Designer Beryn Hammil starts the country cottage makeover at the front door, which is flush with the front of the house and is fully exposed to the elements. She resurfaces the concrete front stoop in redwood, using salvage-yard balusters and a handrail for a rustic touch. Contractor Tim Rice is brought in to add a small porch overhang above the door, which gives this area a much more welcoming and comfortable feeling. He uses corrugated tin on the gently peaked roof, then builds a narrow trellis and runs it up one side of the door.
Eice trains wisteria along it to frame the porch and the door. The entire portico is painted a soft white to match the trim on the house itself ... except for the walking surfaces, which he stains or "pickles" white. This is a highly durable process that won't break down the way paint would in this high-traffic area.
He repaints the vintage front door, which is currently painted a bright red, in a light sage green with a crackle finish. A galvanized tin barn lamp over the door completes the transformation.
Beryn next uses salvage-yard finds to decorate the area around the front door. She has Neil Tanner, a set designer, create a unique set of house numbers out of salvaged wood and numbers in various styles--an assemblage that's a work of art all by itself.
She covers an unsightly vent above the front entrance with some vintage wood framing, then turns her attention to the front landscape. There, she has decided to broaden the narrow concrete pathway to the front door by giving it a one-foot gravel border on either side. The fine, golden-colored gravel softens the look of the concrete and plays up the country feeling.
She digs out two large irregular areas on either side of the front path and fills these generous new beds with a colorful mix of annuals, as she creates a cottage-style garden that is richly evocative of summer afternoons in the country. A set of rustic bird feeders and a birdbath are focal points in this new garden.
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