Ok CP, my take on the foyer.
The yellow is too bright. But good initial choice....are the stair walls a light beige or white? In the first pic, they appear to be a light beige. That looks GOOD.
In going with Paragon's take and FLW, I would stick to a grey base on things. You have a pink undertone on your carpet and tile, and need to get away from that. The stair walls I would choose a grey-based beige if they're relaly white, then for the foyer, a grey-based sage green. Same shade as your yellow tho - you need something soft, not too dark. I think the contrast would work nicely with the dark railing, which I would leave black.
As for the furniture - take it all out. It's very underscaled for the large space (heightwise at least). I would put a round table in there, maybe 3-4' diameter, same dark wood that you have now. On top of that a LARGE scale floral arrangement, taking in a lot of the colors in the rug. I'm talking 4' tall +. Lots of natural branches and the like, make the thing huge. And have that as the only thing in the space.
You might even move the rug over to that space and put the table on top of it.
I don't have a foyer (1750 SF house), so I can't post pics of ideas, but I do have a degree in interior design, so hopefully that will win me some brownie points.
Stacy