Our new front door is in and we have some photos to share with you today! First I should say that ordering a door online was a bit of a risk. Especially since we wanted a wood-toned one and tones are somewhat hard to read online. But as soon as it got here, we inspected it before signing (as we were instructed to do) and it was just what we wanted.
Here was our front door when we first moved in, a super glossy maroon. The glossiest!
We painted it Onyx by Benjamin Moore but I’m still not sure that was a huge improvement. And when the handleset broke off  (aye yi yi!) and we temporarily replaced it with a mismatched knob–it wasn’t pretty.
But after 2 years of living here, we realized nixing the one sidelight in favor for a single door and beefier trim would serve us best. And here’s how it looks today!
You can see all the details about the door we ordered in this post. When it arrived, we ended up having our favorite contractor come and install it since we were working on the downstairs, but I did manage to snap a couple pictures with my phone of the progress.
He started out be filling in the gaps on either side with 2x4s. Between the sidelight we did away with and the previous door’s trim, that left us with about 8″ on either side to fill.
Then, he cut out the siding equivalent on top and we started layering trim.
We used 1x3s for the first trim layers and then wedged a 2×6 board next to those to fill in the gap. Then we layered a 1×6 Â on top for the widest trim piece on the side so it was barely out farther. We repeated the same process for the top, except added a jamb on top for extra height and balance. All the trim pieces were exterior grade pre-primed for exterior use. We siliconed the cracks and painted it Simply White in an Exterior Satin finish.
You may have noticed we also swapped out our old gold numbers, too! They were barely visible so you maybe have missed them in the before photos. We actually did that a few months ago, but it’s only worth showing now. I ordered this steel planter box and brass magnetic numbers from Schoolhouse. It is definitely more brown than the slate color it appears to be online, but I think it will patina over time and I love the warmth the brownish tone adds.
Other things on the list? Replace an old brass light (see below) on the left wall. Maybe bring it closer to the door or make it hanging above the door would be nice.
We also still need to trim the inside of the door.
But, all in all, we’ve come a long way from where we started:
Now:
We have a driveway full of carpet right now (eeee!) but as soon as it clears out, I owe you an updated front-of-house shot! It’s looking so great all together with the upgraded lights flanking the garage and DIY house numbers we added last year. It’s been busy and exciting over here–New carpet update before the week is over!
Ps. Tomorrow’s the last day to enter our Schlage entryset giveaway!Â
Where did you order the door? What is the color of the finish? Its beautiful.
Thank you for sharing this! I’ve been wanting to remove our sidelights, and this method appears solid. The obstacle I’m facing is an over door fan-shaped window.
Thank you so much for posting! I just used this as a template for my front door and it turned out awesome!
I love your door and the way you encased it with the molding. I noticed you mentioned that you ordered it online. Would you mind sharing where you purchased the door?
Check out this post for that info!
Can you tell me what brand and/or model number this door is….love the 6 windows…also is this fiberglass? Thank you so much for your help.