Before and After: Shut The Front Door!

Over the Easter break one of the projects on our to do list was to replace all our doors throughout the house - the internal doors post is coming soon with some how tos on hanging the doors.

This post is all about our new front door ..... when you think about it the front door to your house is the first impression of your home and what you may find inside. Because we are modernising our 1960s home and renovating it to bring it up to date, the old doors no longer match the updated interior and exterior of the house. Until now that is!

Our front door - Before and After

So after all these years of coming and going through our old front door, it kept us safe and secure, warm and dry, it was time to say goodbye to this classic style and make way for a modern and stylish door to take its place.

 

Our old front door .... it's seen better days!

 

The bottom was warped and water logged and the glass was scratched and marked

 

The style just didnt match the modern decor inside the house anymore

The old door was taken off its hinges and once we remove our lock and dead bolt the door will be put in the rubbish. The new door handle is a trilock which means it has a deadbolt and lock in one so it's just one mechanism, instead of two. Which will be so much better!

 

Old door ready for the rubbish!

 

There were holes in the door from when we changed the locks and added a dead bolt when we first moved in

 

The new front door and lock we bought a while ago when we were creating our own French Doors package for our dining room renovation.

While we had a go at replacing all our internal doors ourselves, for the external doors because they are a bit trickier to do, they are so heavy and have to be hung absolutely perfect, we had a carpenter friend install it for us. It took them 5 hours and cost us $250 for labour.

Taking the hinges off the old door frame

 

Our carpenter friend hanging the new door

 

The new door needs to be sealed to protect it from the weather. I think the two tones of wood are a bit too light against the pale grey paint on the walls and dark jarrah floorboards, so we will pick a tinted sealer that will go with the interior of the house.

The door also has a few minor marks on it which we will lightly sand off and then cover with the sealer and you will never know!

 

The new door hung

 

Shut the front door!

 

I love how the stripes on the door mirror the painted stripes on the entrance wall

 

From the outside the door has a mirror affect so anyone standing outside can only see themselves they can't see inside. Whereas from the inside you can see out and spy on the neighbors through the peep holes!

The only factor we didn't think of is because it's such solid wood with small glass inserts it blocks a lot of sunlight which means the rooms at the front of the house - living room, hallway and master bedroom are a lot darker now and you need to turn the light on to see! Of course, I didn't even think of that when looking at the design of it, but I still love it .... even if I have to turn the lights on more!!

 

From the outside it's a mirror affect

 

We still  have some painting and work to do out the front but we're getting there!

 

Who knew hardware could excite me? But this lock is just gorgeous isn't it!

 

It's a trilock which means you don't need the separate lock and the dead bolt that we had before, it's all in the one mechanism. The style of lock is the same as the ones we got for the French Doors and we have just ordered locks for all the internal doors too with a very similar style and all in brushed silver which I like better than shiny as it hides fingerprints! So all the door handles will match and look beautiful when we're done!

 

New trilock installed

 

Shut the front door! (Sorry I love saying that)!!

 

We knew we were getting a bargain for this strong quality Corinthian door that retails for $1400 and we got it as a seconds door for $200. The lock is a Gainsborough trilock that retails for $150 and we paid $25. That's a saving of over $1000 for picking a door with some small imperfections that can easily be sanded out and fixed up!

 

So all up - the new front door, lock and installation cost us $475. This is such a great investment for the impact and security it adds to the house.

 

What do you think of our new front door?

 

 

Sharing with link parties:

Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesdays
Home Coming - The DIYers

The Dedicated House - Before And After Wednesday

 

 

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[All images my own]