An entrance with 'home' appeal

We have often looked at how to give a home curb appeal, but what about give your house 'home' appeal. Kimba at a soft place has transformed the entrance to her house to welcome guests to her home. Two simple projects that you can do in a day and won't cost much, are easy ways to transform your entrance.

 

The first project she tackled was to add two painted planters as a personal touch. These beauties add a splash of colour and make you feel instantly welcome. I love the ferns that are planted in the pots and have a few of these in the garden, although I do believe they are classed as invasive and no longer sold at nurseries. However, there are plenty of other low-maintenance options for planting into pots and containers.

For this project you will need a couple of plastic pots. You will find these in the garden section at your local Builders Warehouse, or perhaps you already have some that can be given a makeover. You can also use fibre cement pots, ceramic or terra cotta pots for this project. The pots in this project were sprayed with Rust-Oleum 2X gloss black, but there are plenty of other colours and finishes to choose from. Rust-Oleum Universal oil-rubbed bronze is an eye-catching finish for pots and no one will even know they were painted !

 

 

Give each pot a light, even coat of spray paint and let this dry before applying a second light, even coat. It's always better to do your spray painting outdoors, but not on a windy day. Because we know that plant pots tend to disappear sometimes, place some bricks at the bottom of the pot to make it heavier and therefore not as easy to walk away with. Fill up with potting soil and pot up your container with a selection of foliage and colour.

The next project is to buy any standard, boring doormat and to add your own custom design.

Use masking tape to cover up the areas that you don't want painted. One border was done using the 10cm-wide masking tape and a smaller one with 2cm-wide tape, leaving about 2cm between the two. Use a ruler to make sure that borders are even the whole way around the mat. Since there is some texture to my mat, the masking tape doesn’t stick perfectly. That’s ok. You can use a letter or design to mask off in the centre.

Use any Rust-Oleum SATIN spray paint to cover the mat once you have masked off. It should only need one quick, even coat across the entire surface.
NOTE: Don't angle the spray but spray from directly over the top to avoid any spray paint getting underneath the masking tape.

Wait for the paint to dry completely before peeling off the masking tape to reveal your new design.