Whether you’re thinking about renovating your current home or planning to build a new one, one important factor influencing your design cues should be making your home feel inviting for your family and for your guests. Everyone has their own ideas about features that attract them to a home, so here are just a few broad themes to stimulate your own flow of ideas.
Front Garden and Pathways
Creating a welcoming entrance to your home starts at the street, so why not develop an attractive blend of natural features leading to your front door? A lovingly manicured patch of green grass bordered by a path made of pavers or pebbles and a garden bed draws attention towards a front door complemented by some soft, low shrubs. Keeping the lawn and garden well mulched helps them to retain moisture and adds compost, keeping them nourished and healthy.
Placing some low LED lights along the path to the front door also adds homely warmth for people arriving in the evening. These solar-powered lights are inexpensive and easy to install as they require no wiring. Instead, the sun charges a battery during the day and runs the light during the evening on a timer. Set and forget.
Windows
One of the things that stands out most on a house is its windows, as they will appear numerous times around the front and sides of the property to any passersby or visitors. Having secure, modern windows that work with the overall aesthetics of your home is essential for making a good first impression on those who see it. Nowadays there are countless options for window design, and there are plenty of window companies out there ready to help you fit a new set of frames if you feel your house could benefit from it. You could opt for a unique aluminium design that requires little maintenance or a more traditional vinyl frame if you’d prefer.
The Front Door
As the main gateway to your home’s interior and an item visible from the street more often than not, an attractive front door generates a welcoming first impression. The front door is an ideal way to express the character of your home and the people within it, and the possibilities are limited only by your imagination. For instance, a wood finish exudes a feeling of warmth and comfort, whether the finish be natural or stained. Or perhaps a brightly painted, artistic design is more your cup of tea. The websites of builders like Coral Homes can be great places for inspiration; click here to view some inspirational home designs featuring a variety of welcoming front doors.
A genkan
To add something of an exotic flavour to your home, perhaps a genkan is an addition to consider. In Japanese homes, the genkan is a space beyond the front door that is not quite considered ‘inside’. It’s where you remove your shoes and replace them with slippers before continuing into the home proper.
For authentic and practical touches, a built-in cabinet keeps piles of shoes from cluttering the entrance and some decorative curly bamboo enhances the genkan’s Eastern ambience. Removing your shoes also helps to reduce wear on carpets and keep floors free of outside dirt.
Keep It Clean
While the tips above focus on design features, even the most beautifully designed homes may lose their appeal is left unkempt. Keeping your home neat and tidy does consume time and effort, but the results are worth it. If your family members are able, if not necessarily willing without some sort of tangible reward, spreading the load of regular home chores lightens the burden across the board and gets them done more quickly. For a finishing touch, why not conclude the cleaning with a fresh room fragrance?
How do you make your home more inviting? Share your tips and ideas below.