Martha Stewart's enchanting entryway focal point features an 'age-old technique' that is having a revival in 2024

America's favorite TV personality Martha Stewart has been dictating how we style and dress our homes for years. Her simple yet impactful hallway is no exception.

Rooms such as halls, foyers, and entrances are often left behind when it comes to planning impactful designs. However, they can be the perfect place to experiment with bold colors, patterns, or in Stewart's case; one impactful 'ancient' vignette that her gardeners have curated using elements from the garden.

An entryway is one of the main rooms in the home that connects us to the outside, so enhancing this relationship and using planting in the space can create a unique, indoor-outdoor effect, bringing in the beauty of nature’s verdant palette.

As shown here, the faux bois – meaning 'false wood' in French – is an artistic imitation of wood usually made with concrete. This one in the hallway of Stewart's Maine home features an intricate display of moss, available on Amazon, and seedling evergreens from Stewart's own forest garden. The simple vignette beautifully complements its classic timber surroundings, elevating the connection with nature even further.

'I first became enamored with faux bois when I purchased Skylands, my home in Maine,' says Stewart on her eponymous blog. She commissioned the artist Carlos Cortés of San Antonio, Texas, to make several large faux-bois concrete tables for her home, and become besotted with the idea of replicating this in her Bedford home, too. His materials are simple (concrete, steel wire, rebar), and his tools are rudimentary (sticks, coarse brushes, rough abrasives). It is a traditional technique passed down through generations, that although scarce, is still alive and thriving today. However, you can replicate the faux bois look without quite so much effort.

Designing an entryway or hall should be given as much thought and attention to detail as any other area of the home. ‘One-off unique pieces create interest to otherwise minimal entrances,’ notes Miami-based interior designer Natalia Miyar. ‘This is the perfect location to situate fascinating pieces of furniture or bespoke objects – the more unusual or decorative, the better.'

Your foyer makes the crucial first impression, so draw on Stewart's excellent entryway furniture and vignette idea for inspiration and a look that'll get top marks from guests.

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As with many decorative and artistic techniques, the art of faux bois became immensely popular and was widely utilized in the Renaissance period. This technique was cleverly designed to play with your senses – warping perspectives and toying with your perception of reality.

Also known as Trompe-l'œil, the idea of illusionistic painting was also an important feature of ancient interiors. Naturally, much of this is pictorially and allegorically based, but can be immensely playful with features such as fake doorways, drawing on a mixture of paint-based techniques to imitate wood and stone.