I’d like to know the guy who designed the first split foyer house plan so I could give him a good talking to. Yes, I said, “guy.” It HAD to be a guy! No woman in their right mind would design such a thing knowing how difficult it is to do simple things like greet guests, and carry impractical things like, oh say, laundry and groceries {laughs maniacally} up the steps. Yet, despite its impracticality, this style of house dots the US landscape from sea to shining sea.
Typical guest entering house:
Doorbell rings
Me: {Opens door, moves out of the way of door swing, bumps into steps leading to second floor with foot, while at the same time trying to keep 17 pound psycho dog from mauling someone}. Hi! Come on in! Oh, hold on a minute while I run up the steps to the main floor so you have room to come in. Don’t mind psycho dog. He can’t bite because he wore his teeth down to nubs at the kennel a few years ago while we were on vacation.
Guest enters.
Second guest tries to enter. Pushes first guest up the stairs.
It’s ridiculous! Am I right? I hate that!
Anyway, I live in one and it’s become the bane of my existence since 1991 when we moved in. It was supposed to be a starter house, but we came to adore where we live, so, we decided to stay and turn it into our dream house under the condition that any additions we made had to look like it was designed that way and not just tacked on willy nilly. Is there anything worse than a bad house addition? As luck would have it, this is not an easy task considering a split foyer is one of the most difficult home styles to remodel. Ask any remodeler. They absolutely detest them because the placement of the entrance between the first and second floors is so awkward from both interior and exterior views. Rarely, do you see a remodel or addition to a split foyer that looks like quite right. I aim to change that!
Patricia said,
July 24, 2008 @ 7:14 pm
I laughed out loud at your split foyer story. I’m living the exact same nightmare. What I hate the most is what the house looks like from the outside. The small windows tucked in below the main floor looks ridiculous. Any ideas on how to remodel the exterior so it does not look like a split foyer from the outside yet still keeps windows on the sub-ground level?
leplusjeune said,
August 10, 2008 @ 7:43 am
Hi Patricia. Sorry it took so long to get back to you. I’ve been on a well deserved vacation.
Yes, the small windows. I know them well, argh. Actually, I’m lucky that mine are pretty large – 48″ x 48″. They are the exact width of the two upper level windows, though, and there is a decorative panel cedar shakes between the two levels that visually brings the two together almost looking like a wall of windows. I need to post a photo of that!
Curious, does your upper level bump out?
Some nice landscaping helps, too. I know many people keep the landscaping really low around those lower levels so it doesn’t block the light, but imo, that draws more attention to those lower windows. There are so many nice shrubs grown on standards (where it looks like a ball on top of a tree trunk) and dwarf trees that can fill in some of that space between the two levels of windows without blocking sunlight. That way, your eye is drawn to the landscaping and not so much the windows. Again, I need to post some pictures.
This is actually a really good idea for an entire post!
Naomi said,
August 26, 2008 @ 6:29 am
Leplusjeune,
Just bought a split foyer after swearing I would never. I would love to see your pics of landscaping near the lower windows. I think that is probably the best solution to drawing attention away from that part of the house. Thanks.
Kristen@TheFrugalGirl said,
September 6, 2008 @ 1:55 pm
I HATE split-foyers. I swore up and down I’d never buy one, but I did, three years ago and I’m still here! :p
Such a dumb home design.
Anonymous said,
September 9, 2008 @ 12:17 am
I LOVE my split-foyer! I don’t have to worry about landscaping up to the house with a good slope to keep water away and I love the 1 1/2 storey high wall on which I can hang my mother’s watercolours (I want to redo this wall with slate type stonework).
Our ground level landing is larger than some (6 feet from door to first stari) so we built a shoe rack below the living room. The closet is on the upper level which is a nuisance but I have plans for that, too.
leplusjeune said,
September 11, 2008 @ 8:33 pm
Six feet is a good size. Lucky you!
My entrance closet is on the first floor, too. I know what you mean.
It’s funny you mention that 1-1/2 story wall. I’ve always wanted to hang some kind of art there. I’m thinking of having an electrician come in and put picture lights/spot lights in the ceiling above to highlight some artwork. Is your ceiling a cathedral or vaulted? Mine is, so that wall is HUGE!
Anonymous said,
September 21, 2008 @ 12:59 am
We have an 8′ piece of track lighting on that wall with one pointed straight down to light up the landing. We don’t have a cathedral ceiling (wouldn’t want to paint that!).
