Making a Grand Entrance.

The last sections of the main exterior to be dealt with were the front door, portico and pavement.   There's nothing fancy here and nothing has been altered or added.   The front door has been painted matt black with a door knocker and door knob added.   I'm pretty sure I'm going to leave the side lights clear but you never know, that might change in time.

I knew I wanted to use real stone on the steps and pavement and initially random flagstones from Richard Stacey were laid because they were already in my stash of bits.   The thinking behind this was that at the time the house was built the "random" style would be fitting and you can see how they looked further down.   It wasn't until they were laid that I had second thoughts so up they all came and down went grey flagstones (again from Richard Stacey) - much better!

Next job on the list was to add detail to the pillars at the foot of the stairs.   They were crying out for something quite imposing so after a fair bit of wrestling with the Dremel I fitted these lights.

Two topiary swans were also introduced to either side of the front door.   (You can also see the random flagstones in this pic).

I then needed to add some railings (just to prevent the servants and passers-by from toppling down into the "area"!).  A little railing detail to the top of the basement wall was also added to match in with the railings already fitted to the area windows.

I'm on the lookout now for a suitable finial of some description to add to the posts.

The final additions to the basement, as it stands at the moment,  are  some supports (for want of a better word) on the basement side of the railings.   I don't know what the correct architectural term is but I wanted them anyway!

.........and that's the exterior to date.    In the next post, I'll show the whole completed frontage.

Note - a few people have asked how my sister Valerie produced the leaded fanlights in the previous post about windows.   She used imitation lead relief available in a tube (I don't have it here otherwise I could have given a product name) on acetate and cut it to shape.   They're not properly fixed in yet but will just be glued in, the same as "window glass", and I've passed on your nice comments for which she says "thank you".