3/20/2011

Front Door Make-Over...Same Door, New Glass!

NOTE: Sorry I have been away for several days. My Grandma passed away so we traveled the seven hours to Kansas for her funeral. She lived a long life and was 93 years old.

Welcome, come in! 

We all want a beautiful front door for the perfect first impression. Did you know that you don't have to buy a brand new door to make it beautiful? If your existing door is in good condition, all you need is a new look and you can get that with decorative glass, a bit of paint and new hardware.

When we moved into our home, this is what our door looked like...
Yes, the stray cat even came with the house. This door was a basic steel door with plain glass sidelights. At first to dress the space, I decided to paint a rug (runner) hoping to distract our company from our Plain Jane door.
We lived with this for a while until I got the bright idea to paint the inside of the front door BLACK!  It sure looked good but man it was dark in our foyer.
Finally, I hated the fact that anyone coming to our front door could look right in the plain glass sidelights. Talk about no privacy!

While shopping for a new front door and getting sticker shock, the salesman said, "We can cut a hole in your existing door and put in any glass you want." WHAT! No kidding!

Then I found out that all decorative glass is rated for privacy. Mine is on the higher end of privacy, I can see out through the tiny pieces of clear glass but the people on the outside can't see anything but maybe a shadow if I get close to the glass! Isn't that great.  Also the lead in the glass is called 'caming' and you can get that in many finishes. So if brass is your thing, then you can get it. In my case, I got antique pewter since I was changing out all the dated gold/brass hardware in the whole house.

The guys came out, took the door off, put it on sawhorses, cut the hole, put in the glass and then took out the plain glass in the sidelights and put in matching decorative glass. All in only a couple of hours! I painted the outside door my Sherwin Williams, Ramie color that matches the upper story siding color. And I painted our house numbers on after seeing this idea on the wonderful creative blogs out there in blogland.
I purchased new hardware on eBay at a much cheaper cost than any of our big box hardware stores. I also had a company come out that puts on a product over the cement that can be cut any way, so I selected a stone motif to go with our stone corners on our house and our porch floor looks great all over. I must admit, I do miss the 'painted rug'. People would try to walk around that rug so not to get it dirty.  I would constantly say..."It's painted, no worry's"!

I realize that this solution was still not cheap. It cost me around $700, (I used the Glass Doctor) but it would have doubled if I would have bought a whole new door.  And the light just streams into our foyer, so my black color inside works too.

I hope this was helpful to someone out there that did not know that they could save their front door and still make it beautiful.



NOTE: You should be able to click on most of the pictures to enlarge to see further details.
These parties I love to link up to or check out my Blog Parties tab
Metamorphosis Monday @ Between Naps On The Porch
Make It For Monday @ Cottage Instincts
Motivate Me Monday @ Keeping It Simple
Just Something I Whipped Up @ The Girl Creative
Making The World Cuter @ Making The World Cuter
Amaze Me Monday @ Dittle Dattle 
Twice Owned Tuesday @ House Of Grace

Trash 2 Treasure @ Sassy Sites
Tuesday Treasures @ My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia 
Time to Shine Tuesday @ A Diamond in the Stuff 
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday @ Coastal Charm
Power Of Paint @ Domestically Speaking
Swing Into Spring Wednesday @ DIY by Design
White Wednesday @ Faded Charm
Wow Us Wednesday @ Savvy Southern Style
Piece of Work Wednesday @  Primitive & Proper
Good Life Wednesday @ A Beach Cottage

Open House Thursday @ No Minimalist Here
Strut Your Stuff Thursday @ Somewhat Simple
Transformation Thursday @ The Shabby Chic Cottage
100 Ideas Under $100 @ Beyond The Picket Fence
Show And Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home
Furniture Feature Friday @ Miss Mustard Seed

Remodelaholic Friday @ Remodelaholic
Frugal Friday @ Shabby Nest

Vintage Inspiration Friday @ Common Ground
Saturday Nite Special @ Funky Junk Interiors
Strut Your Stuff @ The Saturday Morning Blog
Show and Tell Saturday @ Be Different, Act Normal 
Sunday Showcase Party @ By Stephanie Lynn

35 comments:

  1. Great information posted in this site! really helpful!... Daniel

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  2. Terry your front door looks beautiful and I love the overlay you did on your front porch floor. What a great transformation!! Martina

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  3. The door looks very nice and impressive now...Christine

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  4. sorry to hear about your grandma. hugs. the door is gorgeous! i'm in the middle of painting the inside of my door black! check out my party on tuesday. i would love for you to share this.

    http://typeadecorating.blogspot.com/

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  5. I am sorry to hear about your grandma. Wow you painted that rug on the floor i thought it was a real one you are very talented what a clever idea, your door looks lovely to. dee x

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  6. Your door looks great Terry! Thanks for sharing and for the inspiration. So Sorry to hear about your grandma.

    Enjoy your day,
    Gail

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  7. I love this idea! I will have to look for someone in my neck of the woods who can do this for me! I absolutely love your painted rug and would love to know what type of paint you used for this. I am thinking of doing something like this on my back patio. Did I miss a tutorial on this??
    Hugs,
    Debbie

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  8. I want this! Was it a private company or was it like Lowes? This is so pretty. What a fabulous difference!