I have twelve watercolours of various sizes hanging randomly in a group – I like it!
istgah said,
October 4, 2008 @ 5:08 am
very nice and interesting
tankx !
Stuck without a real foyer said,
October 30, 2008 @ 6:02 am
We share the pain of the dance at the front door when 2 people come in. Perhaps, it should be call single person entry. Our kitchen is small and is at the top of the steps. Our living room is a good size — so re are thinking about making the living room the kitchen and the kitchen the living room. Thinking that with the living room at the top of the steps instead of the kitchen there that that might be better. Perhaps, that would give us and imaginary upper foyer appearance but then its like you would walkup the step straight into the living room that might feel strange (stuck) — again,as the space there is small. what are your thoughts. Is there anyone out there whose split foyer has the living room at the top of the steps if so what size is your living room, send picture please — AND HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR LIVING ROOM AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS AND WHAT SIZE IS YOUR LIVING ROOM
THANKS
Love my Split said,
November 7, 2008 @ 11:01 pm
I just bought my split entry last year. Like most of your, I told myself I would NEVER buy a split. But it’s beautiful! Our main level gets great light all year long, and the lower level is way lighter and brighter than your average finished basement….although in this style house it’s hardly a “basement”- it really becomes your first floor. We have our family room and laundry area there, and hopefully soon our new half bath.
I like the foyer platform. In our house it is tiled and provides a great area for people to remove their shoes. We’ve also set up a shoe shelf there. The stairs work as a great reminder to take shoes off- we just got our hardwood floors refinished.
All in all, I would not buy a different style house. We are first time buyers, young and have no children, and I feel like this house has the perfect amount of space (not too big or small), and an openness which is conducive to having company over.
We also have a screened-in porch off of our dining room which is amazing in the summer!
Love my Split said,
November 7, 2008 @ 11:06 pm
Also- I would be careful about changing the location of your kitchen/living room areas. In most splits the plumbing runs along the rear wall. So it could make your new kitchen quite expensive to have to pay to extend the plumbing around the front area of the house. I have heard of many people removing the walls that separate the formal dining room/kitchen/living room. They extend the kitchen into the dining area perimeter (leaving enough space for a large eat-in kitchen), and put an island/bar with stools where the living room/kitchen wall used to be.
I personally like the formal living room and dining room.
kim said,
November 26, 2008 @ 11:04 pm
My house is a split foyer also. I laughed with you when i read your story. The only thing worse than people entering is when people leave. If I could count the number of times we have walked guest to the door and then started chating.. I have actually cought myself sitting down on the steps while leaving my guest standing awkardly in the foyer. (because they have to let themselves out because there is no room for me down there.)
kim said,
November 26, 2008 @ 11:16 pm
We actually did knock out the wall separating the kitchen dining living room. I like it. We are trying to come with a kitchen remodel plan. Here is my big delima and I would love any ideas. My back yard seems to be where we live outdoors. We use the door in our dining room is the main door that we use on a daily basis. My dinig room has become cluttered with shoes, jackets etc. Our garage is on the opp end of house and it is very inconvenient to go down the steps thru garage across driveway up small hill to walk back across to the yard that we can stepout to from the dining room. I thought about adding a screened porch or sunroom off the dining room. I also thought about flipping the layout of the three rooms. I need to go forward with a plan that will accomodate my family’s use of the home but I don’t want to spend the time or $$ and have it look terrible.
Katie said,
November 30, 2008 @ 2:39 pm
Hi!
I couldn’t help but laugh and read this article aloud to my fiancee. We moved into our split entry a year ago (after he swore we never would). We are trying to decide if we want to buy a different house with more space somewhere down the road, OR if we want to add onto this home (the neighborhood is incredible!! We live in a state park with quad trails and tons of stuff to do, great neighbors too!) We live in a plan of split entries and there is one which is “added up”, its nice, but looks a little odd. Any ideas for adding up?
Laura said,
December 13, 2008 @ 6:20 pm
This made me laugh! I hate the bi-level entrance and also said I’d never buy one but we did. It’s terribly small for us but we love our neighborhood and schools so we are staying. It was also the most affordable. We are right in the middle of light remodeling which is taking for-ever! (not a lot of cash) I’d love to see pictures of others’ bi-levels and how you are making them a little more purty!
Anonymous said,
January 1, 2009 @ 8:01 pm
Found this book that you can download. It has some interesting ideas but nothing I could use.
http://www.ci.coon-rapids.mn.us/departments/development/pdfdocsimages/splitvisions.pdf
I will post drawings of what I hope to do.
