The best way to improve the feel of your home–AND your mood–is to add more sunlight. Installing additional windows or even a sunroom would be fabulous. But, you might be surprised how simply replacing an old door with a full-view glass door or French door can change the vibe of your house–bringing in sunshine, even on the coldest days.
Our back entryway was functional, but sort of dreary. The door had small divided lite windows, but it didn’t let in a lot of light.
Swapping out the door and adding a few other minor updates is a pretty quick project, and the results are well worth the effort.
But like any home improvement job, good planning will make things a lot easier. Selecting and ordering the door is the first step. Some doors are in stock, many others must be ordered, so lead-time is a big consideration.
Picking the door took a lot more time that I expected. We wanted a single French door and considered these three options:
Simpson Marvin Masonite
$850 $2225 $450
Solid wood Wood interior/clad exterior Primed steel
Slab Prehung Prehung
$900 installation $600 installation $600 installation
After much deliberation, we went with the Simpson solid wood door. It looks original to the house, allowed us to keep the existing threshold and the price was right. However, slab doors are A LOT more difficult to install than prehung. A slab door is just that–a slab of wood that requires all the hinges and hardware to be installed on-site and the door is then hung on the existing jamb. All that labor increases the cost of installation. There’s also an art to installing slab doors so it’s important to hire someone who is up for the job. A prehung door comes with the hinges already attached and it’s mounted on a jamb. Installation is easier and the door has a tighter seal, making it more weather tight. All that said, we still went with the slab door. (It’s not as weather tight as it could be, but it looks great!)
After the door was installed, the priming and painting took a couple of days. All those little panes seriously slow you down. But you can’t beat the look of a divided lite door.
The entryway floor also needed an update so we went with tumbled pinwheel slate tile. This is a high traffic area that gets the worst of every season. Snow, mud and dirt all collect here and the dark tile and grout hide a lot. The pinwheel style mimics original pinwheel tile we have on the fireplace hearth in the living room, so it’s a good fit for the house.
A coat of cheery yellow paint keeps the sunny feeling going 24 hours a day and white enamel on the trim is a crisp finish.
A few functional accessories make the best use of the small space. The coat hook is a simple piece that hung on the back porch at our old house. There’s nothing special about the way it looks, but it brings back great memories of our first house so I really like it.
I can never have too many places to file paperwork so this slightly distressed wood wall pocket is perfect–and pretty.
Every house needs at least one chalkboard. This one is magnetic so it does double duty.
This project really is a small update that packs a big punch. The new French door lets in loads of sunshine and it’s transformed our dreary little back entryway–making it a functional, sunny space.
Looking for any of these products?
For more information on slab vs. prehung doors, click here:
For more information on the variety of divided lite options, click here:
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