Doors Are to Houses as Noses Are to Faces - Exploration of Alpharetta Door Architecture
categories: Alpharetta Real Estate, Miscellaneous, Stuff I like to talk about, Stuff I like to talk about and know nothing about
This post is not really specific to Alpharetta or North Fulton real estate, but I’ve recently become minorly obsessed with doors. The door on a house is equivalent to the nose on a face. It makes a statement; and the nose and face should somewhat go together. 
Sometimes it is the homeowners who are responsible for a “bad nose.” This would be like poor application of face makeup. Yes, the door color on a house is your chance for self expression, but we have all see that lady in the mall who has eyebrows basically painted on her face. There comes a point when self expression is just plain misguided. Take this house for example, in the Hunters Oaks subdivision in Alpharetta.
Do you like this door? Would you put it on your house? Would you consider painting it if you owned this house and were going to sell? Would you want to live across the street from this house?
My wife actually likes this door. She thinks it looks Scandinavian. My wife likes IKEA, too. I don’t like either.
My problem with the door is not so much the color, but that the color doesn’t fit in with the rest of the neighborhood. This door might be great in a seaside neighborhood (or a suburb of Stockholm) where other homes had brightly painted doors, but in Alpharetta, GA, it doesn’t work. Neighborhoods definitely derive value from a consistent appearance of the houses. That is why homeowner’s associations have architectural control committees. The Brierfield subdivision on Mid-Broadwell Road has restrictions that require homeowners to paint the exterior of their homes from a defined color pallet. Apparently that is not the case in Hunters Oaks.
Sometimes - and more often - it is the architect who is responsible for a bad nose job on a house. Take this $800,000 house in Highland Manor in Milton. I love the floorplan of this house, but the architect was asleep at the drawing board when he penciled the front door and entrance.
This door/nose is way too puny for the house/face. The windows (called “lights” in door parlance) above and around the door are nice, but they don’t remedy the fact that the door is just too small. Putting the windows around the door is like piercing your nose: It might decorate it, but it doesn’t make it bigger or easier to blow!
An $800,000 house needs a statement door, not a single nostril after thought. You want to make a big entrance into a house like this, because behind that door is a nice open, tiled foyer.
We’ll finish with a rising trend I’ve seen in front doors: iron. Many high end builders in Milton are installing them in new construction and I’ve seen homeowners around Alpharetta doing “nose jobs” on their existing homes. They look fantastic on all styles of homes, offer great security, have a good heft to them and require little maintenance. They make a statement.
I wish I had before and after pictures of these two houses, but here are the after pictures of two recent nose jobs, one in the St Ives neighborhood and the other across the street in Medlock Bridge. These owners, in my opinion, have definitely increased the value of their homes and its marketability were they to sell.
I often get asked: “How do I increase the value of my home?” Or, “If I were to do something what would help me sell my house faster?” The usual answer you’ll hear is to upgrade the kitchen and master bath. I’d submit that you consider upgrading your front door. Give your house a nose job.
Which house would you rather own? The green door house or the iron door house?
Kevin,
I love the analogy of the pierced nose! This is a great post and I am sure I will start paying closer attention to the front door of these North Georgia Mountain Homes.
Chad
Hi, Kevin! What a great post. I love interesting and unusual architectural features.
(And I’m with your wife…I love that first door. I’m big on the green door or the red door - two very striking colors, as long as they match and/or compliment the color scheme of the rest of the house.)
Great post. I will probably always look at doors as a nose in the future. Nse ring anyone?
Alpharetta sounds like great town. You have some real archeticture there.
I don’t think iron doors would work well here, can you imagine an iron door at 40 below zero.
The nose ring could be one of those round door knockers ;-> Or a holiday wreath!
Kevin - You have won me over with your sense of humor! I’m certain you have won over many clients in Alpharetta as well.
The entryway (nose) to a home can definately stop a buyer or have one drive on by…….kind of like people.
You have to come to Italy looking at the old doors, once you get obsessed you can’t stop taking pictures of doors and portals.