New construction, 2 front entrances?

last year

Show me your pictures if you have 2 front entrances, please. I just came across some ideas online regarding a "friend's door" which is a 2nd door on the front of the house. We will be doing a large ranch with a covered front porch and trying to decide if this is a good idea or not. Our main front door is on the far right side of the front porch (facing the house view) and the 2nd potential door would be on the exact opposite side on the front porch entering the entry are near the garage entry area, so if we did this there would definitely be balance and would probably downplay the 2nd door with the same color paint as the house maybe. Thoughts and pics are appreciated. TIA!

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clt3

last year

last modified: last year

Hard to get a great picture because we have a circular driveway with a very wooded center. We added the door on the right, the porch and roof, and the second floor with dormers. Most people have no problem identifying the main door.

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Comments (28)

sheloveslayouts
last year
Not on the front of the house. The side? Yes.
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Sabrina Alfin Interiors
last year
I just think it's cause for confusion for guests coming to visit. Put the second door on the side, or even into the garage.
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JP Haus
last year
We had a secondary front door on a previous house that we would have removed if we'd decided to remain there long term. It was closer to the driveway than the main front door so most deliveries were dropped there and too many people wouldn't walk the extra distance to the main entrance. I did not like greeting guests there.

A previous house had a side door that was also closer to the driveway, and due to the slope of the lot it required only two steps up vs. eight steps to the front porch. At both houses, packages left at these secondary doors were more visible to the street. Luckily, we had cameras at both doors and the only porch pirates happened to be delivery service employees who didn't realize they were being filmed.
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bpath
last year
Our house came with two doors on the front, opposite ends of the same porch. The front door is, well, the Front Door. The other door is a service door, although nowadays it’s called a mudroom door. Friends come to either door.

A few houses in the neighborhood have two doors on the front. Some are on the same porch, others are on different planes. It’s easy to tell which is which. The doors are usually somewhat different in style, though not always markedly so. Landscaping helps define their intents, as well as general design of the exterior.

Sometimes the lot doesn’t optimally allow for a side door.
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mad_gallica (z5 Eastern NY)
last year
It was common on higher end ranches in the 50's and 60's. There was a formal front door, and then a 'tradesman's entrance' that went into a laundry or mudroom. It is something that many people on this site find very confusing, but the architecture of the house usually clearly states which entrance is which. I think the bigger problem is that most people don't believe they are worthy of the formal entrance, so want to use the 'kids and dogs' entrance even if they qualify as neither.
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sheloveslayouts
last year
last modified: last year
If you inherit two entrances on the front elevation, that's one thing. It makes sense on some historic homes and mid-century ranches that have that extra door next to the garage. We adapt. Unless there is some kind of special circumstance and some very creative architecture, I don't understand why one would intentionally choose two front doors.

eta: I should disclose my bias. My childhood home has equi-distance from parking to either the front or the back doors - front entrance never used. And I had a home of my own where the front door wasn't really used as the front door. Didn't like either. For my current house house it was actually a priority of mine that the front door be THE front door.
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T Lemon68
Original Author
last year
This is very close to what ours would look like.
Marie J.
last year
Here is my aunt and uncle’s house. Everyone uses the door on the right instead of walking to the front porch (might need to enlarge the photo).
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PPF.
last year
This is very close to what ours would look like.

Could you show your house with its two doors?
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T Lemon68
Original Author
last year
I don't have the architect's drawings back yet
nhb22
last year
I tried to post photos of my house, but they are not going through. This has been happening for a week. Any ideas why?
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cerealcrispy
last year
I grew up in house with two doors on the front with one being obviously (or so one would think) more formal than the other.

Most visitors who parked in the driveway would come to the first door. My parents are very particular and very formal and were annoyed when people didn’t come to the front door. I don’t think I would be bothered by it like they were, but last time I drove by the house, I noticed the current owners have blocked off the ”friends entrance” with patio furniture, so I guess they don’t like it either.

The most annoying thing was when solicitors would come to the house and, after being turned away at one door, would then knock at the other door thinking the house was a duplex.
dan1888
last year
To come up with an optimum solution I need to see te floorplan. The right thing cooud be neither door. But, another new door.
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T Lemon68
Original Author
last year
These are from my husband’s drawings, not the cleaned up final detailed product but gives you an idea maybe
T Lemon68
Original Author
last year
I forgot to mention we will have a circle drive in front also
nhb22
last year
last modified: last year
T Lemon68 - Figured it out...I had not signed into Houzz.

This entrance goes directly

Here are a few photos explaining our 2 front facing doors.

