Renovating
How to Make a Great First Impression With Your Front Door
Put your personal stamp on your front door, especially if it's in a corridor with neighbouring doors
In an interview with The Straits Times about designers and homeowners personalising their HDB flats over the past weekend, I shared how many more homeowners are putting their mark on their apartments these days. Well, it’s not just tweaking the standard-issue layout by hacking internal walls or commissioning a characterful interior design that homeowners are putting their personal style statement on their flats with; some bold, creative ones are also including the front door.
In this maisonette, the front door is a bold pink, seen from within the foyer. A bright orange ceiling contrasts the pink in a delicious ice-pop combo.
7 elements of a welcoming apartment entrance
7 elements of a welcoming apartment entrance
Here’s the door viewed from the outside – still bold pink!
This lime green door is layered with a wire mesh screen door bearing the flat’s unit number. Quirky bird decals add to this pop of fun in an otherwise utilitarian-looking corridor.
Take the quiz! What colour should your front door be?
Take the quiz! What colour should your front door be?
2. Follow a theme
In this white-on-white-on-white foyer, a metal gate with horizontal lines comes before the tiled foyer space and a barn-style front door. All these design elements provide a clue to the minimalist-industrial style of the apartment’s interiors.
In this white-on-white-on-white foyer, a metal gate with horizontal lines comes before the tiled foyer space and a barn-style front door. All these design elements provide a clue to the minimalist-industrial style of the apartment’s interiors.
Intricately carved wooden doors are protected by a metal gate in this modern Balinese-style condo unit. The green, white and black colour scheme in this front door combination reflects the interior’s colour palette, too.
3. Go industrial with wire mesh
A popular choice among hipster homeowners, wire mesh gates allow for gate customisation where the unit numbers are laser-cut into the metal plate.
Read more about this home
A popular choice among hipster homeowners, wire mesh gates allow for gate customisation where the unit numbers are laser-cut into the metal plate.
Read more about this home
In this flat, the house number is spelled out in discreet but contrasting letters on the metal plate of the wire mesh gate.
A wire mesh gate is semi-transparent so whether it’s the generic front door or a customised one, you have an entrance that makes a sleek impression.
Take it up a notch with custom-designed wire mesh.
4. Make your numbers count
Laser-cutting allows you to imprint even a simple front door/gate with your house number. In this apartment, it’s in keeping with a sleek minimalist interior.
Read more about this home
Laser-cutting allows you to imprint even a simple front door/gate with your house number. In this apartment, it’s in keeping with a sleek minimalist interior.
Read more about this home
5. Keep it old school
Folding gates are both retro and industrial – perfect for a pre-war Art Deco flat…
Read more about this home
Folding gates are both retro and industrial – perfect for a pre-war Art Deco flat…
Read more about this home
… as well as a maisonette.
Another old school touch: The retro style of this flat shows through, and in, its retro geometric metal front gate.
And in this corner-unit maisonette, the old school look is brought in with the use of ventilation blocks that semi-screen the actual front door and create an entry nook.
Read more about this home
Read more about this home
6. Don’t let a private lift lobby stop you
Even if your apartment door isn’t one of a few along your floor, you can (and maybe should) still have a personal style statement at the entrance. This contemporary timber screen-style sliding door provides both transparency and privacy should the lift door accidentally open to this unit.
Even if your apartment door isn’t one of a few along your floor, you can (and maybe should) still have a personal style statement at the entrance. This contemporary timber screen-style sliding door provides both transparency and privacy should the lift door accidentally open to this unit.
Here is a view from inside the apartment looking out to the private lift lobby.
TELL US
Do you have a distinctive, designed front door? Share a photo in the Comments section, or share with us if you think all apartment doors should remain generic (and why).
Do you have a distinctive, designed front door? Share a photo in the Comments section, or share with us if you think all apartment doors should remain generic (and why).
A bold hue makes your home easy to spot if it’s in a line of similarly designed doors in a condo or HDB corridor. Pick up the colour with accessories, such as a coordinating welcome mat and topiaries.