additional photos!

What exactly is your objection to having the office visible? Any kind of barrier is going to impede traffic flow from your front door and access to the public areas of your home.

It looks like a pretty wide foyer. Maybe if you had a short half wall on both sides of the step up to make a kind of visual separation between the spaces, you would feel like the foyer was more of it's own space and mind the view a bit less?

Does the person in the study want the doors open? I ask, because at Home Depot, Loews for just a very few dollars, you can add a spring hinge to the door that will close it automatically. I have added one to a bathroom door so I don't have to look down the hall and see the toilet!

Other than that: add a hanging glass panel, one that is opaque, from the ceiling, at the base of the stairs. Perhaps put that great blue bench in front of it.

I love the foyer as is.
Beautiful color and decor.

Add spring hinge hardware to the office doors as suggested by pcmom1. Find a dyptych piece of art. Install one on each door (the gap width between the two,pieces of art will be your preference). Now, you and your guests will not be greeted by unwelcoming closed doors, but by a nice, artful distraction.

For other ideas, look at Feng Shui "cures" for an awkward space such as this.

Best wishes.

im with michigan mom... unless you have clients or random design critics walking in and out all day it seems pretty irrelevant whether the doors are open or not.

You said it was a problem to enter the home and face directly into the study. Why is this a problem? Does it distract the person working there, does breeze from the foyer disarrange papers? Do you not like the way the study looks on a day-to-day basis when projects are ongoing? Do you not want guests to see into the room?

Please provide more information so that you will get better suggestions.

I like the idea of glass doors to the office. Right now, it looks like another closet and a "non-closet" door will give the study more importance. Also, with glass door, natural light from the office brighten the foyer. Since the door is usually open to the office, I think something beautiful (in addtional to the rug) like an awesome desk lamp, or a beauty of the "guest" chair in front of the desk, will make the office "eye candy" when you walk in the front door. Again, give importance to the room you see when you walk in.

I would take the doors down and place a nice rolling door either opening in the center of rolling one way

Ashley, What was the final out come, what did you do or what are you going to do? You have gotten lots of ideas so now it is up to you. The blue is very nice, keep it.

Persian rug, WITH ABRASH, to within about 23 cm of the wall. Bigger paintings, with big frames and a bit of black. Shallow tables, with decorations that reach right to the ceiling and have a spotlight on them.

Again as I said before I would remove the doors to the study and replace with one rolling door or two split rolling doors with some nice stainless rollers. You can have the doors made of a lesser material and laminate with a really cool laminate that could be a stand alone piece of art or you could make some nice doors and hang art on them. They could be veneered with an exotic wood. Just some thoughts. Good luck, but I think it is the bright white that contrast so much that maybe it gives a more traditional feel and you spoke of it being contemporary. Even if you finish the rolling doors in the same finish as the entry door it would become a piece of art anyway. You could then find a nice rug.

It has been 3 weeks now, have you decided on what you are going to do?