How does this work for your front door in your house?

[orgmatdane]

For your house, does the front door automatically lead into your house or are there two doors ie one door which leads to a porch/place to shoes and hang coats which then leads to another door that actually leads into the house?

Also, is it possible for houses to install a sort of shelter extended above the door so that if it’s raining, people don’t get drenched while waiting outside?

My house enters straight into the hallway but the entrance is protected as part of the upstairs juts out over the entrance.

Yes you can either add a whole portch extension to add a door or you can add a portch canopy.

Cheap and ugly option https://www.therange.co.uk/outdoor-living/gazebos-parasols-and-awnings/awnings/homcom-curved-window-porch-canopy-awning#4558151

Nicer but pricier option https://dunsterhouse.co.uk/porches/wooden-porch-canopies/wooden-porch-full-height-2-post-w2m-x-d1-5m

With lots in between.

My house enters into the hallway. I think I might not be allowed to add anything to the front of the house, at least I think I remember reading that alterations like that would need planning permission, and I've never seen one on a similar property around here. People just accept they'll get wet if they're waiting outside and it's raining, or they bring an umbrella.

We have steps leading up to a double front door that is set in the building, so is sheltered. That leads into an internal porch area, then the main central room of the house. Have added a photo of the similar cover we have, plus one that could work for you. Blue door for you, wooden is like mine if that helps! I'm from the US, in England so our home is modeled slightly less traditional by UK standards I guess.

My front door led directly into the house, the hallway. So, if you walked in the front door, immediately you were on carpeted section, in the house.
But we never use the front door.
It's so inconvenient to step directly into the house that I ended up purchasing and enclosed porch system... A company came and put glass and a screen door up so that now, the area that used to be outdoors, a porch, is now an indoor room. It's great. I can keep plants there, I can sit out there in the evening with a screen doors open so no bugs. My pets can sit there. Or if you're coming into the house, it's a great place to just come in and take off your boots shoes coats etc.
Retrofitting / renovating this room has made all the difference. It went from being nothing but a plane front porch step outdoors to being a three season room

My back door leads directly into a laundry room. Linoleum floor, lots of coat hooks, boot trays etc. Large room, enough for five or six people to stand and take off their coats and Boots.
I love this!

Mine leads directly into the hallway which is tiled. Yes it has a hangover porch thing to protect from rain.

I have a door leading into a porch, then another door into the hallway. The outer door has a roof over it too so you don't get rained on when waiting at the door. Not that anyone waits at that door, they all come in and knock on the inner door as our doorbell doesn't work and I wouldn't hear a knock on the outer door. Or just walk straight in if they know us well enough.

Where I am, if you don't have an enclosed porch its common to have a front door going into a small hallway, then another door into the proper hallway. This small hallway is called a windcupboard which is an adorable name and very practical - no cold draft when someone comes in.

We have a fugly porch which is essentially a patio doors, side panels and a flat roof bolted on to the house. It was on it when we bought it. It looks hideously ugly, however it is bloody brilliant. No issue ever with parcels, it’s a great space to have for shoes and coats, boots etc. I hate that it looks ugly, but I’m not looking at it, I’m using it and wouldn’t be without it.

I live in terraced house with a small garden at the front. Has a door canopy outside and a small vestibule that's just over 1m x 1m.

I'm assuming when it was built it would have opened into the living room.

It leads to a separate tiled hallway. Also has a large overhang from Balcony above. This is pretty standard where I live as it’s snowy in winters so we have about 2m outside front door that doesn’t get snowed on ( so someone knocking stays dry and we can get out).
And Large tiled hallway as it ends up with a million layers of clothing to put on, and snow and grit covered boots. No shoe household beyond the hallway

My front door has a wooden canopy above it. The door leads directly into the dining kitchen - no hallway. I love this as there's no wasted space and the floor is tiled.

We have a canopy extending out about 1 1/2 metres, covering the steps up to the door. Then a wee porch. Then the door into the hallway.

