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When next you’re walking through your neighbourhood, look at people’s front entrances. Do they delight and beckon you? Do they hold up a sign that says, “Stop! Or maybe just bore you to tears? Those entryways — both the porch and door and, just inside them, the foyer — are gaining increasing attention. Maybe it’s our desire, sparked by too much time in front of screens, to welcome the real world back into our lives. Or maybe it’s the wish to stand out in a sometimes-anonymous life. Whatever the reason, Dean Caillier of Dean Caillier Design says he gets many requests to redesign front entries because they lack definition. You can add pilasters or new trim around the door, paint it a bright red, or showcase the entry with lights, he says, “but you really need something that defines it, something like a canopy with subtle brackets. It doesn’t have to be big columns. You need architectural features that punch it out and say, ‘Hello! Caillier did some major punching out during a renovation with Kirk Builders (1996) Ltd. of a 1905 Edwardian home on Clemow Avenue that captured a prize at the 2015 Housing Design Awards in Ottawa.

He added a two-storey front porch that connects the home with the street, curved stair railings that seem to embrace you, and a custom black front door. Part of an overall reno that exceeded $1 million, the front entry is not one you could ignore if you were strolling through the neighbourhood. Dressing up doesn’t have to be ultraexpensive. A few years back, Amsted Design-Build and Chuck Mills Residential Design & Development transformed the tired front elevation a 1960s home by adding a Colonial gable and tapered columns to an existing porch and tacking on a new front deck. The award-winning endeavour spiked the home’s curb appeal and provided a great sitting area for under $60,000. In most cases, people want a unique front entry that captures their personality, says Amsted’s Steve Barkhouse. They may feel shy during design consultations about expressing that wish to stand out, “but that’s what they want, and they lead you there,” he says. The City of Ottawa is totally on board.

For example, its guidelines for small-scale infill housing call for an inviting streetscape that emphasizes the ground floor and street façade via elements like principal entries and porches, with the latter promoting “street-oriented interaction.” Visual clues such as elevation and landscaping can help draw the eye to a home’s main entrance, says architect Bill Ritcey of Barry J. Hobin and Associates Architects. In the case of Ravenhill Common, an award-winning townhome project by Hobin and Springcress Properties, archways and free-standing columns abutting the sidewalk provide visual concentration points that signal you’re entering a cluster of homes, he says. An intriguing bit of design, they simultaneously separate the building from the street and funnel the street into the building. A front entry can go wrong when, among other missteps, “the doors aren’t set out proportionately to the rest of the elevation so you don’t have a sense of arrival,” Ritcey says.

While production builders have often been accused of ignoring that sense of arrival (just think of the garage-forward, almost-invisible-front-door homes that blight so many subdivisions), Ritcey has noticed a change for the better. “It’s your face of the house, so builders are willing to invest in the materials and quality of design of doors that reflect one’s investment.” Entryways are the core part of a subtle transition from public to private space. In a well-designed home, that narrowing starts when you step from the sidewalk or street onto the property and continues up the pathway, onto the porch, and through the door into the foyer and then the house proper. Mark Kranenburg of Greely-based Greenmark Builders made that transition nicely with a custom family home that took the People’s Choice Award at the 2015 design awards. Hand-chiselled stone pillars, for example, help announce from a distance that this entryway is a grand one, while the retreating planes of the front elevation draw your eye toward the recessed door.

Stone half-walls leading to that door are scaled down, more intimate versions of the large masses of stone elsewhere on the elevation. The grandeur of outside continues inside, explains Kranenburg: “When you walk in, the (foyer) ceiling is open to above with a custom, wrought-iron chandelier, and you have the stone wall floor to ceiling at the staircase.” Thanks to the front door’s sidelights, you can also see the stunning stairwell and other elements from the porch, cementing the interior/exterior relationship. Jacques Hamel of Hamel Design created his own spectacular entranceway for a custom urban home near the Rideau Canal. A finalist at last year’s design awards, it features a porch that Hamel describes as having a proscenium stage feel, a spot where the gregarious owner, both observing and being observed, can sit and chat to passersby. Hamel was careful to avoid what he sees as a cardinal sin of porches: “If it’s too small, you feel encumbered standing there;

there’s no joy in ringing the doorbell.” The glazed door and large window beside it, both reset and protected from the weather thanks to the two-storey porch, boast a sweeping stained-glass design inspired by the owner’s profession as a surveyor. Lit by daylight, the stained glass is also the highlight of the foyer, which features granite flooring and, like the porch, enough room for eight people. The polished dark colour of the foyer’s stone flooring, which is durable and easily washable, contrasts with the lighter wood of the remainder of the house, helping demarcate the entrance. While the design of porches is mostly about their esthetic appeal, foyers blend esthetics and functionality, says Barkhouse. “Once you’re inside, you’re looking for storage space, a place for an aging population to sit and take off their boots. But people are also putting down high-end flooring and fancy trim.” Adding to functionality are the mud rooms that sometimes abut contemporary entranceways.

Our expectations for foyers continue to evolve, Barkhouse adds: “We’ve gone from little, cut-up entries to big, wasted spaces. Now we want a combination of spaciousness and functionality.” Got a so-so porch or foyer? You needn’t invest a fortune or hundreds of hours to transform that space into something splendid. If your porch has no roof, add a trellis or pergola supported by a couple of columns to give the space definition, shade and support for a vine. If your porch is too dark, add a skylight. A bright, durable outdoor rug adds a pop of colour to a drab porch or breaks the area into separate zones. A large painting, photographs or even a sculpture — all protected from the weather, of course — lend interest to a large empty wall or shield an unwanted view. Porches are casual spots so mix and match furniture and accessories. Garage sale wicker chairs, for instance, look great after a quick coat of paint. Sturdy chains safely anchored to ceiling joists plus bright cushions turn a wooden garden bench into an old-fashioned porch swing.