Anonymous said,
January 1, 2009 @ 8:58 pm
Can I post pictures?
shelagh said,
January 24, 2009 @ 6:39 pm
So how is that remodel going? We are thinking of bumping the front out to have a real entrance way. I was curious if you have attacked the front door yet.
Thanks!~
lis said,
February 20, 2009 @ 10:04 pm
TO I’d never buy a split-foyer. I live in a split-foyer as well. We were dumb enough to sell the same house and repurchase through a foreclosure sale. The previous family’s actions spoke volumes in this area. We have done extensive remodeling………all I have to say is run. I periodically check our areas house values and the biggest depreciation and longest market times are on split foyers. We will never recoup our money in anyway. Homes around us in other neighborhoods are still seeing appreciation. Even the older homes in our neighborhood are seeing some appreciation as long as the style isn’t a split foyer. From a women’s perspective it is old even with the remodeling and everything is a chore, laundry, steps, garage, groceries, getting the mail, holiday decorations and taking a little dog out side because he can’t climb steps. The list goes on from my female perspective. My male southern crew (family)thinks a split foyer it is the best thing since flower tire planters and old cars on the front lawn (without a HOA saying something negative). Because the house is so small there is no peace and quiet. Run***you would be better off buying a smaller rancher anyday. I hate to end on such a negative note, so let me tell you the positive aspects of a split foyer….you’ll know if every one in the home has healthy toileting habits because you can hear every sound….OH yes I almost forgot part of the home is underground. To that my husband says it will stay a comfy 55 degree (if you’re a penguin) and if you have a tordano you may have a place to shelter in……..we’re blessed!
lis said,
February 20, 2009 @ 10:07 pm
Opps on the misspell of tornado:)
dsnyder said,
February 24, 2009 @ 9:56 am
I swore we would never and did 2 years ago…I first loved the split foyer across the street, because the foyer was the largest i have ever seen, and it had a huge living room on the main floor……but the seller would not budge enough on his asking price and I know there resale value is crappy….mainly just 1st time home buyers…so I folded for the cheaper one across the street….what a mistake…..living room too small, kitchen too small….and oh yeah, the foyer makes me the most miserable!!!! We can add on to the back, open up the kitchen to the dining…….but can’t change the dumb foyer….
dsnyder said,
February 24, 2009 @ 10:02 am
Oh and I thought of knocking down the wall that divides the kitch/dining to make larger kitch and put the dining room in the front living room (which is currently open right beside the current dining space……adding new living room to back of house, where our french doors are for the back of the current dining! Then we will have larger kitch, dining, and living room….
Murali said,
March 10, 2009 @ 6:20 am
but great neighborhood though and mature trees 32 of them including some gum ball trees
a 10′ slope from right toleft throughout this corner lot.
Inspiration: http://www.viettrandesign.com
striver said,
May 20, 2009 @ 12:54 am
I grew up in one of the most unusual split-foyers I have ever seen (my parents are still there). Double doors into the foyer — straight ahead is an extra- wide stairway (maybe 8 feet in width) going up to the living room. On either side of this wide stairway is a narrower stairway going down to the lower level. So there is one going up and two going down. The foyer itself spans the width of these three staircases, and has a 16 foot ceiling. The living room has three windows on the back wall, so when you enter into the foyer, your eyes are drawn up the stairs and to all the light coming from the windows.
As much as I don’t like split foyers, I must admit, the builder did a lot with this. It’s funny to see peoples’ reactions when they enter because the outside of the house is colonial! Inside it feels more contemporary. The dining room and kitchen are to the left of the living room.
Because the lot slopes down, the back of the house appears to be two levels, with a ground level exit. What was once the garage (under the bedrooms) is now a ’second family room’, with a garage added on to the end of the house. Because the land slopes down in that direction, it doesn’t look like an ‘add-on’… but makes for a horrible (and very long) traffic pattern from the garage to the kitchen, at the opposite end of the house. Still, the foyer does look pretty cool.
Ann Marie said,
June 22, 2009 @ 8:13 pm
OMG! I hate my split foyer too, but am absolutely in love with the grounds. It sits of 3.5 acres of rolling hills. I am just waiting till it is paid off and then I want to complete overhaul it. I could totally relate to most of the split foyer stories that you all shared. Other things I really dislike about our split foyer is the lack of closet space, limited sunlight in the lower level, uneven temperature between levels (you gotta freeze out the lower level in order to get relief from the heat in the upper level.
