We didn't like our front door.
The previous owner had a fiberglass and faux stained glass door and I am sure to some people it is a prefectly fine door and I am sure some people will hate the door we replaced it with but for us we wanted to put back a door that was probably on this mid-century house when it was first built... Or we’d like to think it was the type of door that was on this house when it was built.
All I can say is thank God I am a graphic designer with access to design software or making decisions like say, a front door style and color, would be impossible.
The one thing I did like about the old door was the light it brought into the house so I definately didn’t want to replace the door with less natural light.
We went to numberous door companies and did a lot of searching online and we found a local company that could customize a solid wood door for us and it wasn’t very expensive either. Custom is a dangerous word for me because I have a lot of ideas in this noggin of mine and custom has no limits!
I was able to pick the size of window lites I wanted, how many I wanted, where they sat on the door. Pretty sweet. We decided to go with 5 rectangular window lites lined up on the hinge side of the door and a brushed nickle modern mortise handle set with a lever interior handle. We also ordered a new brushed nickel handle for the storm door. That old brass handle has seen better days!
Installation Day
The door company came to install the door. I’m glad they did because just watching them work and lift and cut and shim... it was exhausting!
We had them install the door unfinished because we didn’t know at the time what color we wanted to paint it. All I knew was I wanted the inside to be stained like our new woodwork.
Cue Photoshop
Me and my trusty paint chips were at it again but this time it was quicker to narrow down the colors. I decided it was either going to be Chartreuse or it was going to be Orange. I wanted a door that would POP! I thought for sure it would be orange... the house seems to work well with it but we plan to clad the front stone planter in wood so after I added that into photoshop too, I don’t know, the green was really working for me. So Chartreuse it was! And honestly, if we start to not like it later, I can always paint over it. <devilish grin>
Oh My Back!
So we didn’t think this through lol. To paint and stain the door, the door needng to come down and put in the garage and old door back on til we were done. This new solid wood door is heav-E!
I almost died! My thighs had huge bruises from where I had to rest the door for a second on them. The worst part is that we have to do it all over again when we rehang it!
So we brought it into the garage and put it on horses. I taped the window lites and I taped the edges where it will be stained so no paint bleeds through. We coated it first with primer and then the green paint which in the light of the garage was looking very yellow and I was getting very nervous. Don't tell my husband that.
After a couple coats of paint and ample drying time we flipped it over and I taped that side up the same way and then conditioned the wood to take the stain more evenly and my husband stained it. Even though we used a conditioner, some spots still weren’t taking so it took many coats of stain but now it looks great.
My husband removed the old door trim and replaced it with new squared edge poplar to match the rest of the new woodwork in the reno of the living room and now the last thing left to do is to apply privacy film. The one drawback to this door company was that the window lites come premade in just plan old glass. We were hoping for a reeded glass but figured I could just find a film version. Ok, I have scoured the globe looking for reeded glass film that looks like the real thing and it just doesn’t exist. But I did find a company online that sells stick-on crystal clear films and I settled on one that has a rain on a window-esque effect. Its kind of reeded so it will do. Now once it gets warmer outside I can actually apply them to the windows without the adhesive failing in the cold.
During this project we also replaced the ugly nautical themed outdoor sconces that were by the front door and garage door with these brushed nickle rectangular puppies. I originally wanted either the metal hour glass shaped lights or the modern cylinders but when I saw these lit up in the store... I knew these were the ones. There is always the back of the house for other fun lighting ;)
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