An enclosed porch, as did the previous house. We leave it open for parcels etc. It’s so useful.its tiled with a door mat too. The hall has parquet, also with a mat, but the parquet still has a bit of damage by the door. We have a dog so all this works really well.

A friend just got an enclosed porch built, which was surprisingly expensive…..but she loves it.

Current house has a smallish porch where we hang coats and store shoes and boots with space for the tumble dryer too, house we’re moving to in a week has similar but more than double the size, with doors off to a separate boot/coat/laundry room and a separate wc. It’s still technically a porch I suppose but I consider it more of a large hallway really.
My GM has a sort of awning thing over her door, doesn’t exactly change the world but improves getting in and out without quite so much weather exposure!

The front door opens straight onto the hall. There’s a small canopy, but it only sticks out about a foot so doesn’t exactly keep visitors dry. We rarely use this door though.

The drive leads to the back, so this is the side that’s used for coming and going. Here we have a summer door and a winter (or wet weather) door.

The summer door leads into the hallway, and we tend to leave it wide open all day through the summer, for air flow and kid/cat flow.

The winter door goes into the utility room, where all the shoes, bags, coats etc live. In winter I tend to keep the summer door locked and have in the past stuck a post it note on it with NO written on it, so stop the kids coming in that way and traipsing wet things and mud all through the house. Much better to come through the utility room and peel it all off in there. Everyone now calls the hallway door ‘the No door’ 😆

My front door opens direct into my living room and I have a covered porch of the kind that @WonderingWanda mentions. Mine has trellis sides with plants growing up and a roof that keeps you dry while you search for your keys and wonder why the dog hasn't got up off the sofa to come to the door. The cottage next door has the same porch too, so my house frontage doesn't look 'unbalanced'.

We have two front doors. No idea why....

One is in the centre of the front of the house, leading into the hallway. There is a canopy on the front of the house (built with the house). The hallway is where the coat rack, shoes etc is.

Then just on the corner of the side of the house, is a door that leads into the utility room. We dont use this door, its a waste of space in the small utility.

Delivery drivers regularly look confused on the security camera as they work out which door to use!

My front door leads directly into my living room. My sofa blocks it from opening so I use the back, which is directly into the kitchen. Would love a porch or a hallway

We live in a bungalow that you used to have to do a small step into an area that was terracotta red tiles flooring and enclosed but not at the front .
so we've now put a front door and panelling to enclose it . We can hang coats , have a low table / coffee table to put things down on and somewhere to put our shoes .
it's also made the hallway / house much warmer as we now have two front doors to the outside world .

We have a porch now and it’s great

edit but the second door is just a normal house door

building a small porch or erecting a bit of a shelter should be relatively cheap- adding a porch later you often see two front doors - keeps the cost down not changing the door I guess

Our front door opens into the hallway although it's actually on the side, which I like, as it feels a bit more private than exposing the inside of my house to passers by (busy urban area), however briefly!

No porch but there is a porch canopy which is handy when it's pouring with rain and I'm sheltering there to put down my umbrella and find my keys.

I quite like the idea of having a proper porch as my parents house had one and it was really useful for storing welly boots, parcels and plants that needed greenhouse conditions. But it's an old victorian house and would look weird to add an enclosed structure on the front, it's in a row of matching houses and no one else has done it.

We had a front porch built on our house about 15 years ago. Before that, there was just a small rain canopy above the front door. It's made life so much easier. We leave the outer door of the porch unlocked so postie and couriers can safely leave packages. It has a tiled floor and we have a boot rack in there, plus we can hang wet coats in there to dry. It's also great when we get back with shopping - we can put all the bags in the porch without risking our pets getting out through the front door. Cannot imagine how we ever managed without it.

My front door opens into our hallway and we have a shelter like option 2 linked above. Definitely worth having.

I don't have a porch but do have a second door.

Our stairs come up backwards so it's effectively the space behind the stairs where they go round the corner.

I'm glad of the addition door as we face the north sea and it helps keep out the wind. But the space ends up a total dumping ground. I've considered turning it into a cupboard but then it would feel narrow - and be even harder to get to the coats at the back..