Front Door Renovation Project DIY
Front Door Renovation
I’m super excited to share with you all our most recent project… renovating the front door!
I know… it might have been easier to just buy a new door… but we kinda like taking something old and making it new. So here we go…
This is the “before” photo of the home we bought 1 year ago. Hard to believe we’ve already been here one whole year. I remember tripping over boxes trying to hand out Halloween candy while unpacking at the same time. Haha…
I know it’s hard to imagine, but I had a vision for this house to be my farmhouse remodel….hence @myseattlefarmhouse was born.
But it wasn’t until my good friend, who happens to be an amazing photographer, kept pushing me to start a blog about our process of remodeling this entire home, room by room. I kept saying, yeah, yeah…. I’m an introvert and writing and letting everyone know about our lives, is rather hard and odd for me. But documenting the design process has been super fun!
I knew that I could see beyond the yellow and many shades of baby pooh…. And wanted white, white white. Did I mention that I wanted a bright white home? Well since there is stone half way down the front…it’s not complete white, and actually a future DIY will be to remove the stone… but again this home is a home of remodeling in stages. First, because we have 4 kids and I don’t have the time, second it takes $ and trying to be budget conscience.
Version 1.1 - red stain to Painted
We painted the exterior and trim before we had moved in a year ago and we’re still loving the colors.
We then painted the front doors to match with the other exterior doors and trim…. But the front door started having problems with the paint adhering to the old stain. It started to chip and peel in certain areas and looked unfinished for about an entire year. Oh goodness. Again, life with a big family doesn’t allow for projects to be done in a timely manner.
Version 2.0 - Starting from scratch
We finally decided to tackle this project again. We were deciding between buying new and just “remodeling” these old doors.
Our painters were over and no joke… they spent two full days sanding the doors down to the bare wood. Two days! I imagined it would take 1 day… but at two days… the price just doubled. Ouchie!
First coat of stain
This was the first layer of stain, it is called Weathered Oak. Its a pretty grey color….or what we thought to be the final stain color. Ahhh… The problem… the red tones turned the pretty grey into a Mauve color. Not what we are going for. This was the moment when my feelers took over and I started to feel frustrated. Our aka cherry doors just weren’t going to lend to that raw natural finish, and the reclaimed gray finish turned purple.
This is where my hubby stepped up…. he is so hands on and handy. He can literally almost fix anything and helps get things done. He thought maybe we could add another layer of “aged wood accelerator” (link at bottom) to try to mute the red… so cool. He put the accelerator on top of the grey stain, and it took the red wood and the grey stain and turned it into this really cool reclaimed look. It turned out really really great!
Weathering Finish + Glass
The next step was replacing the glass… Oh my, this old glass had to go. I know this is super common in spec homes… but I really don’t like the complex designs with all of the different glass types… it looks like flowers and waves etched into the glass.
So my husband called around to about 1 million places to find the right combination of design, application and of course… cost. It is really hard to find someone that can do this type of work… and is up for doing a smaller job. We finally found the nicest guy out of Kirkland, and he came over and took measurements, ordered the glass, machined it in his shop (the lead, ceiling, etc) and then came back about 10 days later to install. Seriously, he did an amazing job and I LOVE the way the glass turned out!
Remembering the old glass
Here is the “before”shot of the glass. Enough said 🙂
Beautiful Leaded Glass
Here is a close up of the new leaded windows. You can see the seem where he sawtered and it’s SO perfect! The right blend of simplicty and old world charm. Now one drawback is that we lost some of the privacy, but you only see into the main level entry and our home sits off the street.
The grand Finale = Love
In the end this project may have seemed simple but it took time, flexibility and quick revamping. Sounds a lot like life. Right? I had a vision for a raw natural front door. Sure we could have easily purchased new… but this house has been a fun challenge where we are trying to reuse and recycle as much as we can. I really don’t like to waste and if we can think in a resourceful way…. great!
Below I’ve listed all the sources.
Hope you enjoy….
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Hi, I’m Stephanie!
Wife. Mother of 4. Designer. Sharing styling inspiration and home decor tips. Thank you for stopping by, and please say hi if you have any feedback!
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