Funny how this clever chalked welcome mat seems to to be more seriously-welcoming than most of the “real” welcome mats we’ve seen.

As does this rather vehement chalk welcome:

chalk welcome mat
Sweetnicks

If we had a stoop or a sidewalk in front of our place, we might just start making all sorts of impromptu, ever-changeable, customizable welcomes for visitors…

chalk welcome on the sidewalk Isaac Brune
Out Walking the Dog

…We were just mulling over this chalk welcome idea when our minds were blown by this one:

Indian Kolam chalk welcome image

According to Indian Images, it is a Kolam:

An intricate floor design done in chalk. Called kolam (and similar to the pan-Indian artform of rangoli), intricate decorative designs are drawn by the women in chalk or rice flour front of their hut, house or apartment block every morning anew. The designs can be simple or very large and intricate.

They are drawn to invoke prosperity, invitation and welcome of guests.

Indian chalk welcome kolam

Beautiful.

(More info and pictures of Kolams here.)

First photo via Apartment Therapy via Suitably Cool; second photo via Sweetnicks; third photo via Out Walking the Dog. Fourth photo via Indian Images.  Last photo via Srivaishnavam Practices

Related posts: grown-up chalkboard “art”
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freeform chalkboards 

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2 replies on “chalk welcome mats and designs

  1. I would like to add an image to a blog post one of our alum wrote about hospitality–can i have your permission to use the image of the chalk welcome on the stairs?
    Thanks-

  2. Hello, the images are “found” ones, not mine. You could do a reverse lookup to find the original source, I think through TinEye.com

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