The craziest thing happened to us last year. We made all these plans for the front of the house (read more about them here) and before we told a single person what they were, a friend texted to say they were getting a new front door, would we want their old one?
Not so unusual or crazy, right? Except she also sent a photo of that door and immediately, I had to pinch myself and blink 39575 times to make sure I wasn't seeing anything unreal. It was almost exactly like the door in our plans. I mean, what are the chances?!
Heart-racing, I made Anthony drop everything and go over to measure to see if it would work and HUZZAH, it was the same size as our current front door (not so crazy since doors come in standard sizes). He brought it home to his very excited wife, set it in our outdoor storage room, and...there it sat...for over a year.
We've never changed a front door so maybe that was part of why it sat for so long - intimidation - and probably it was also because we have four small children and lives way beyond swapping out doors but either way, we finally pulled that thing out two weekends ago and started the process of getting some more curb appeal up in here.
Sadly, in case you were wondering how to, I didn't take any pictures of how we replaced the old with the new nor am I going to take any of those pictures I didn't take and write up a tutorial because, like I said above, we've never done this before. We went into it thinking it would probably be a project that seems easy but when you actually start it, it isn't at all and that's exactly what it ended up being. It took us the majority of two consecutive Saturdays to hang our new door - take down the old, remove the hinges and knobs, run to Lowe's, route out new hinge spots on the new door, go back to Lowe's, rework the door jamb, run quick to Ace Hardware, put hinges on the new door, and finally, hold your breath and hope it all worked out as you hang the new door and hope to goodness it closes right!!!
Spoiler alert: it did!
I'll show it to you in a second but to appreciate the new even more, let's backtrack to what the front of the house looked like when we moved in, courtesy of a realtor photo:
It took us a good handful of months, but we made some good progress:
I took this photo of the front of the house two springs ago but besides the white flowers dying (they were annuals) and the sidewalk chalk long gone it looked pretty much the same two weeks ago.
This photo is a digital rendition of where we want to end up in the front, so you can see that door we were gung ho for:
And finally, a zoom in on what it looks like now with the new door:
Yes, it's still going to get painted a slate blue but first, I'm going to get the outside trim painted first. I'm more excited to paint the door but if I paint that now, motivation will tank to paint everything else. You know?
The change is so good on the inside too.
There's so much light coming in now that I can't even photograph it without a glare (probably more my lack of photography skills than the amount of light but hey). Side note: Did you even notice the plastic flower garden the five-year old strew all over the front entry? No? THAT'S how awesome this door is. ;)
It wasn't so bad before but now it just feels so much more modern and dare I say...grand?
Our entry isn't all the huge so to have a 3/4 glass front door is a game-changer. It brings the outside in and makes the room seem bigger.
Here's another angle - before:
Now:
When we first got it hung, I literally walked past it no matter where I was going in the house. It became my detour. But I couldn't believe how much it changed the house - just a different but more modern front door! It's like adding curtains to windows - it changes everything. It not only modernizes our house but it also just makes it feel more inviting and warm. It's amazing.
Moral of the story: Landscaping and grass and all that jazz is good for curb appeal but if you really want to kick things up a notch, get a new door. Our grass is pretty shabby at this point and the landscaping is definitely on the list of things to-do, but the door draws the eye away from those things and the house all of a sudden looks wide awake instead of plain and sleepy.
I know each house is different and therefore, has a different style of door that'll compliment it but here are some similar to ours.
It's also good to check out local places like Habitat for Humanity's
ReStore retail stores. Ours usually has loads of doors and you never know what you'll find. Facebook Marketplace is also a gold mine. We also have several home discount stores (like
Southeastern Salvage, one of our favorites) in our area (many are chains) that carry doors at better prices than you'll find at the big box stores.
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This week I've been plugging away at painting the front window and door trim and this week we're hoping to take advantage of the glorious weather and paint the gable (that small triangular section of roof and siding above the porch). I know it'll eventually be demoed and opened up but we're sick of the yellow-beige and this new door deserves something better. Paint is cheap and we already have it so why not?
I smell a front porch makeover coming on. Stay tuned...
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Love the “new” door and I love the vision you have for the front of the house.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jan!
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