Home and Garden : Front door design speaks volumes about you We have spent the past few weeks talking to a garden designer, Ken Wilson Max, and learnt what options were available for beautifying our gardens using very little water. We started at the gate to our properties and moved up the garden and today we are at the front door, the entrance to your home.

BY HELEN DEVMAC

Often visitors may end up at the front door without necessarily stepping inside. It is therefore important that what is at the front door typifies the elegance and style of your home. It is your shop window and your best advertisement.

But wait a minute, just where is the entrance to your home ? Is it the door leading into your hallway, kitchen, the door into the lounge or the garage? So, first things first. Let us decide which entrance will be used by visitors and guests to your home.

While every entrance should be appealing, there is no doubt that the main entrance has to have a very special appeal. A few tips on how to achieve this:

Eliminate all paraphernalia at the front door entrance — no shoes, toys, mutsvairo and dustpans should be left to clutter the entrance. Ensure that the area immediately before the front door is kept clean and neat, with an attractive door mat on which your guests may clean their shoes before making an entrance.

Shoes left at the front door may create the impression that all visitors to your home must remove their shoes before stepping inside. I think this is only true of mosques and other sacred institutions. I don’t know of any home to which this applies, but I stand to be corrected.

The door is the centre point of your entrance, so make sure that it is in keeping with the style of your house. There are indeed many varieties from which to choose.

Front doors must be safe, functional and weather resistant, and while we want to deter thieves from gaining entry, we also want them to be attractive.

This can be easily achieved by the use of bright colours. We do not have to stick to brown wooden doors because colour may be used to uplift an otherwise dull and dreary entrance.

And when thinking colour, let your imagination soar. Choose colours that make a statement. Imagine a leaf green door with a tub of colourful nasturtium, an abundant display of yellows and oranges tumbling around.

Choose plants that will flourish in that environment — red geranium, pink and blue petunia. The possibilities are endless.

For keen gardeners, there are many landscaping ideas that can be brought to the front door. Apart from colourful flower tubs, hanging baskets with the season’s colourful blooms are equally attractive.

And remember the dry garden! Aspects of this may be incorporated on to your front entrance making clever use of various stones, colours and textures to create a stunning feature at your entrance.

A large and sturdy door may need other influences to make your entrance more dramatic. The use of wrought iron whorls over the wood and it may achieve this.

Adding a window portal to the door is not only functional in that it allows you to see who may be at your door, but it has the advantage of providing additional lighting to your hallway. If you are going for wrought iron designs, you might consider wrought iron lamps in for any lighting features at your front door.

Lighting is not only important for your security, but when used correctly, it adds instant glamour through careful application of overhead and down lights on either side of your front door.

Door knockers may be used to great advantage, giving your entrance that old world appeal, but they should be polished to a high gloss to give the right effect. And any bells must be kept clean and grime-free.

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