We reached out to some industry experts to get their input on how best to design an entryway with container gardening. Here are some important takeaways on creating inspired and meaningful garden entryways.
Creative Self-Expression to Enhance a Home
The first take away that was echoed among many designers was the idea that an entryway design is an investment in creative self-expression. Entryways are a great way to showcase the individuality of a client and their home. As Shannyn Hyland of Glorious Gardens in Michigan puts it, when she’s designing it’s important for her to “use the colors of the homes and buildings” as a guide when picking Crescent Garden containers in varying shapes and sizes to ensure they always “accent the style of the home”. Entryways can accentuate the quirks and elements you love most about your home.
Erin Wieland, a landscape architect from Illinois adorned her home, designed by Robert C. Spencer, Frank Lloyd Wright’s apprentice, with Orinoco bowl planters. She chose containers that were an impressive 30 centimeters wide knowing her Romanesque home would call for equally big and bold planters. “The perfect size to fill with beautiful textures and colors,” her planters liven up her architecturally stunning home.
Orinoco Bowls in Erin Wieland’s stunning Romanesque home.
Erin Hunt of Living Blooms in Florida teaches us that sometimes what pulls together an entire entryway design is personality. Her design titled “Tropical Holiday Glam” features a unique blend of textures and colors, with bold splashes of red and vibrant greens that honor its tropical Tampa roots. The silver adornments are the perfect cherry on top, to showcase the glamour her client wished to channel. Her design prompts an important question whenever thinking of entryway design: What do you wish to say about yourself or your home with this entryway?
Container Gardening goes glam thanks to designer Erin Hunt.
Being Present – Markers of Changing Seasons
In a lot of ways, gardening is a mindful exercise, that pushes you to be present and observant as you spend time with your plants. Many designers noted that entryways are a perfect way to celebrate the changing seasons, and especially stay current with the changing temperatures and colors that they bring that can affect your plants.
Leigh McGonagle of Poplar Point Studio in New York, uses her Crescent Garden container gardening planters to showcase a gorgeous combination of shrubs, perennials and annuals. These entryway planters serve as a beautiful reminder that planters can be filled with more than just annuals. They also showcase the variety and quantity of plants a single planter can handle.
Leigh McGonagles’ gorgeous plant combinations in pots.
Making sure that your entryway is up to date with the changing seasons may draw up stressful ideas about all the work that will have to go into changing your plants. However, a key takeaway from garden designers is that with the right planters, decorating around them is enough to do the seasonal trick. These smaller decorations are enough to memorialize the changing seasons, while maintaining an easy cohesion to the entryway design with the same plants.
Jessica Jennings of Jessica Beth Design in Ohio, uses this technique to embrace the fall season with minimal alteration to the original design. Jessica’s lovely container gardening planters can stand on their own and the decorative pumpkins are a quick and easy addition to help serve as a snapshot of the autumn time.
Cup planters styled perfectly for the autumn season by Jessica Beth.
Marin Prociw of Franklin Flowers in Tennessee designed this planter with the holiday spirit in mind, yet it’s deep greens and browns pair perfectly with the rustic texture of its home, ensuring with or without the snowy acorns, it will be a timeless entryway design.
Marin Prociw’s use of vibrant greens in this Mod liven up this entryway beautifully.
Setting Intentions
Many designers note that every project begins with the dream vision of the client. Planning the design of an entryway calls for clients to think intentionally about the type of home they are stepping into. Sometimes it is a matter of welcoming more color into your life, and as Jessica Jennings of Jessica Beth Designs in Ohio would advise, “a mixture of vibrant colors and textures” could be the perfect solution. The entryway is the first thing you see when you step into your home and can be used as a reminder of the kind of life you want to step into.
June Spanier of June of all Trades Seasonal Planters in Minnesota positioned these TruDrop planters in front of the entrance columns of this majestic home. Overflowing with greenery and adorned with red and gold decorations, this elegant winter design manifests grace and style.
Container gardening made majestic by June Spanier’s wonderful winter design.
Shannyn Hyland of Glorious Gardens and Karen DiPaolo in Michigan use their designs to inspire us to incorporate more balance into our lives, with their symmetrical container gardening planters. Positioned perfectly to create a natural walkway to the entrance, their design reminds us that something as simple as placement can be a powerful tool in setting direction. Their designs embrace the functionality of entryways, and their ability to serve as guides in how you want yourself and others to interact with a home.
Incorporate symmetry and functionality into your design just as designers Shannyn Hyland and Karen DiPaolo would.
Most importantly,
All of these designers leave us with an encouragement that there is no garden dream that you cannot achieve without careful and thoughtful planning. We hope these examples inspire you to take some time to think about your entryway just as a gardening designer pro would approach it.
