Five Great Front Doors

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First impressions count. These five homes all greet you with a welcoming, tidy front door, and you can guess from the entrance that the inside is probably pretty nice as well. The elements of a great front entrance are basic...

Whether small or large, fully landscaped or decorated with just a few potted plants, these entrances all have: 1) adequate lighting, 2) an brightly painted or architecturally interesting front door, 3) a clean-swept stoop, 4) plants that soften the angles of the house. If you can master these four elements, you'll have a great front door as well.

• 1 Before and After: Front Porch Makeover
• 2 Paola and John's Converted Switch House
• 3 The Foster's Drummond Dream Home
• 4 Anne's Sunny Renovation
• 5 James and Rui's LVL Home

For more entryway advice from Apartment Therapy, click here.

(Photos: Design Mom, Evan Thomas, Sarah Rae Trover, Rachel Wray, Traci Roloff)

Comments (7)

Front door tip: try Fine Paints of Europe to make your door really shine! http://www.finepaintsofeurope.com/ The paint is expensive so I can't afford to use it on everything, but it makes an enormous difference. When you call their answer line, you get a guy who really knows his stuff and will take the time to talk to you (at their store in Woodstock, VT -- we stopped by & had a nice chat. btw -- Woodstock is lovely!) Also used their water based poly on our beat-up pine plank floors, and it worked great -- three coats in one day, hardly smelled by the next.

posted by Arkay on June 12th 2009 at 10:52am
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#2 looks like a grade school entrance.

posted by ec05 on June 12th 2009 at 10:55am
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...probably because the building was not originally built as a residence, but as a phone company's switch station.

posted by amt230 on June 12th 2009 at 12:08pm
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hence why i just did a new screen door. ahem..... (hopefully a post coming soon!)

posted by puck on June 12th 2009 at 12:47pm
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I like doors painted different colors. I lived in New England for awhile where they do that and it is oh so charming.

posted by jessroo on June 12th 2009 at 6:47pm
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I recently fulfilled a dream and painted my front door Waverly "Passion Pink" and I am LOVING it every time I look at my house!

posted by kuroneko on June 15th 2009 at 12:26pm
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I just fulfilled a dream and painted my front door Waverly's "Pink Passion" and I am loving it every time I look at my front door.