Front entrance to foyer. This gets the traffic from the unwanted solicitors, and friends that visit for the first time. Also some older neighbors that believe the front door is the only door where one should visit. The UPS, Fed-EX, DHL guys, and local paper deliver here. We would prefer that all get delivered to the side door because we don't use the front door often and hard to see if packages are out there. Instead, we just walk around from the side entrance (around the corner and next to the double windows where you see the lights on. See below)

This entrance opens directly into our kitchen and living space. It's placed next to our sunny breakfast area. We have another door from inside of our garage that opens to a mud room, bar, and pantry area. In addition, we have 2 sets of French doors opening to the back screened-in porch.

Because both entrances face the front, we put the mailbox next to the second entrance (and what we call the side/friends/family door.) Most everyone uses this entrance. It's just off of the driveway. We use it if not taking the car or garbage can out of the garage, such as taking a walk, watering, and just relaxing on the porch furniture (a favorite place for the neighbors, as well.) The mail and Amazon deliveries are left here. Why the other package deliveries are left at the front, when we have asked them to deliver to this entrance, is beyond me. I think it has to do with multiple delivery persons.
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bpath
last year
My parents designed their house with two entrances on the front of the house. It is completely obvious which is the formal entrance and which is the service door. Both are equally accessible from the driveway so there is no ”path of least resistance”. Well, it probably depends on where you park. The driveway is kind of an oval; it branches off so you can go straight and then around to the garage on the side, or you can loop around in front of the house.
bpath
last year
I don’t understand the name Friends’ Entrance, except in the case of CPartist’s house and two friends’ houses. At those three houses, the garage and driveway are not near the front door, but a side door is next to the garage. So, since many visitors drive and park, they want to use the side entrance.

Oh, and the house I grew up in, yes, a 1956 brick ranch, the kitchen door was right next to the garage with a nice coverd stoop. Partly hidden from the front by bushes (so the milk bottles for Emil the Milkman were not on display). The front door was nicer, with a broad recessed stoop, and a bluestone walkway from the driveway (not the street) to guide you.
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worthy
last year
A service entrance is common in '80s-'00 builds in our area. (See examples.) Much less so now.

Our 5,800 sf plan included a secondary door, which we eliminated. Seemed confusing and a bit pretentious. Definitely makes more sense in larger builds, say 10,000 sf.+.

Service/servants door adjacent to the garage.

Secondary door adjacent to the garage.

Here, in a true mansion, (s.C$19m. 2022), the service door is on the side facing the garages.
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Nidnay
last year
Obviously not a ranch and not perfect, but here is an older home with two entrances. I think a house needs to be designed with a CLEAR main entrance and the secondary entrance should use a smaller door (it also helps to have it recessed as in these photos). I don’t think just tacking on an additional door on the front porch is optimal. Roof lines, porch gables/overhangs, landscaping, pathways and the overall architecture all help to direct people to the front door so there is no ambiguity. If having a secondary entrance is a feature you want to have, the house should really be completely designed with that in mind.

As you can see with this house, there is really no mistaking where the main entry door is (you can’t really even see the secondary entrance when entering the walkway from the driveway because it’s recessed. And the way the pathways are designed, they all tend to guide one forward to the main entrance.
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Mark Bischak, Architect
last year
Signage or even an appropriate doormat at the "friend's door" may be helpful to guide first time visitors to the right door.
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niccidhg
last year
I think there is no question as to the main vs. the secondary/ service door here. The service door is recessed quite far back, albeit on the front facade. It opens to a secondary foyer between the home office and the kitchen. It is helpful , imo., in larger homes , for several obvious reasons.
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JP L
last year
Friends or enemies entrances aside, the garage in the drawing provided really overtakes the whole house - is there a reason it's so much larger/taller in scale? It looks out of proportion.
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T Lemon68
Original Author
last year
We were originally going to do a Barndominium but have switched to ICF. We will not do a separate shop but have combined it all. This home will be built on 65 acres set back off of the road and backed up to an 8-acre private lake.
dan1888
last year
last modified: last year
The second door appears to open into a foyer ares with a closet. It doesn't seem loke you have to hide either door. Or prioritize either door. I'd make matching doors with each a framed single full length double or triple pane lite. 6" framing rails and stiles. Blend them in with the windows on that facade.

The access to the kitchen seems difficult for anyone loading things brought in from the garage.
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JP L
last year
last modified: last year
With all that land (and as someone who grew up on a farm myself), I'd strongly suggest revisiting the design. No need to try to smash a giant workshop (let's get real - that's an airplane hanger!) next to a reasonably sized home. I'm sure it can be done, but hopefully your architect has some more creative ways to blend the two structures together.
Lyndee Lee
last year
My previous house had a main door with sidelights in the two story portion and then a smaller side door where the single story garage was attached. Ours also had similar back garden access with main door leading to terrace and side door with direct path from laundry room to clothesline. The mail slot was by the front door but packages would show up at both spots. I liked having the side door where kids and their friends could run into the kitchen area without worrying so much about dirty shoes and dropping backpacks.