Knocking on heaven’s door: how to create an enchanting entrance

If you have a question for Luke about design and stylish living, email him at lukeedward.hall@ft.com. Follow him on Instagram @lukeedwardhall

I have recently moved house and I want to replace my front door. I’d like something impressive. Any thoughts?

I long for a dazzling house entrance. A front door painted a glorious colour (yellow like Roald Dahl’s house in Great Missenden, perhaps, or acid green, or mauve) with gleaming brass hardware and buttery roses climbing lazily around it, a chunky, lichen-covered pediment half-hidden among leaves up top, old stone flags on the ground, a gate with a proper squeak. A bell to pull, of course.

You want to set the right tone with your front door. It is the threshold between the outdoor world and your own private domain; it deserves good thought. The aim, I believe, should be to create an entrance that will enchant guests (and yourself, of course) before a key goes remotely near a lock.

The London Door Company could be a great place to begin investigations. It produces bespoke doors handcrafted in the UK, made to a customer’s exact measurements. Crucially, it makes front doors in a range of styles, meaning a variety of architecture can be accommodated. I’ve always preferred the restrained, classical look. It really can’t be beaten for elegance.

I’m a fan of the London Door Company’s Georgian range, its six-panel and double Georgian doors in particular. Plus, who doesn’t love a fanlight? (The Georgians weren’t able to manufacture large sheets of glass, so fanlights were made from smaller panes joined by lead, wooden or iron glazing bars.)

Saying this, I am also partial to more unusual shapes and a spot of stained glass. Enter the Edwardians. See Cotswold Door Specialists Ltd’s Edwardian door with a circular glazed window at its centre, which I find very striking.

Why don’t you consider a reclaimed door? Check English Salvage. Recently I noticed on its website a pair of large yellow-painted pine doors with their panel fielding picked out in bronze. I like this idea of tonal decoration very much.

UK Heritage has some good doors in stock too. I like a limited colour palette when it comes to stained glass, which is why I was drawn to a couple in particular: a very beautiful pale blue Victorian front door with newly built glass panels and a restrained dark red glass border, and a pine door with clear, bright yellow and red glass panels.

Paint this off-white and it would look fantastic. I also fancy the idea of buying some old stained glass and setting it in a door of one’s own design.

Lassco always has a good range of antique doors and accompanying bits and pieces in stock. There are some good bargains to be had: I’ve been eyeing up an English nine-panel door in the most brilliant shade of tomato-ketchup red (£565). A glossy red door is hard to resist: you just know someone fun must live behind it.

Lassco is also selling a charming Victorian pine door with flaking red paintwork (£280). I love a glossy paint job, but faded and flaking can be just as charming (or much more).

Once you have your front door sorted, you will need to turn your attention to door furniture: knockers and the like. Once again, Lassco comes up trumps, with a good range of odds and ends including lovely Edwardian brass and Victorian cast-iron letter plates.

For knockers I advise going for something substantial, ornate and unusual. A Regency sphinx mask, perhaps? Call Anthony Outred Antiques. Or how about a Maltese Green Man? Consult Yorkshire’s Abacus Fireplaces and St Julien. Oh, and not forgetting that bell. Get in touch with Abergavenny Reclamation. (It sells a bonkers selection of old locks and bolts, too: a real rabbit hole to get lost down.)

One final note: I am all for adding decorative bells and whistles to pretty much anything and everything, so I love the idea of upgrading an entrance. See, for example, Lassco’s 19th-century Queen Anne-style painted pine door hood in the shape of a shell, or its George II sandstone door canopy.

I’m thinking now of my old love Cecil Beaton, who enlisted his wildly talented artist friend Rex Whistler to design a Palladian door surround featuring a pediment and a pineapple made from Bath stone for his first country house, Ashcombe in Wiltshire.

Of course, a marvellous lantern above your front door and a couple of urns or planters flanking it will work just fine, but a completely bespoke door surround? (I’d like something with a moss-covered bust in the middle, please.) That would be dazzling indeed.

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