Feeling welcomed as we enter our home adds to its sense of sacredness. Entrances, including exterior and interior spaces, provide a place for us to physically and psychologically transition from the clamor of the outside world into the refuge of our home. Here we greet guests and deposit boots, coats, mail and keys. The quality of this transition is important because it sets the tone for our experience in the entire house.

Recommendations

A beautiful and well defined entrance is an important element to your home. It invites you closer and keeps visitors from becoming frustrated or confused trying to find your front door. Consider trimming vegetation or adding a decorative gate to identify the entrance to your home if it is obscured in some way. Gardens, flower pots, curved stone walkways, and outdoor lighting add beauty and also help direct visitors to your door.

Engaging the senses of sight, sound and smell provides a powerful connection between your body and your home. Adding a water feature, wind chimes or small sculpture near your entrance adds a visual and auditory focal point as you move from the street to the door. Inside your home, a painting, mirror, or fresh flowers in a vase stimulate the sense of sight and smell.

A covered porch or large overhanging roof at the front door provides shelter from snow, rain or the hot sun. This gives a sense of physical and psychological comfort and protection as you transition into your home – like a mother’s welcoming arms.

Once inside, the foyer needs to be large enough that you don’t feel cramped but not so large that you feel overwhelmed. 8’ x 10’ tends to be a comfortable size but larger or smaller sizes work well too. If your foyer opens directly into the main room of your home, consider defining the area by changing the floor material to tile (6’ x 6’ is an adequate size) or lowering the ceiling above to create a transition space.

Place a small shelf or table near the door to drop keys and mail. This is also a nice place to put artwork or display meaningful objects. If this is new construction, keep in mind that you’ll want to provide places for coats, boot, papers, and keys and outlets for phone chargers and table lamps. These small conveniences make you feel cared for and welcomed home.

Rituals such as lighting a candle before a friend or family member arrives home, leaving a night light on with a midnight snack when someone is expected late or placing fresh flowers on an entry table each week can help you and those you live with enjoy coming home. Consider providing a place for such welcoming rituals.

Secondary entrances, the places we enter our home on a daily basis, need consideration as well. Often we enter through a garage, laundry room or back door. The same care taken to welcome guests needs to be taken to welcome ourselves home.

Remedies

Small Entries can make a person feel cramped but will appear larger if painted a light color such as off-white or beige or pale shades of blue, green or purple. Consider using glass block for partition walls to give a less enclosed feeling. Using mirrored doors for closets in the area or hanging a large mirror on the wall will visually expand the space.

Dark Entries can be brightened up by using a glass door or adding a window to the side or above the door. Solar tubes or skylights are a great way to bring sunshine into your entry as well. Washing the ceiling with cove lighting is an alternative when other options aren’t possible and using natural color fluorescent bulbs maximizes the effect yet is energy efficient. Soft colors on the walls, floors and ceiling are reflective and will brighten the area as well.

Towering Entries can feel overwhelming. To bring a tall entry back into human scale the visual height needs to be lowered. Consider placing a band of trim between 7-9 feet high and painting the walls above the trim to match the ceiling and painting the walls below the trim a darker color making the ceiling appear lower. Warm shades of paint will help to scale-down the space as well. Lowering the ceiling at the entry door by placing a large horizontal plant shelf above (2-3 feet deep) will add a sense of drama to the vaulted entry with the contrasting height and also relate to the human body’s height.

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