Is Your Home's Front Door Making a Good First Impression?

Irwin Weiner ASID - I don't think we notice our front doors very much while we're in the thick of designing and decorating the rest of our homes. But this is a certainty: Other people notice your front door, and it makes either a positive or a sour first impression.

A realtor just told me that the care and upkeep of each element of your home tells others whether or not you take good care of yourself, your belongings, and your home's general upkeep. A front door with peeling paint, a cracked window, faded varnish, or bad door hardware will give everyone the wrong signal when they visit you.

I picked some of my favorite contemporary front doors from an excellent UK supplier, Urban Front Ltd. Click on each image for more product information. Their doors are steel-reinforced hardwood, and you can also use this company for garage doors and interior doors. Some of the interior doors come with matching frames built with acoustic seals on all four sides and concealed or pivot hinges. A great resource to put into your Home Improvement file!

In today's featured video, we go behind the scenes at Urban Front and hear the designers talking about what goes into their products.

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Residential Architecture vs. Interior Design - Tug of War?

Irwin Weiner ASID - I can tell when a home has been decorated by an architect. There's usually a precise, masculine rigidity to the interior space that isn't present in a home utilizing a professional interior designer. Decorators know how to relate a space to the individual needs of a client, and most of all, how to facilitate comfortable, everyday living needs. I've often said that a well designed interior should look lived-in, like it's always been there. Architects who "do interior design" oftentimes create a CAD model of how the interior should look without referencing the human factor and the need for harmony, mood, proportion, scale, and other variables. I chose today's video on a contemporary Estonian architect's home design in the woods to illustrate the point. The talented architect, Indrek Allmann, is frank with us when he details all the work and research and effort he put into the exterior design of the home - but how the interior falls short. I did, however, like the elevation of the home's foundation so that views of nature from the interiors show two-thirds forest and trees and one-third sky; a great touch.

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5 of Our Favorite Flooring Finds

Irwin Weiner ASID - I can't resist a reclaimed wood floor. First, you're reusing natural materials from an earlier structure. Second, the warmth of wood is undeniable - just look at the beautiful Carlisle reclaimed chesnut floor in the California kitchen pictured at top! It's a wide-plank wonder. Here are three other beautiful flooring finds I wanted to bring to your attention. Click on each photo for more product information. Adding a great floor covering to a room is such a basic step, we oftentimes overlook the decorating impact it provides (not to mention the functionality of selecting the right flooring for spaces that receive a lot of high traffic, wear and tear). It's all about the Floor Show!

Designer Inghua Ting's ingenius recycled leather belt flooring

Drops concrete tile flooring from Mutdesign

Bolon's woven vinyl flooring now comes in an exciting range of Missoni patterns (shown here: Flame Black)

It's difficult to find anything to match the luxurious look of Devon & Devon flooring

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Diane Paparo - How to Finish Fine Furniture

Irwin Weiner ASID - Studio furniture maker and interior designer Diane Paparo sat down with Design2Share recently and kindly shared with us her tips on where to begin when it comes to dealing with wood finishes, stains, and treatments. It's one of those practical decorating considerations that most people "wing it," but we wanted to hear what a strong furniture maker had to say. Diane has designed furniture for fine homes around the world - even the executive office suites at Revlon. Let's see how someone who combines luxury, quality, beautiful detailing, and thoughtful functionality handles furniture finishes.

Choosing a furniture finish can be a tall order. First, you'll want to consider the design scheme and how the finish can be integrated into the whole, but you'll also want to think about maintenance and repair.

1. Let's tackle color first. You have four options: natural, stained, dyed, and painted. Some woods are naturally beautiful with just a clear protective finish, but most look richer when they're stained. Stains give you the option of deepening a wood's natural color or mimicking another wood's color. 

Stains don't penetrate the furniture's surface deeply; they lhave a transparency that enhances the grain. Stains can also accentuate imperfections, so inspect the finish carefully.

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