Indian traditional foyer design ideas

The screen, and what goes around it

1. A jali screenCarved teak or CNC-cut stone jali, 1,800–2,100 mm high, set 900–1,200 mm inside the front door. It creates an entrance in a flat that has none, filters the view into the living room and lets light through, which a solid partition would not. ₹1.1–₹2 lakh depending on the carving.
2. A console and a lampA carved or turned teak console at 750–800 mm with a drawer, holding a brass lamp, a tray for keys and space for a diya. It is the traditional equivalent of a drop shelf and it is more useful than it looks.
3. Shoe storage, concealedTraditional homes kept footwear outside; in a Mumbai flat it has to come in. A teak-framed ventilated shoe unit behind the screen keeps it out of the sightline, which is the point of the screen in the first place.
4. A handmade thresholdAthangudi, Kota or a marble inlay marking the entrance zone, with a recessed mat well. It also takes the monsoon water that arrives with every visitor between June and September.

The traditional foyer palette

Warm and welcoming, with the floor tile setting the palette. This is a space seen for eight seconds under artificial light, so richness matters more than subtlety.

• Ivory lime #EFE2C6 — the walls, in a lime or textured finish
• Teak #5A3720 — the jali screen, the console and the shoe unit
• Terracotta #C25E38 — the Athangudi floor and the threshold band
• Brass #B08A34 — the lantern, the bell, the console hardware
• Deep green #2C5248 — a runner or the console's drawer interior

Craft specification for an entrance

• Seasoned teak at 8–10% moisture for the jali, carved before finishing. A jali is an openwork panel and it is the element most likely to crack if the timber was not seasoned.
• Solid brass for the lantern, the bell and the hardware, with SS 316 fixings. An entrance in a coastal building sees the corridor's humid air every time the door opens.
• Athangudi or Kota with a penetrating sealer and a recessed mat well. Order 12% extra Athangudi for breakage; it is handmade and comes from Tamil Nadu by road.
• A ventilated teak-framed shoe unit with a perforated back, because the screen only hides the shoes visually. The air still has to move.

What a traditional foyer costs

Three traditional entrance mistakes

1. A solid partition instead of a jali. It blocks the light a Mumbai living room needs and makes a small flat feel smaller. The jali exists precisely to avoid that.
2. Unseasoned teak in an openwork panel. A jali has little material between the openings and cracks readily if the timber moves. Ask for the moisture reading.
3. Shoes visible beside the screen. The screen's whole purpose is to keep the entrance's clutter out of the sightline. Put the shoe unit behind it, not in front.

Creating a traditional entrance in a Mumbai flat

The jali screen is the element that makes this work in a flat with no foyer, and it is also the element that needs the most planning. It should stand 900–1,200 mm inside the door, which requires that much floor to give up; in a compact 2BHK the honest answer is often a half-height screen or a screen only on one side of the walkway. Fix it to the floor and ceiling rather than to a partition wall, and check the door swing first. Athangudi at the threshold adds 25–30 mm of level, which matters at a door bottom that may already scrape. And as always with commissioned carving, the 6–10 week lead means the jali is ordered before the flooring, not after.

Put a jali where the flat has no foyer, and the shoes behind it. Other directions for the same room: Scandinavian foyer ideas · Modern foyer ideas. For rates and scope, see Interior design cost, or go back to all interior design ideas.