What's So Special About My Front Door?
By Jeanette Joy Fisher

"The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live."
- Flora Whittemore

Your front door welcomes all to your home. This declarative statement of your house -- the exclamation point of your home -- needs to sing out your welcoming note.

First impressions are not just for guests. Generally, we do not receive as much company as we think we do. We lead such busy lives and simply do not entertain or visit friends often enough.

Decorating your home to impress others is not as important as decorating your home for your own pleasure. Create a welcoming and warm retreat in which you feel great joy just to arrive. Do you feel happy when you see your home in the distance? Does your first glimpse of home bring a smile to your face?

A problem with many new homes is that developers do not provide a separate walkway to your front door. To make yourself and your guests feel more welcome than a car, provide a separate front walkway from the street to the front door. Don't make guests walk around cars and trip on driveway edges to navigate to the entrance.

Feeling Welcome

Flowers lining the walkway provide a warm reception. Cheerful flowers in loud colors near the entry tell the world that you care about your home. Extras like water fountains, fishponds, cooing peace doves, and scented vegetation make all feel gladly received.

Sing Out the Address

Proud address numbers are bold and beautiful. Avoid tacky peel and stick numbers. Brass numbers need to have screw holes in them, not pronged ends that eventually work loose. As in the past, gold-gilded numbers look elegant on glass doors. Gold-gilded vinyl transfer numbers look especially exquisite in transom windows.

Welcoming Accessories:

Wind chimes add pleasure to our sense of hearing.

Potted plants such as soft ferns (shun unfriendly spiked plants and thorns near the doorway).

Floral baskets with bright yellow and white flowers show up better at night.

A pair of rocking chairs, a double glider, or a porch swing invites neighbors to stop and chat.

A doormat that not only saves your floors but also looks welcoming!

What Color Should I Paint My Front Door?

Unless your front door is a beautiful wood, paint it a joyful color. Your entry door should be a different color than the rest of your house. Warm happy colors include the shades of red and yellow: burgundy, claret, rust, terra cotta, deep amber, and sunny yellow. Cool happy colors of green include apple, sage, and forest green.

After spending time and effort creating a wonderful entryway into your home, use it! Why enter from the garage or back door? Treat yourself as well as you treat your guests. Come home through your welcoming front door!

(c) Copyright 2004, Jeanette J. Fisher. All rights reserved.

Professor Jeanette Fisher, author of Doghouse to Dollhouse for Dollars, Joy to the Home, and other books teaches Real Estate Investing and Design Psychology. For more articles, tips, reports, newsletters, and sales flyer template, see http://www.doghousetodollhousefordollars.com/pages/5/index.htm

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeanette_Joy_Fisher

What You Need To Know When Choosing An Exterior Door
By Bill Prudehome

Exterior doors for your home come in a variety of materials, colors, and designs. New materials, such as vinyl have provided manufacturers with the ability to create exterior doors that need little maintenance, provide security, energy efficiency and add value to your home.

The front door of a home greats your guests and its styling says a lot about the home owner.

Wood

Wood exterior doors are desirable for their natural beauty and structural strength. They are widely available in a number of different woods ranging from pine, oak, cedar, mahogany, and walnut. They do however require significant protection from the elements as well as regular maintenance. Manufacturers are required to treat wood with a preservative to help prevent rotting but ongoing maintenance is the only way to ensure that your wood exterior door lasts and performs.

Steel

Steel exterior doors are actually made from a combination of materials. The interior structural components (rails and stiles) are often wood, the inner core is filed with insulating foam and the outer skin is made of galvanized steel. The inner wood structure gives it stability and strength. The foam core provides good insulation and the steel skins are durable, resistant to warping or rotting and require little maintenance.

Steel exterior doors can be painted any number of colors. They are also available with pre-finished PVC coatings that simulate a wood-grain finish.

Fiberglass

Fiberglass exterior doors are relatively new and are constructed in the same fashion as steel exterior doors with wood stiles and rails and an inner core of injected foam. The outer skin is fiberglass. Fiberglass is very strong, durable and energy efficient. In addition to a flat painted surface, fiberglass can also be embossed to give it the texture and appearance of wood.

