look grand. In one of the houses we toured, there was a tray ceiling in the foyer with a tile medallion below it that were perfectly matched in shape. It was gorgeous and we weren't focusing on how much space there was or wasn't because we were drawn to the details!

mythreesonsnc, I love your hallway and dining room! That trim is so open and breezy. Can I ask where you found your french doors/ what manufacturer it is? I love that style where it is partially enclosed at the bottom
Nancy

Hi Scrappy,

They were from a company called Shed Brand Studios in Charlotte. They make custom doors too, but these are one of their stock items.

Here is a link that might be useful: Shed Brand

What a delightful surprise to learn of this book! I'll have to see if my library can get it for me.

I've always liked to be able to see through a house to the lawn or garden from the entry. Is that discussed in the book?

We wanted a small house with big rooms. Our 2900 sq ft house has nine-foot ceilings. It faces north. Our covered entry porch is 11' wide X 6' deep. The entry door is a 42" wide archtop in an archtop sidelight surround. (The book probably doesn't cover the need for a Westie to be able to see who is at the door.)

Our foyer is 11' wide X 16' deep running from the entry door and in front of the stairs that go up to the right. It widens to 16' beyond the stairs, where there is a 12' arch to the LR. From the entry, the eye travels through the LR to a south wall of French doors, and beyond to terrace and lawn.

There is an arch to the kitchen (SE in the foyer) and an arch to a bedroom hallway (SW, beyond the stairs).

So...our foyer may seem large, but it has a lot going on! There is also a door to our library immediately to the right of the entry door. The library (14 X 16 plus built-in wall of bookcases) projects about 12 feet in front of the house.

I meant to say our foyer may seem large for a 2900 sq ft house, and that our library projects NINE feet to the front -- with the front stoop recessed a bit along the left side of that room.