With each new year comes the opportunity to reinvent and start afresh. If you’ve resolved to give your home a makeover, start where first impressions are made – the welcome mat.
Styles of doormats range from quirky to bold to neutral to elegant. Keep an eye out for these two trends in doormat styles as you freshen up your entry.
Geometric patterns and bold colors: Although doormats are an outdoor item meant to prevent feet from tracking dirt into a house, that doesn't mean they should only come in neutral, earth-toned colors. Entryways, a wholesaler of doormats and entry rugs, has new lines for 2016, including mats with bold colors and geometric patterns in its Sweet Home Collection. The "Foxy" mat uses a bold palette of red, orange, black and white to show vintage silhouettes of birds and foxes framed in black squares. "Foxes are the new owls," said Eirini Kalafatides, the owner of Entryways, which is based in New Jersey. The half-inch-thick coir mats will be available in late January on wayfair.com, amazon.com and hayneedle.com (suggested retail price is $29.99).
Ballard Designs’ French Court Coir Mat ($29-$49, ballarddesigns.com) features a harlequin motif, available in black, green or red. Some new mats coming out Feb. 1 at Lowe’s also fall into the geometric trend. The “Arabian Soiree” mat uses a trellis pattern in bright blue, green, yellow and red surrounding the word “welcome” (retails for $12.99).
Hand-drawn designs: Whether it's a doormat with words in script or a sketched floral pattern, hand-drawn designs give an artisan feel to outdoor mats. Entryways' "Like Home" mat echoes a handwritten chalkboard, pairing a cursive font in a banner with a tall, capitalized serif font to spell out "No place like home." Kalafatides said the company wanted to translate the chalkboard trend into a doormat style.
As part of the Williamsburg Doormat Collection from Entryways, the “Magnolia Blossom” is an elegant black outline of a magnolia bloom with a neutral background. The inspiration comes from antiques, rare books and architectural details in the collections of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. A purchase of a doormat from this collection supports the education, preservation and mission of the not-for-profit foundation. Starting mid-January, the collection can also be found at wayfair.com, amazon.com and hayneedle.com; suggested retail price is $79.99. All mats measure 22 inches by 35 inches with a three-quarter inch depth and are made from 100 percent coir.
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