A Plain House - The Front Door

These paintings are all by Dwayne Warwick from allposters.com

The scenes do not so any porches, so I'm including them to illustrate what can be done to a plain house without a porch. If you stripped away the foliage, you might wonder as a home dweller, what to do to make the outside more interesting. Here, you can see all the shapes that bushes and bulbs can create just outside the front door. Add a little old bench or stool, or something you don't mind being outside, and it creates more interest.

Here, plants in pots make quite an artistic scene, especially when one is on a seat. The pots are as important as the plants, though. I prefer the containers to be as ornate as possible, painted, perhaps, in a favorite color, and on a pedestal of some kind, so that looks like a huge, fancy outdoor vase. Do you recall paintings of Victorian homes where huge vases that looked like cups, with handles on both sides, were filled with flowering plants, decked on both sides of the stoop? I quite like the flower pots that look like giant baskets, also. Each homemaker has to determine what she likes and what makes her smile and feel enthusiastic about her house.

Windowboxes also add depth and shape to an otherwise plain house. There are now some very simple type you can get at Dollar Tree and other discount stores. They are made of wrought iron and lined with a peat pad. You just add your favorite bedding plants. This entire thing hooks over the window sill.

As our visitor from India said, there are garlands that some people put over their front doors, that are very interesting and vary in color and theme from door to door. It reminds me of our wreaths and garlands that sometimes grace our doors. They are quite eye catching if done up really carefully in matching or contrasting colors of the house.

If you think you lack the skill or the money to add any front door beauty, then here is an idea: Gather up all the fake stems you have in the colors you like, and tie them with a rubber band. Over that tie a bright wired French ribbon. Hang it upside down on a screw-in cup hook on your front door. You can also use baskets and stuff them with fake flowers that withstand the weather, sticking the stems in florists foam, also available at dollar stores. These front door arrangements can be put in boxes, cones, containers and cans of all kinds. A try a half-wreath, or swag on the front door. You can get them for very little money (under five dollars sometimes) or make them yourself.