This week's goal is to declutter, clean, and freshen the welcoming areas...the entry way, both porches, and the pesky entrance from the garage to the kitchen.

Hopefully a good first impression will make me feel more at home in my own house.

So....how's the condition of your porches, doorways, and entry ways?

Good luck

I just decorated the front porch for fall after a good sweep-out of summer cobwebs and debris. It does make a good impression and is very nice to come home to.

Unfortunately, my "basket" that hangs out there is still done up with summer decor, and I haven't changed it out because I didn't want to rush the neighbors with Halloween too early. And of course the petunias are still blooming, but they won't be for long since it froze here last night.

So our entry is in "flux" right now...but definately due for a makeover soon!

Which is why I am surprised that so many people use those "pesky garage entrances" for everyone and everything even when the front door is closer. IMHO it's worth extra steps to use a nicer entrance.

We use our front door almost exclusively. We enclosed an existing porch, making it into a tile-floored foyer with plenty of closet space for coats and other stuff. It is usually clutter-free mostly because it has little furniture, and gets its visual impact from the tile floor and the artwork on the walls. It's always nice to come home to, and gives us a space to put away outerwear, change out of wet or dirty shoes, dispose of the junk mail, etc., without bringing that mess into the rest of the house.

So we have this garage entrance that everybody seems to prefer, even when we have junk cluttering the inside of the garage. We are in the middle of fixing up the mud room, and they'd rather walk through all the paint cans, etc. than go around to the front!

Why is that?

We have decided to keep that garage door locked from now on, hoping they'll take the hint. But my neighbor came over a few days ago, and stood at the door and KNOCKED, and only came to the front door because I didn't hear her.

Why is that?

Should we just REMOVE that door? But I am sure that there must be some safety rule that requires a human-sized door in addition to the big door for cars. We can't just move the door to another wall of the garage. The gas line runs along the wall that would be the logical place for the hidden version of the door. It was expensive to move the gas meter and install the gas line. (The gas meter had been in a really stupid, ugly place -- right next to the walkout door where there is no patio -- only dirt! This house needs a lot of work.)

I know it's hard to give advice without photos. Would anyone like me to start a new thread and post photos? Is anyone willing to try to help me figure this out?

My brother always has his garage door open and he wants people to go through that door. I always knock on it and he always says to just come in. I don't feel right about that even though he is in a gated community and gets the call that I am there. I always go to the front door unless I am told differently.

Our garage and house are clearly separate buildings. While our original front door was not visible from the driveway, there is a wide paved walkway leading from the driveway to the front of the house, plus a second walkway with steps leading up from the street. It's all of about 30 feet from the garage to the front door. To get to our house you have to pass other houses of the same design, and you can even see the driveway and front door of one of them from our driveway. And yet some people still couldn't find our front door. When we remodeled the porch/entry, we moved the front door so that it is visible from the driveway.

I think a directional sign or two would be a good idea.

For my own home, I plan on a "welcome" sign, as part of an arched trellis over the future walkway.

But sometimes, I wish I could make a sign that reads, "Yo! Hey, you! Yeah, you! The front door is THIS WAY!"

LOL

MaryLiz

I wanted our home to be more welcoming.

We concentrated on the foyer and the area just inside it.

It's amazing how much nicer the whole place feels from that effort.

MaryLiz, I think once you get that walkway, and once you spend a little effort landscaping, lighting, etc., that door, you might be people to pay more attention to the door. Be sure it's painted an attention-getting color, and put some flowers in pots outside it, etc. That might help a lot.

My big sticking point was a coat rack just inside that garage entrance. In addition to winter work jackets, we hang animal gear on it--leashes and stuff. On the middle hook was my mare's bridle. Sigh. She died three years ago and I couldn't bear to move the bridle. Partly because I didn't know what to do with it. Finally, this week, I decided to put it in a nice shadow box with some other memorabilia. Now it's waiting in my back closet until I have the dollars for the frame. (So, two steps forward, one step back.)

Anyway, the entrances and exits look much nicer and more welcoming.

Thanks for your support!

BTW, talking about people using the wrong entrances, we had that problem for years. We have a large, wide and (we think) very prominent flagstone walkway from the guest parking area to our front door, which isn't visible from the road or the parking area, unfortunately. Way off to the far side of the house, far away from the guest parking area is a long, narrow dirt path that leads to the back of the house, where our bedrooms, family room and kitchen are located. I can't count the number of times I've looked up to find salesmen, delivery people or repair folk at my bedroom or family room doors! Once, when I was 6 months pregnant with DD, I walked into my bedroom from taking a shower, naked, and there was a salesman knocking at my patio doors! Needless to say, he ran off to a screaming tirade from me! It was the hormones ;^P
For a while I took to dressing in my miniscule toilet closet, as it's one of the only rooms in my house without a window. Finally, in desperation, we had the sign below made. We posted it for all to see before they even set one foot on that side dirt path. It's about 2-feet tall and (I think), hard to miss, although a few OTL people still manage to miss it. It is working, though. (LOL!)
Lynn