Vinyl

Vinyl exterior doors are also relatively new. They employ a multi-chambered vinyl structure for both the frames and panels (sashes) utilizing a steel, aluminum, or wood re-enforcement to add strength and prevent distortion. Vinyl doors are good thermal insulators because of their multi-chambered designs and offer good thermal performance ratings. Vinyl is a very durable material and is resistant to extreme weather conditions. It is also very resistant to breakage and provides good protection against forced entry through the door. Vinyl doors will not rust, dent or scratch, and require no special maintenance.

For additional information on exterior doors for your home or other renovation projects, visit Renovation Headquarters.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bill_Prudehome

When To Have Sliding Closet Doors
By Arturo Ronzon

The sliding closet door is one option available when thinking about installing or purchasing closets for a room. If you only have very limited space for a closet, then the sliding closet door will make sure that you can have access to the inside of your closet without having to worry about banging the door on the walls or the foot of your bed. If you are worried about sliding the doors too fast and making lots of noise, then worry not because there are sliding closet doors that will not slam when reaching the end of their travel. These doors come with silent rails and a damper system to slow the doors down at full travel.

Sliding closet doors come in many different types. You have the traditional wooden sliding closet door that gives the whole closet a warm look. Different types of wood or wood laminate with all the different combinations of wood color and grains, will give different effects to a room. To add a bit more functionality to the doors, you can opt to mount mirrors on them. Now you can really save wall space when mounting mirrors on the sliding closet doors. Mirrors will also give a small room a good sense of depth. Because of this effect, there are many different sliding closet door options that have its surface completely covered in mirrors to use the depth effect to the maximum.

Instead of mirrors, you can opt for glass sliding closet doors. These glass doors will give an open look to your closet and could give the room a more open feel. You have to keep your closet organized though or else the glass sliding doors would be counter-productive. If glass is still your fancy but you don’t really want everything inside of your closet to be seen, then frosted or stained glass sliding closet doors would be the other options. Otherwise, a combination of sliding glass and wooden doors could be the solution.

If space is limited, then the sliding closet doors is definitely the way to go. But even if you are not constrained by space limitations, the sliding closet doors will offer some nice decorating options that could enhance the overall theme of your room.

Want to learn more about Closet Doors?, feel free to visit us at: http://www.aboutclosets.net/Articles/Closet_Design.php

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Arturo_Ronzon

Door Tips

Whether replacing an already existing door in your home or adding a new door altogether, there are a few key points to keep in mind during the process.

1. Determine what function the door is going to serve. Will it be mainly decorative? Are you going to need it to serve as a sound-deadening door? Figuring these things out will help you make better choices for what you want.
   
   
2. There are a few types of doors, each with benefits and drawbacks:
   
   
   
   • Hollow Core Doors: These are probably most common type of interior doors used.  Hollow-core doors are light, affordable, easy to install and replace, and can be painted or stained. The negatives for the hollow-core door are that they puncture easily, and are not effective for keeping out sound.
     
     
   • Solid Core Doors: Solid core doors will cost you more, but they are more durable and have a superior sound insulation quality to the hollow-core doors. They can be painted or stained as well.
     
     
   • Medium Denisty Fiberboard (MDF) Doors: MDF's are very dense and have a flat surface. MDF's are very versatile and a middle of the road alternative to hollow core and solid core doors.
     
     
   • Metal Doors:  Metal doors are typically used as exterior doors.  Typically they are less expensive than solid core wood doors.  They can be painted and hold up very well to the elements.
     
      
3. If you have spent the money to insulate and sound proof the walls, then spend the extra money on the doors to ensure that they are insulated against sound as well.
   
   
4. Choosing the right door is important for energy conservation reasons as well.  Having the right door can save you money on heating costs in the winter, and air-conditioning costs in the summer.
   
   
5. With exterior doors keep in mind that damaged weatherstripping results in energy loss, as well as single layer glass doors. If going with glass, invest in multi-layered glass doors to help conserve energy and save money down the road.
   
   
6. Swinging exterior doors have a much tighter seal than sliding doors, making them more efficient at insulation and energy conservation.
   
   

Door installation contractors may also provide the following services:

• Carpentry
• Window Installation
• General Contractor
• Handyman