Worst thing is–this is my SECOND split foyer home. Swore I’d NEVER do it again and did.
Reality is that while I am totally unhappy with my house, I am grateful for my home, even if it is a split foyer.
Marie said,
July 29, 2009 @ 11:44 pm
A lot of you are very negative about split foyers but all of them have differences though made similar. My split foyer is not small at all to me. It is almost 3000 sq ft. The family room is huge as well as the rec room which takes up the whole downstairs along with a nice size laundry room. I love the fireplace and I have placed bamboo flooring throughout my foyer. There is even a full bath in the bottom half of my foyer. This is my first home and it has a lot of character. I fell in love with the space for the most part and got a good deal because it was a foreclosure. You can make any space livable and lively. It make take the help of Lowes or Home Depot, but it can be done. I would like to know how to add additions on to a foyer. Im builiding a deck soon off of th patio upstairs. I dont plan to stay here I plan to possibly sell in a few years. Overall Im satisfied.
Frankie said,
August 30, 2009 @ 2:05 pm
I don’t hate my splitfoyer…any longer. It’s paid for! Actually, I never hated it! There are things I wish were different. I wish the bedrooms were bigger. I wish I had a deck or screened in porch so I didn’t have to tromp down the stairs to go to the back yard, but I do have big French doors in the den that lead out to a beautiful stone patio. I reckon I could/should have a deck built. I LOVE my remodeled kitchen. You may think I’m foolish,but I made my kitchen smaller and I love it! It seems much bigger now. When my children and their families came to dinner, we could get around the dining room table, but I had to sit next to the kitchen door. It was a pain in the … there. I knocked down the kitchen dining room wall and added hardwood in the kitchen to match the dining room. I added a bar, but moved it farther into the kitchen. The kitchen is really only good for no more than three people, but heck, it was never good for more than three people. Now, I have double the new cabinet space (I ran them to the ceiling), double the counter space and double the seating because the little ones always want to sit at the bar! I had no wall between the living room and dining room, so I added one foot wide “walls” to there to give some separation and arched it across the ceiling. Where the wall came down in the kitchen, I arched the ceiling and created an arch at the top of my kitchen door. It really is lovely. After seeing mine, the remodeling agent did it to two other homes…he said=)
Projectors are IDEAL for the split said,
August 31, 2009 @ 3:03 pm
The split entry is IDEAL for large screen projection tv. By placing the projector on the farthest wall from the large foyer wall, you can project onto the large foyer wall.
My large foyer wall now doubles as as 110 inch television and the large foyer wall is the focus of the room, (I project directly on an off-white wall and it looks amazing) . I have installed in-wall speakers for the front/left/center speakers in the foyer wall as well. Using the far wall this way effectively opens up my small 10X10 living roon into a 10X18. I also removed the typical raiing around the foyer and placed a half wall so that I could place outlets for all the speakers, cables, and power outlets and placed a built-in electronics unit on that half wall to house the cable box and multi media receiver. All the electronics face the liviing room, and you look over them, and over the foyer, to see the video on the far wall. Anyway, with all the bashing on splits, I thought I just share a unique way of working the split to your advantage. Note: Light control for the front door/windows is needed (i.e. window treatments, tinting etc etc) to watch projection tv the brightness of day.
It'sALoveHate said,
October 28, 2009 @ 9:26 pm
I’m ambivalent towards the split foyer. Our house sits on top of a hill, so the back of the house is mostly underground, which means that the sliding door off of the dining room is nearly ground level. We have an AWESOME deck off of the back of the house that wraps around one side.. so half of the back and one full side of the house. Backyard access has never been an issue. If the slope of the hill was different, I can see how that would be annoying! When I was hugely pregnant, I’ve been known to drive through my yard to the back door to bring in groceries, so I can relate to that problem as well. Our split is only 1008 square feet on the upper level, and our garage is under the house, so overall, it’s on the small side, and we have 3 kids, so the size is an issue. We love our location, so we’re going to try to make it work by converting the garage into living space and attaching a garage. We thought about doing an all season porch, but we’d have to modify our deck, which I do love. Right now we’re going to remodel our kitchen and will probably remove half of the wall between the living room and kitchen and put a breakfast bar there. I’m not 100% sure. I like the separation between rooms, but then I don’t.
I have to say that I was never one of those people that said I’d never buy a split. The only thing that bugs me is the boxiness. The brand new versions with the different rooflines are really nice.