Hello! If you send us the plan or photos, we can have a look for you to suggest a few ideas.

front door is directly facing the living room and a fireplace.

I'm not sure what you mean by "compromise the existing layout." What you might do is have the entry door moved to be on the same plane as the exterior wall, in line with the study room and the storage room. So it would essentially make the recess your foyer/vestibule. But it's hard to make a definitive suggestion without seeing how that would impact the front of the home.

If you don't want to touch the structure of the layout then you can be clever with the arrangement of furniture.

Just from looking at the plans here, you could place a sofa in the middle of the room, facing the fireplace, and put a narrow console table behind it with a pot for keys, and some vase/candle arrangements to create a welcoming zone. The back fo the sofa will act as a 'wall' zoning off the living room from the entrance of the house.

Alternatively, you could place a small side table in the corner on the right hand side as you walk in with a pot of keys and one vase.

Without more info? I'd consider privacy option and climate......create an "airlock"

foyer effect.

I find nothing appealing about sitting at night in direct view of an entry/exit. No matter how wow on entry: ) Pull the entry door back

More than that? Hard to tell without whole floor and elevations.

You can utilize the walls on either side of the entry door

You can place a console table at the back of the sofa

If you moved the front door you'd have a very large foyer

I do not understand the indent for the entry so maybe a bit more info. Move the whole entry back so that you have a real foyer and room for a coat closet too I like Jans idea for sure .

Depending on what style this house is you could have a covered front porch if you pull the front doors back so you get a covered entrance. I assume you're working with an architect - they could design something appropriate.

The obvious move is to create a real foyer where the recess is now, as most everyone has already suggested. Tell the city you're going to submit revised plans.

Quite some time ago I advised someone regarding a free standing wall placed in front of their front door to create a "foyer." This is not it and this is not free standing, but creating something similar that floats directly in front of the doors would also give you useful wall space on the living room side of it. It might not even have to come all the way to the ceiling; call it a "glorified" pony wall or room divider if you will. If needed, you could make it deep enough for a closet, but that will eat up living room floor space. ...just to get your creative juices flowing...

Fairfax Entryway · More Info

Thank you so much. That’s a very good idea. :)

We have to keep 50% of the existing walls , so we don’t trigger the historical fee. The front door wall is part of that 50% .

So you KEEP the existing "front door wall" Change the doors To french door interior glass doors, add the other "new" front entry in front of it by five feet. Keep the existing doors and every detail

If the HS comes for a fee? You haven't touched the "original" wall.

I'd pay WHATEVER the fee was. Personally , that airlock entries were ever abandoned was the dumbest idea all over suburbia, in most of the upper half of the country. Brrrr.