When a Welcome is Warm
Tuesday 1st July 2008 by Cherry Menlove
Have you ever walked up the path of somebody’s house to be greeted by an entirely seasonal wreath? Or perhaps you’ve visited someone who took the effort to personalise every one of their Italian terracotta terrace pots.
If you have been in the home of someone who makes those little touches an essential ingredient to their household to-do lists then you’ve experienced a form creativity that often gets over looked – the warm welcome.
 Touches like this can be created in the simplest and most inexpensive of ways (and regular readers of this column need only recall previous articles) using every day household items.
For the warmest welcome, start at the gate. Aged and trimmed terracotta pots  work wonders.
You can buy them or, dig around the garden shed and you might just stumble across some (like I did) that throughout the winter months have become rather trendily rustic.
Sit them pretty in a wine bottle holder. Now I have nothing against wine (friends will tell you that although I only ever drink the type with bubbles in it we always have bottles of the stuff in for guests) but everyday items such as wine holders work much better when they’re not used for the obvious.
Hang your new creation on the gate (if it’s wooden, preferably painted in a chalky Farrow & Ball ) using a length of gingham to ensure that it looks just as good from the back as it does the front.
So simply done...
(Note, there’s nothing quite as sad or discouraging as the remnants of an effort that somebody, somewhere has made on their home.
Ie. door wreathes with foliage half missing or grubby summer bunting that has been outside since LAST summer...So please, if your touches are past their best then remove them. And if you feel like trying something else but have no idea what then pop back here and see if I can’t give you something else to try!)
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