Fun and fanciful finery gives entryways the holiday spirit
Holiday exteriors can be just as inventive as interiors, but it takes inspiration and imagination. This is the time of year when most of us can use a little help with both; three local floral designers obliged. Melinda Benham, owner of Garden Gate Flowers in Edina, created an all-season-long design for this distinctive Edina home. The stone, the shape of the doorway, and the lantern above inspired her theme of organic elegance. She began with a chicken-wire base to give the garland the depth and shape the doorway demanded. Materials include both faux and natural evergreen, faux pinecones in natural and silver, silver balls, sparkling silver ferns, water-resistant green berries, and bunches of chartreuse-colored reindeer moss. The containers reinforce the organic theme with evergreens, reindeer moss, dried hydrangeas, and cinnamon sticks—an unexpected touch that adds a warm, golden brown.
The door’s off-center window didn’t lend itself to a wreath; instead, Benham used a sconce filled with sheet moss. “I purposely left it simple so it wouldn’t take away from the stone and garland,” she says, “but it still gives recognition to the door.”
The garland’s glittery elements are designed to be removable after the holidays. The rest will add lush green to the front of the house throughout the winter.
This 1915 Minneapolis home, a rustic Craftsman with overtones of Prairie-style, shows its picturesque covered entryway to the street. The cool green of the door, trim, and overhead brackets gets a holiday warmup from traditional Christmas colors and Victorian-style use of roses. Melissa Stratton, owner of Sadie’s Couture Floral & Event Styling in Minneapolis, reinforced the home’s charms with minimal glitz. Potted spruces with rose accents and lanterns with red candles guide visitors up the Christmas-red runner to the door.
Stratton embellished a square, 18-inch Styrofoam form for the wreath, using crimson roses outlined with bright green salal leaves.
The open side of the entry porch gets its own fun holiday flourish: A dozen, matte-red orbs suspended from fishing line.
The clean, bold lines of this home’s architecture guided the design and material choices of Scott Endres and Derrik Gagliardia, principal and designer, respectively, at Tangletown Gardens in Minneapolis. “They needed to be bold—not fussy—like the entryway itself,” says Endres. Likewise, their color choices were bold and unexpected: orange and pink get your attention and warm up snowy landscapes, points out Endres. These pieces will take the homeowner through the winter and can easily evolve with the season—Thanksgiving to Christmas or Hanukkah and beyond—by adding or subtracting holiday lights or bling as inclination dictates.
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