It’s not just a means of ingress and egress. The entry to any home has a great deal to do with how anyone traversing it will feel about the space inside. The doorway above, for instance, in Carmel-by-the-Sea speaks of mystery and intimacy and comfort all at the same time. Very cool.

The SoMoToHo – not so much. Below is the only picture that I can find of the front door as it was when we bought the house, probably because – as you might remember from an earlier post – I really didn’t like it.

Here is a pic from the outside looking in, with the door open:

This is the only picture that I could find of the light fixture in the foyer – probably because we were none too fond of it, either. One of the first things that we did (after replacing the frou-frou leaded glass in the door and the transom window above it) was swap this fixture for one more in keeping with the direction of our transformation. Here are a couple of views of the new fixture from outside looking in and inside looking toward the outside: Much better, don’t you think? (Don’t worry – the runner isn’t staying.)

Outside, the entryway was a faux-saltillo in 8″ squares. Our first thought was to replace it with standard 12″ slate tiles. Here is a shot with a couple of sample slate tiles laying on the original:No question that it would have been better. Debra wasn’t satisfied, however, even after we bought three times more tile than we needed and sorted it, square by square, to minimize the color variation. She wanted something a bit less . . . rustic. So she found some really handsome 16″ smooth slate online. Once we opened a box, I knew that I was going to have to load all of that standard slate into the back of my SUV and take it back to the store. Here is a shot from inside after the imitation Mexican tile was ripped up and the slate was going down:And another from outside with all of the tile down but pre-grout. Notice the absence of frou-frou in the door glass. And the smiley-face – it’s either a water ring left by the bucket or some sort of gregarious specter trying to communicate from the beyond. You be the judge. And, finally, post-grout. Take a look at the cheesy, $2 mailbox on the left wall and the inappropriate pendant light fixture – at least, inappropriate for the feel we’re trying to conjure. Debra found a really cool mailbox online at Steel House MFG, a company out of Austin. Here are a couple of pics, one right out of the box and another after I hung it on the wall.And here is a shot showing the entryway with the new mailbox and the new pendant fixture. We still have work to do here. Among other things, I’m probably going to stain the grout a dark charcoal to make the grid lines fade away. It should make for a smoother, more tranquil approach. And we have to find the perfect Welcome mat – something to inject a bit of funk, I suspect. But it’s coming along. Indeed it is.

As always, feedback is appreciated. Thanks for reading.