I believe the entryway to a home speaks volumes about a person. When a guest arrives, this is usually the first space they experience when coming into your home. As the old saying goes, a person forms their opinion about someone in the first 7 seconds of meeting them. Well, the same rings true when someone walks into your home for the first time.

When we purchased this house in June of 2021, I knew this would be one of the first few projects I would take on because it wasn’t quite the reflection of me, or my family, that I was going for.

Fortunately, I was able to look past the ugly that our entryway was and see it for what I knew it could be. The floor was your basic 4x4-inch square ceramic tiles. There were at least a half dozen tiles that were cracked. The grout lines were a lighter shade of black. Oh and the bi-fold closet doors that smacked you in the face (visually) upon walking in the door, didn’t close properly. With a single, long hanging rod and shelf spanning across the entire closet, it made for a very large amount of space that was being greatly underutilized. Plus, it was so unattractive. And speaking of unattractive, let’s talk about that front door.

To give due credit to the previous owners, I’m sure this was a very nice door when the house was built 20 plus years ago. However, fast forward to today…that thing was B E A T. The door knob wouldn’t unlock from the inside so we could only use the deadbolt. The screen door was an added bonus during the fall, however, once I detected that the tears in the screen were making way as an entrance for little bugs to come into my house, the door remained closed. I appreciated the large oval window the door offered because I absolutely love exterior doors with big windows.

Sourcing The New Door

I found this to be one of the more difficult parts of the makeover process because figuring out where to go to find a really great door proved to be really difficult.

It could be that I’m just terrible at searching the internet, maybe not. Either way, I was having zero luck finding anything online that I liked.

Nearby our house, I would pass a door and window showroom called Zeskind’s. I had never heard of them but after months of wondering, I went in to see what they had.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a door that I really liked in the showroom. Surprisingly enough, as further investigation, it was actually a patio door instead of a front entry door. It didn’t matter to me because the look of it hit all the markers for me.

I was excited that door, made by Jeld-Wen, was aluminum-clad on the exterior and wood on the interior. A wood door on the interior meant I could repaint in the future if I ever tire of the color I initially choose for it.

For the exterior clad colors, there were 6 stock color options to select from. Additionally, the hardware for the door came in multiple finishes.

In the end, I selected black for the exterior color and a satin brass finish for the door hardware. As much as I love the stained wood look (in door above) I love color more. So, I opted for a primed interior side of the door. The bonus with a pre-primed door, or anything for that matter, is that it’s ready to paint!

Well, that is after you clean the door, sand it, clean it again… Maybe I should use the words “ready to paint” fairly loosely.

Installing The Door.

When you replace your front entry door, or any door for that matter, I recommend hiring a professional for installation. I like to hold my hat on the fact that I can do a lot of things myself, but there are certain things that I know are beyond my scope of expertise. The other thing is you C A N N O T screw up a door when installing it. There are too many factors that go into it sitting and sealing the correct way, let alone it even fitting in the jamb. If you don’t install a door correctly, that can lead to irregular temperatures in the home, increased energy bills and possible water issues if the door is exposed to the elements.

I purchased the Jeld-Wen door from Zeskind’s and used a 3rd party general contractor to do the installation. The installer, Steve Murray and his son, did a fantastic job. They were responsible for the removal and disposal of my old door and the installation of the new door. It took the guys a better part of a day to get all the necessary pieces into place before they were able to fit the door into the jamb. Once it was seated in the jamb, there is a bunch of leveling that needs to happen before securing it into place with nails, caulk and shims. After installation, the door was ready to use!!

I am thrilled with the look of the door and how smoothly it opens and closes. Our neighbors keep commenting that they’re amazed how something as simple as a door can dramatically change the look of a house, just like it did ours. It’s clear our community appreciates when other neighbors work on their home. I love that they even notice, let alone care.

Once I began to see how great the door was going to look on the house, I couldn’t bear the sight of our faded gray shutters. They were in such bad shape and needed major help. It’s pretty much impossible to think that once you start an upgrade on your house that you won’t notice the next thing you want to immediately fix. Yep, that’s me in a nutshell!

I had to keep myself busy while I waited for the door installation to be done. I ended up hauling out an 8ft ladder to get the ground level shutters down. (We don’t need to talk about how I nearly fell off of said ladder.) And then decided it would be a good idea to get on the roof and remove those shutters too. All the while the guys were still doing the door install. I’ll save the details about the shutters and my repainting them for another day and another blog post.

I am thrilled with our new front entry door and I think it really hits the mark with what I was looking for in a door: Simple, sleek, and offers a ton of sunlight. Stay tuned for my next installment in the Entryway Makeover Series — Part 2; The Coat Closet. I’ll show you how I was able to take a basic coat closet and turn it into the cutest nook with a seated storage bench that has all kinds of fun surprises!

I’d love to hear your comments on your experiences purchasing a new door — good or bad! Of course, drop me any questions you have too. Thanks for reading!