Your first impression of your modern cottage begins on the drive leading up to it. You’re drawn to the fabric of the neighborhood. When you come upon the house, you realize it responds to the neighborhood and community. It respects the regional vernacular, reflecting the environmental, cultural and historical context in which it exists.
There’s No Second Chance for a First Impression
Starting from the street or driveway, your modern cottage gives the first impression of you. As you approach it, you want to be impressed. You want to be wowed! Or, perhaps, you want the approach to your modern cottage to convey a warm welcome and a sense of comfort at the mere thought of opening the door and going in.
Create an Experience for Your Visitors
The path leading to your modern cottage and the home itself looks integrated by using materials and shapes that reinforce the home’s character. Exterior lighting makes a great impact and helps to define the path when it is dark. In day or night, the entrance is clear. Through the use of human scale items such as columns, benches, mailboxes, stone steps and textures, a clear path to the front door is defined.
Formal or Casual? It’s Up to You!
Should the front entry be formal or casual? A formal/traditional entry is tall with columns, designed and built to a scale that’s meant to impress. Sometimes the entry is a side door. Built to human scale and in lieu of columns, the side door is meant to welcome too, yet in a different way. When using this door, you imagine that there will be just the right place for your shoes, coat, hat, keys and umbrella. And, often a home with a formal/traditional entry offers a more casual entry as well. Both have a covering, a place to stand, and an area where the home receives you and guests.
Whether you know it or not, a carefully crafted journey of paths and places from the street to the receiving area of your modern cottage readies you for what’s inside. And, at the end of the day, if it feels good to you, you’ll be happy to open the door.
All Design by Point One Architects
Photo Credits:
Cover: Warren Jagger
Gable Entry: Warren Jagger
Night Entry: Point One Architects
Great Spot: Jeff Evans
Blue Door: Jeff Evans
