Many homes are let down by their front entrances, the front entrance is the one part of the home that you can use to make a clear yet stylish statement. Using colour, detail and accessories your front entrance can add value as well as a good impression to your home. It’s not even hard to do, once you’ve come to a decision on what style you want to go for, you can crack on and create your elegant entrance.

Decisions, Decisions

When it comes to the design of your front entrance, you need to consider what kind of style you wish to go for. Remembering that the design and style are a reflection of your style and creativity, you must keep in mind what you want people seeing the entrance to think. If you want to give people the ‘wow’ factor and stand out from the rest of the street, you could use bold colours, which are actually very in this season. Colours such as purple, red and some even pink are becoming rapidly more and more popular across the country. If bold colours and statements aren’t really for you, then why not go for a low-key design. Experiment with creams, pale greens and even black, try and mirror this with your windows too if you want to create a whole brought together image.

DIY Elegant Entrance – Girls Guide to Updating Your Front Door

Do It Yourself

Now the fun part, creating your ideal entrance, yourself. The great thing about doing something like this yourself is you know you’re going to get exactly what you want. Your designs will be unique to you and you can compromise where needed if necessary. The best part about this girly guide is, you don’t need to unhinge the door. We know most men would take pride in unscrewing the hinges and carrying the door to a work bench to begin work on it, but realistically it’s not going to work like that for us girls. So, keep the door where it is, ensuring the weather is pleasant and not torrential downpour (you’d be surprised with some people) and you can get to work. Start by sanding down the entire door, this will ensure any previous finishes, varnish, paint, wax is removed and your paint will dry properly. Have a quick clean up, very girly, but we don’t like to work in mess. Ensure you get rid of all dust and dirt that generated through the sanding process, this way you don’t need to worry about any sticking to the fresh paint.

Cover your outskirts with masking tape, to prevent getting any paint on the outer surfaces. Once you open the paint, make sure you stir it well with a stick, this just helps mix the paint together properly and remove any clumps. Paint the entire door, best to start with the outer and work your way in. Start with just one coat, then leave that to dry.

When adding the second and third layer of paint, ensure to use up and down brush strokes. This sounds obvious, but if you happen to go sideways at any point the streaks will dry in that form and it will be clear to see once dry. You’re best sticking to the up and down strokes for the best results.

Once you’ve allowed your paint to properly dry, I’d usually leave it at least 12 hours, you can add your details/door furniture. Adding door furniture can really create a gorgeous image for your home. It adds detail and character without having to make much of a statement. You’re best sticking to colour schemes, if you have a bold coloured door then silver is usually the best colour when it comes to accessorising.

Whereas if you have a white or cream door you could open yourself up to black details or even brass. One great feature to help create your elegant entrance would be a doorknocker or house number. This feature works best positioned in the centre of the door towards the top, the reason for this being that its central and in line with vision. Once you’ve chosen your main feature, why not add a letter plate or letterbox. Some people chose to have letterboxes attached to the side of the house, but the traditional style is to have it attracted to your front door. This way you can receive your post internally and you don’t have to nip outside every morning to retrieve it from the outer box.

Now that you have added your touch to your front door you can take a step back and enjoy your hard work. You now have your own elegant entrance which you can rest assured will be envied by many as they drive past, or at least we hope it is!