We're buying a new home and want to update the entryway to make a splash. Currently, on the left side of the entryway we have an opening to the living room, a door to stairs to the basement, then a kitchen doorway. In addition, there's tile and a light wood floor and we're looking to change the living room and kitchen floor to dark.

Any way we can open up this entryway and make it bright and welcoming?

We thought about knocking down some of the walls of the stairwell and putting up railings. We can do that a bit but we'd really like to avoid the massive expense of moving these load bearing walls entirely.