One of the most important components to the front yard landscape is the space between where guest park their cars and the front door. Creating an experience for your visitors as they exit their cars and approach the front door should create a memorable experience that is easy to navigate and gives no doubt which way they should go. So how do you a make an entrance that will welcome your guests, point them in the right direction and frame your house? It’s not easy considering a lot of houses these days have multiple doors on the front of the house or driveways that lead guests to park their cars right in front of the garage doors and walk back around towards the front of the house. I hear homeowners complain often that guests are always coming to the wrong door or worse, they enter through the gargage and mudroom.
As a landscape designer for the last 25 years, the one thing I can say without a shadow of doubt is people ALWAYS take the path of least resistance. If the most convenient place to park in your driveway is right in front of the garage doors and they are open, that’s where people will try to enter the house. If a house has two doors on the front facade, everything else being equal, people will go to the first door they come to. Creating a more generous walkway and a more direct walk to the door you want people to enter is always a good idea.
In this New Milford landscape, a parking court was created right in front of the house, long before anyone reaches the garage doors. Although this house has a second door, there is no mistake where you’re supposed to park and which door your supposed to go to . A nice 6′ wide walkway right to the main entrance decides that for you! Plants, artwork and a nice covered entrance does the rest.
Garden art creates a focal point in this front yard landscape in New Milford, CT.
