Making an Entrance – Sprucing Up Your Entryway
Sprucing up your entryway. If your home is like ours, we have two entrances. The front door,
and the door near our driveway. The latter is used about 95% of the time by us and our friends.
Creating an inviting entrance for yourself is so important for falling in love with your home. Start sprucing up your entryway!
Think about it this way: How many times do you go in and out of your home through that one doorway? How many times do guests go in and out of that doorway? Do you follow me? So, it is you who should be welcomed home to your lovely home first and foremost!
This is what our family entrance looked like a few months ago:
How I lived with that ugly brown aluminum door for 3 years, I will never know. And let’s not even talk about that little red CPI security sticker!
Lucky for us, a neighbor sold us her full view storm door when they added a garage onto their home. Had they not, I probably would still be scouring the Habitat ReStore. Or at least I would have painted the old door to match the house or use a more inviting color than doo-doo brown.
After I installed the storm door, I made sure to repaint the threshold as well. What?! You can’t see behind “Doo Doo Brown” above, is this?
Niiiiiice. Gold threshold with silver metal showing through. Not exactly my favorite rustic look. The easiest way to repaint it would have been to remove the threshold and spray paint it in the yard on a tarp. But, those screws weren’t going to budge for me. So, I masked off the entire doorway…
…the mudroom to spray paint one piece of threshold brushed nickel. Okay, call me crazy, but I was on a mission to make my entryway more inviting for myself. And I wasn’t about to get brushed nickel on any other surfaces.
Much better, don’t you think? And I can honestly say that after using automotive primer and then the Rustoleum Brushed Nickel metallic paint, the threshold still looks like new!
But, I didn’t stop there. I added a kick plate in matching brushed nickel. And replaced the door sweep as well. And splurged on a new door mat. {Love my new mat!}
Finally, looking beyond the doorstep, I add some pumpkin topiaries, plants, wreath or other decorations (depending on the season) to greet you – errr, I mean me.
My good friend has this adorable planter near her side entrance (that she uses about 95% of the time, too.) It is the perfect place to switch out plants, or other decorations depending on the season.
So, that takes care of the exterior, but don’t neglect the inside! I added a new coat of paint to the inside of the door (that my sweet departed maniacal dog had left claw marks all over it.) I was so anxious to freshen it up, I didn’t even tape off the windows.
After the paint dried, I used a razor blade to score…
…and then scrape off the paint.
And as a final, welcome home, I hung my message center just inside the door.
I’m so happy to be home! And you should too so start by sprucing up your entryway.
So, what do you think? How does your home greet you? Does it welcome you with open arms or is it more of just a brief, “hi?”
This looks great! Where did you get your rug on the inside of your entry? I love your message board and cute planter too. Very inviting! I also paint my doors the same way you do. I think it's easier to scrape the paint than tape off every.single.little.pane!
It looks very inviting now. Your new door looks great!
The entrances to our house are high on my priority list! Thanks for the fabulous inspiration!
You are invited anytime for a weekend with breakfast in bed. Just don't forget your masking tape, spray paint and razor. I'm falling in love with YOUR home! Love what you do PHG…
Just became a follower, man you are one talented lady. I'm excited to learn more great ideas from you.
It looks fabulous. I love that color!
We also have a front door entrance and also the 'side' door in the carport which we all use [and definitely needs to be spruced].
Happy Monday!
My entry is NOT a welcoming place. In fact, you may want to run screaming when you see it. So many things are "broken" about it I didn't even know where to start fixing it. This blog has certainly provided some great ideas. Thanks!
It looks great. I'm planning on painting my threshold this spring. Just waiting for all this snow to thaw out! I was just planning on using outdoor paint, but maybe I should look into stronger formulas.
You did a beautiful job! Everything around there looks so nice! I love what a welcoming look you have now. Nice work.
Have a great day!
Pam
Gorgeous! I love the "dirt" box. adorable. I'm preparing to redo our front door. Various gunk left on the door from the people that lived here previously. It will be gorgeous! and i'm going to paint our rocking chairs to match. i think..
I'm working on my entry as well. Thanks for the great ideas, your entry looks really nice!
Hi Brittany-
LOVE LOVE LOVE your doors. I have purple doors on my home also. They look so inviting. The color you used looks wonderful with the gray of your house. Did you use two tones on the front door? I like the way that looks – really makes the entrance look so much interesting.
My best- Diane
Love your simple but very effective changes. What is the dirt box?
I love the projects that you do! I think I should have you come over here to the uk and do some much wanted projects in my home!! 😉 lol
You did a wonderful job it looks so nice and fresh looking. I like also how you spraypainted the threshold too, I'll have to remember this when I do mine in the spring:) If that ever gets here!
Rondell