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  9. It turned out so pretty! Great idea and what a difference.

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  10. So sorry to hear about your grandmother.

    Your front door looks great...a pretty welcome for family and friends!

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  11. It turned out really pretty. I will have to see about this in my area. I just special ordered blinds for my side lights but would love to have the decorative, private glass. Thanks for sharing.

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  12. Your front door makeover really turned out nicely. Looks great!

    Please come by and sign up for my giveaway!

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  13. Terry this looks FABULOUS! I had no idea u could do that! I will keep that in mind for sure, thanks

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  14. LOVE your new door--It looks FABULOUS!

    Newly GFC following you (found you through the Follow Along Linky). I'm new to blogging and working on redecorating a condo from scattered-still-looks-like-college-hodgepodge-meets-man-cave and changing it into a cohesive home. One little bit of inspiration and small project at a time. My blog has all sorts of things that make me smile plus I'm cataloging my inspiration there as well. And once I've got a few before and after pictures, I'll be sharing my projects.

    Love your blog--thank you for sharing your projects--I just love bloggyland for all the fabulous inspiration!

    www.lovemymrmason.blogspot.com

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  15. I never knew that they could do that to a door. Thanks for the tip! and your door looks awesome. Sorry to hear about your Grandma.

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  16. new follower from blog hop! love love love the door and glass! would love a visit and follow back..

    laura

    http://imnotatrophywife.blogspot.com/2011/03/stepping-stones-forever-craft-cheap.html

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  17. I am that person who had no idea they could save their front door this way. I have the exact same "before" door as you and I can't stand it. I am going to look into this because a new door is thousands of dollars. Thanks for sharing at my Swing into Spring party.

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  18. Wow! What a transformation!! I had no idea this could even be done!! Gorgeous! Love the color you painted it & also the house numbers...too cute!

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  19. Terry, The new glass looks wonderful and I never thought about cutting the door to fit glass. I bet your foyer is very light and bright now. I love the rug you painted too. You are a lady of many talents. Thanks for joining my party.
    Hugs,
    Sherry

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  20. what a great way to add in light! a new front door is on my list...but unfortunately it's way down!

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  21. SO beautiful!
    And a smart investment.
    What is over your handpainted rug on the porch?

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  22. I'm very sorry to hear about your grandma.

    This door transformation is amazing, I had no idea you could do this. Loving the house numbers.

    Warm Wishes,
    Jodie

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  23. Your new door looks wonderful! So fresh! I never thought about just cutting a bigger hole for the glass! We just bought a new door (new but on craigslist) and it has been sitting in the basement for at least a month now. Poor hub works a lot and barely has time for anything! The new door is white with a full window - I can't wait! Right now the door brown on both sides...yes, previoous owners liked brown.

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  24. i definitely would have never known you could cut your existing door to add glass! great tip!

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  25. sorry to hear about your grandmother.

    This door looks very pretty with the light shining through.

    megan
    craftycpa.blogspot.com

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  26. That looks fantastic! And I can't believe you can put glass in an existing door like that! Incredible... I Soooo need to look into that for my doors!!

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  27. Wow! I didn't know that either. Nothing wrong with the door, so add a window.
    -Bethanie

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  28. Girl! That looks AWESOME! Love it! It so dresses it up :)
    I would LOVE to have you link up to my PARTY! WHASSUP WEDNESDAY!!

    And I have a party button you can grab and put on your blog so your friends can come too:)




    *ENTER LINKY PAR-TAY Here! *

    xoxokara

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  29. Thats incredible. I didnt know they could do such a thing. I really like that.
    Love the look of your house numbers too. I have been wanting to do that to my front door. Our number is 1803, so seeing yours helps me visualize how it will look :)

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  30. Now that's what I call recycling. Good decision on keeping the old door, Terry! The intricate pattern on the glass panes is magnificent, by the way. I'm in awe of the way it looks from the inside, with the outdoor light shining through and in contrast with the black paint.

    - Anthony Blommel

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  31. Terry! The door looks really nice. I have to agree that decorated glass not only gives you privacy, but it can also make your door looks beautiful. I might install a decorated glass to my door this weekend. Thanks for the idea.

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  32. I've been searching in google for some new ideas and occasionally found your foreverdecorating.blogspot.com blog. I have to say that it's a remarkable blog! I like how appointed each of the entries are. They are well balanced, both informative and funny, and the pictures are great too.

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  33. If you’re looking to save money, a steel door may be a good choice, particularly if you have the skills to hang it yourself. A simple, unadorned steel door can sell for as little as $150 not including hardware, lock set, paint, or labor and typically runs as much as $400 at big-box retailers.

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  34. I’m a sentimental person, so I would hate to say goodbye to my door. It’s a good thing that decorative glasses were invented and can be installed right away. Adding these designs and painting it with a different color are just the few things that we can do save our beloved doors. I congratulate you for making the best out of your door!

    Regards,
    Vernie Herr

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  35. Thanks for the post, and one think that me and my wife both have in common. Is that we both like to see before and after projects of new entry doors. And I really like this one because it gives it a nice homey feel to it.

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It makes me smile to hear from you!

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