First impressions really do count not just in our personal connections but with the appearance of the front facade of our home. We read a great deal about focal points, and they are important, but we talk very little in regard to how our home looks to one who is passing by walking or in a car.
This is a great entrance to a 1921 home that has been renovated inside and out. The urn as a focal point stops the eye for a moment but then you are brought on up to the front door.
Urn as a focal point on the walk
Hayrack on the gate at the side of the home
A big turn off for me is a guessing game when it comes to the location of the front door, sometimes there are homes with two front doors, which one do I go to? Manytimes, there are so many plantings that the front door is obscured. I know there are people who prefer a private effect (like Frank Lloyd Wright who had his front door on the side of the house rather than the front).
This is a large home with lots of landscaping, but there is still a pathway leading up to the front door which is visible from the street.
This stone pathway leads up to the front door on an angle.
Even though the lot is heavily planted, there is a full view of the front door from all angles.
This is a view of the lower level plantings on this lot, your eye is constantly taken up until you reach the front door.
Again, this home has many plantings, but the front door is left free for the eye to lead you there.
If you can imagine, this picture does not do the landscape justice, since the perennial gardens go all the way around the house, too bad about that crocked stop sign, but the owners have planted on property owned by the village.
This is a home I constantly watch through the seasons, all those mounds you see are mums. See, I am not too bad about buying mums compared to this! Notice the clear pathway to the front door.
This is a very large home with expanses of Limelight Hydrangea on each side of the front walk. I have one Limelight, so I was blown away by the expanse of these hydrangeas used as a hedge on each side of the walk.
This was a stunning look with plantings flanking the walk and then diverse plantings on each side of the front door.
I have determined that I do not have the lot width to do plantings this far down on my walk (at least this is what my husband thinks) but it does give me ideas on how to handle the plantings on the sides of the walk.
I really am going to remove those thorns from the front of my house (roses) and redo with some interesting evergreens, perennials and annuals.
