Apparently I am still stuck at the front door; bear with me. The architecture of homes in any given community varies widely. We are, after all, the land of the free and the home of the free speaking. But one issue applies to all-the front door needs backing up with containers and plantings of sufficient scale to make a visible difference. This front door is overscaled and imposing; small non-descript containers would add nothing. My rule: any container that does not contribute substantially and solidly is not the right choice. Pass them by. If smaller scaled pots appeal to you, consider some pedestals underneath them. The big idea-get the pots, and the plantings close to eye level . What you have to look down on, you won’t love so much. You will appreciate, and maybe love, what you see, eye to eye.
As I said, not all front doors are created equal. This home, symmetrical in every detail, has an awkwardly and asymmetrically placed front door. The landscape which disguises that placement-and the overscaled single planter centrally placed, do not frame the door. They do a different job; they both signal how to get to that door. The container says ” Welcome. Come up here; I will tell you where to go next. Visual maps-containers can be just that.
Some homes are very large. Though this door is massive, it seems quite intimate in scale given the overall size of the home-as it should. Who wants to be intimidated by a front door, unless they are at the Met, or the Lincoln Memorial? This series of four French Jardin du Soleil boxes provides weighty company to the door, and balances entrance to edifice. The v- shaped lead pots flanking the front door need not be so large; they are just two of six. The stair piers provide the height those pots need. The planting height, topping out at just below the lanterns, frames a view without obstructing a single detail.
Some front doors lie at the back of a roofed porch. This makes the door hard to see. 15 years ago when I was renovating the shop building, the architect told me I needed front doors with glass. He told me my clients would not feel comfortable opening a door into a space they could not see into, in advance. Speakeasies and poker joints have solid doors with a peephole-retail stores telegraph their entrance moves, and thereby say welcome. This front door is dark. The planters flanking the porch are tall. You can only see their topknots of white New Guinea impatiens from the street. As dark as the door might be, the landscape, containers and plantings arranged around that door are light.
This front door is not so far from the city sidewalk. A centrally placed rusty obelisk bisects that door-though the walk is short, there is a route around that obelisk that has interest. The obelisk, and its placement-on purpose. Pots on that walk would be obstructive, and not in keeping with the overall structure of the landscape. Two urns on pedestals, widely placed to the sides, do a great job of saying welcome, gracefully.
Some driveways slide by the front door. A perpendicular drive up to a formal home-not the usual. Beautiful containers can bring formality at the same time that they signal the slow down you are here zone. These subtly exquisite French boxes, planted tall with arborvitae are the best version of a traffic light I have seen. It can be of help, to picture yourself as a guest coming to your own home. Containers, properly done, can give the visual cues you have in mind.
This arts and crafts bungalow has a low slung profile, and a giant front porch. There are a number of shallow, and not so wide stairs to that porch. The stair piers are narrow. The placement of two cast stone Italian vases in the landscape adds width to that approach; the glazed French footed pots a top those stair piers are in scale with their greater base. More importantly, those pots do not need to be big-they are part of a bigger scheme that says hello. The Italian vases, the French pots and their greater landscape, shoulder the work of saying hello.
A giant pair of Bulbeck lead egg cups flank this front door. Not that you could make that out from here. In the interest of addressing a proper scale, a planting in ground can strengthen the impact of a pair of pots from a distance. Up close, the lead cups reads beautifully. The lesson here? There are multiple views to consider, in choosing containers. The near view, the far view, the view from inside.
The last of what I have to say about containers at the front door-some choices may not work so well, but a lot of choices do work. I love these Kenneth Lynch lead round containers. The choice of the architect, they beautifully echo the tower window with the round detail. I admire that they in no way impinge on an appreciation of the architecture. What would I have done? I have not thought about it. I have my own home where I can do as I please. A client’s point of view is very important; people have reasons for their choices-you just have to ask. Were they ever to ask how I see this, I would tell them. But for now, I just plant them. No designer can really rescue you. Trust your own eye, and use it. Photograph that front door, and take that photograph with you, when you are shopping for pots. Should you feel you need help, ask. There may be someone out there that could look at your pictures, and answer in a way that makes sense to you.
