Entrance Design Ideas

It is vital that you treat the front entrance of your home as you would a handshake: you offer a firm, warm, welcoming hand which brings the positive invitation for a pleasant experience. The entrance to your home is the exact same thing. This is where your home makes its first impression on your family and guests. It invites the guest to enter and makes them want to come in and see more. The entrance to your home is the first place for your interior design efforts.

If you are selling your home, tackling the entrance to your home is a must. Many realtors report this as the first turn-off. It the front entrance is not happy and welcoming potential buyers often go no further. A welcoming entrance attracts buyers.

Let's start with the front door
It must be pristine: in good condition, clean, and free of chipped paint or non-working hardware. Your front door is probably a candidate for a fresh paint job or maybe it is a bit blah. Pick a color that coordinates with your trim or one that appropriately reflects your personality and the surrounding area. Think of the plants or flowers you may put out in the spring and take a cue from that if you need inspiration. It needs to be obvious...it is a focal point (unless you have a sign that says, "Enter here", hopefully not) it is appropriate to give it a little color! On a taupe house I had in North Carolina I selected a soft purple/pink the exact color of the impatients that I planted to surround the walkway leading to the front door. It was beautiful and I received many compliments. Don't be afraid to make it interesting!



Once inside
In order to create a warm and welcoming area make your entrance interesting. Once you open the door the same rules apply: clean, neat and maybe a little of your personality. The interior hall shouldn't just be a place to get from point A to point B. Create a passageway that causes one to pause as the house says, "Welcome." It is the place you to give a subtle hint of what is to come. The entrance hall or space has a functional purpose too. If your area allows offer a table for which to set down keys, gloves or the mail and a chair to ease the comfort in putting on or taking off footwear. A light is also necessary and if you have the table an attractive table lamp would offer the perfect welcoming glow.

Now for the fun part, decorating
If the area is small, this often a great place for a fabulous wallpaper or paint treatment. This should coordinate with any attached rooms but you can afford to be a bit dramatic here with color or pattern. This is a great area for a "wow" wall. Remember this is how you welcome your family and guests; you want the space to invite them for more by engaging their senses. You can use fresh flowers, a nice candle, or a good potpourri/house perfumer. Though that does not mean going overboard with artificial scents. A note on that topic, many people find some scents especially in combination too strong and offensive (think of those stinky candle stores). When selecting a scent pick something that smells natural such as evergreen, eucalyptus, lavender, vanilla, etc. Men are pretty good at this, if they say it stinks, it does.