You only get one chance to make a first impression.

When the front of today’s homes are often over run by automobiles, driveways, trash cans and children’s toys strewn about, what sort of a first impressions is our society making?

After all, the entryway is the porthole into the home. It should make a statement about the home it frames and the people who live behind the doors.

Bill and Kathryn Tuttle’s house in Old West Lawrence has a wonderful example of an inviting entryway. They have created a front stoop on their 1884 Queen Anne Victorian that makes a stranger want to come sidle up and ring the antique bell. The fantastic old home certainly helps in creating a beautiful entryway with the curved grand porch and architectural interests around every corner. However, the potted plants, hardscaping and permanent plantings in a yard play as essential a role in providing a welcoming first impression as the house itself.

The home is cradled by spirea, blue bells, blue spruce, day lilies, dianthus, sedum, Lily of the Valley, coreopsis, yellow roses and black-eyed Susans, all of which hug the front of the curved porch. The Tuttles have incorporated some potted cabbage in an old, decorative, concrete container, along with two concrete urns that frame the bottom of the stairs leading to the stoop with pansies flowing out of them that are still blooming. They also have three hanging baskets with petunias and verbena for some additional color.

The Tuttles considered every aspect of an inviting entryway, including a comfy place to sit and enjoy the outside world.

“We sit out here and drink gin and tonics and talk to the passers-by,” said Bill, a professor of American studies at Kansas University. “Sooner or later you’ll see a lot of people you’ve known at one time or another. It is just a nice place to be.”

The Tuttles have incorporated a lot of “touches” that really add to the aesthetics of the entryway, such as the custom-built screen doors and the old, black metal lamppost that illuminates the walk. They have used decorative tiles to display the street number for the home’s address.

Bill’s travels have helped mold the look of the Tuttles’ alluring entryway.

Kathryn Tuttle, left, and Bill Tuttle work on deadheading some plants on their front porch, which helps showcase their Old West Lawrence home.

“I had been in France a few years ago and was just so taken by the lavender that we incorporated that by edging the front walk with it,” Tuttle said.

The Tuttles have kept their entryway as historically accurate as possible to the style and era of their home.

“The marigolds at the front of the walk were given to each guest at the Hobbs Park Memorial ceremony,” Bill said. “The flowers are supposed to be representational of the kinds of plants that would have been growing in the Bleeding Kansas days.”

Bill and Kathryn Tuttle have set up a superb example of an attractive entrance that introduces visitors to their personalities, maintains the architectural integrity of the home and provides a wonderful place to sit and interact with their community.

There are a plethora of options to create an inviting threshold, including using potted annuals, creating paths, placing arched arbors, planting permanent perennials or simply bringing house plants outdoors for the summer. The special added touch that greets people at the stoop will be appreciated by visitors and can be a lovely reflection of the people that live behind the doors.