Thursday, September 23, 2010

Enter as a stranger, leave as a friend -The Friend Door

Have you heard the saying, "enter as a stranger, leave as a friend?" Well, at our house, when people visit for the first time we have them enter through the front door. Then, when our visit has ended, they leave through the side door or what we call, The Friend Door. From that point on, the rule is that they always enter our home through The Friend Door.

The Friend Door welcomes you with cute little porch and a sign that says Rosewood Cottage est. 2001, the May family.

We even wrote our name in the concrete on the porch.

We put two lucky pennies May of 2001 (get it, our last name is May the year 2001,hee,hee,hee) in the concrete, wishing all those who pass by lots of luck in their life.

There is a cute little bunny (complete with bug bits in this picture, ewww!) to greet you.

Then as you enter, we have a little mud room for you to hang your keys and leave your worries behind. We don't wear our shoes in the house and neither do most of our friends, so shoes also get deposited here. There is a little chair in case you need to sit down and a mirror for your to take a peek at yourself and make sure you don't have veggies in your teeth before you leave for a meeting with people that have never met you before so that you won't get home later to find you had veggies in your teeth, your husband didn't tell you, and you now know why the people were staring at you (yes, that is a true story). I do like how the garden elements, on the opposite wall, are reflected in the mirror.

And here they are. I think it's fun to take outside elements and bring them inside. And yes, I spray painted these white. :)

I think my blog has a Friend Door too. You visit as a stranger and then leave as a friend. I think that's pretty cool.

xx, shell, sugie and harrington

14 comments:

The Bunns said...

Great concept. We only have a front door. They come in, they sit, they collect rabbit fur, finally we tell them they have to leave, they go out the front door.

If they are lucky we will have shop vacced the floor first!

They always come back!!!

Brynwood Needleworks said...

Dear Shell:
I love you and your welcoming spirit. You are a dear friend. I love the Friend Door on your home, and look forward to using it some day.
xoxo
Donna

Sherry said...

What a wonderful way to make people feel welcome. I love the friend door idea and the way you have decorated the space. I always enjoy visiting your blog and feel welcome.

KaHolly said...

What a sweet post. Thank you for visiting and following my blog! I look forward to having some extra time to peruse your archived posts. ~karen

Hef's Mom said...

Lovely as always Shell!

Karen M said...

What a beautiful tradition. Unfortunately for our guests, our house is more like the Bunns, only with the side door. And for some reason they do keep coming back. Most of the time, they don't even knock!

Unknown said...

What a great idea. Love it. We only have one door in the front but it's a wonderful idea.

Jan M said...

Thank you for opening the Friend Door of your home and blog!
I tried and tried to convince our builder to add a side door to our home for this very purpose. He refused. I have regretted it ever since.

The Fab Furs said...

Like the Friend Door concept and really like the mud room!
We only have the front door option--our kitchen door entering into something approaching a mud room is behind a gate and has slippery concrete steps. We really need to have an entrance foyer added to the front of the house.

Jillayne said...

Love how you put that saying into real use - and your friend door is perfect - the peey, the bunny plaque and everything! And your blog is definitely like that too!

Clovie Boy said...

Where did you find the bunny plaque? Love that...

Brenda Pruitt said...

I think that's pretty cool too. Sure glad you've got another bunny to round your staff out!
Brenda

Lisa said...

Yeah, only one door to the apartment.

Love the mudroom, love the welcome items outside, and the pennies are so cute!

Also love the no-shoes policy. I hate wearing shoes!!!

Allie said...

I love the idea of a Friend door. We don't have room by ours, it opens right onto our kitchen....but it's the only one we use, the front door is for turning away solicitors, lol!

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