A Welcoming Entrance: Home of the Heart Design

Front walkway after

Front walkway before

If you're like most people, you want the front entrance of the home of your heart to welcome visitors and also to keep them safe as they traverse to your front door. The best method to assess how well your entrance measures up is to put yourself in your visitor's shoes and look through their eyes. What do you see and what do you feel?

When my husband and I bought our home, we quickly realized changes needed to be made. Walking up the steep driveway was no fun, and the entire picture was dreary. Add to that, a post stood so close to the front door, it required us to dance around it in order to open the door. And steps to the front porch were too shallow.

Perhaps the most important change we made was building steps through the landscape. The gentle progression is a lot easier on the eye as well as the body. We also painted the garage doors a contrasting green and added windows. These made our entrance much more inviting. Turns out that pesky post was not essential for support, so it was removed. We added a handrail for those who have difficulty with stairs and made the tread slightly deeper.

Full disclosure: I Photoshpped the stones on the posts in the top photo. During our year-long remodel, we unearthed a big pile 

of river rock that we plan to apply like those in the photo this summer. Even if you don't have image-manipulative skills, studying photos of entrances in magazines and Pinterest can help you decide what elements will work best for your home. 
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On the right is a Photoshopped image I did to help us visualize what our landscape would look like with steps and additional plantings. I was also playing around with how to relieve the looming verticality of the garage by applying a different treatment to the gable. As you can see in the top image, we went with something different that is equally effective. 

Playing around with Photoshopping

The changes we made were moderate but highly satisfying. If you're not entirely pleased with the vibe of your entrance, you might want to start with a simple adjustment like putting flowering pots by your entrance. Something as easy as that can make a big impact on how you welcome visitors. Whatever changes you make, let them reflect your personality and that of your home.

​From Home of the Heart, warmly yours,

Linda