I would strongly encourage you to run the same vinyl wood-look throughout the entire first floor. I live in a rental currently where the landlord put in great wood-look flooring throughout the home with a few exceptions, which I would change in heartbeat!

This is a 2-story townhouse with an open-concept main floor. The owners put a tile entry and a tile kitchen floor in. When there's no door jamb, this creates an odd, raised transition piece to tie the wood and tile surfaces together. It just breaks up the space in an odd way and I occasionally trip over that transition piece (I'm a little klutzy, though!)

Although, I can see where your foyer has "door ways", it will still stop the eye visually and you'll have that raised transition piece. IMHO, I think the wood-look vinyl flooring would look and function much, much better!

As for the direction of the planks, the should run from your entry straight back. This creates a longer line for your eyes to follow. Or you could run it on the diagonal, 45 degree angle. This too creates the illusion of more space. Good luck :)

I would never use vinyl.