A Warmer Welcome: Front Entrance Makeover

This year, we've started to focus more attention on the exterior of our house. We spent the past two years working on a major overhaul of the interior and ended up neglecting the outside. We're making up for lost time now. We redid one of the decks, had the whole house repainted, and built a firepit. More on those projects coming up. But today I want to focus on the front door. When we moved in, there wasn't much going on with the front entrance. It was actually hard for people to notice it. We had a lot of people knocking on our slider because they didn't see the front door. I wanted to create a more attractive front entrance that would not be overlooked.

This is what it looked like when we moved in. Not bad, but pretty blah. Easy to miss.

Here's how the front entrance looks like now:

We still have more to do. The deck and steps will need to be replaced, but this is such a big improvement. First, we replaced the glass door with something that had more presence. We chose a fiberglass door with a divided light at the top. This provided more privacy, but still let in some light.

We had the house repainted in BM Stonington Gray with white trim. Just painting the trim around the door did wonders. The door itself is BM Patriot Blue. I think it makes a nice contrast with the gray siding, but also looks bright and fun. Then I added some details.

A new door mat from (Ikea $7.99):

A scallop shell door knocker (amazon.com $45):

 A woven twig basket for seasonal decor (amazon.com $15):

Then I replaced the existing light fixtures with these traditional onion globe lights. They really say coastal New England to me!

I also worked on adding some more landscaping including ornamental grasses, hydrangeas, roses, and lavender.

Finally, I built a surround for the air conditioner which unfortunately ended up on our front porch.The surround is not anchored to the porch so it can be easily removed if the unit needs servicing.

I think these changes made a big impact. And people don't come knocking on our slider anymore!