First Impressions - Front Doors

White Entry Door with 2 sidelights

Decorating the interior of our homes can be a challenge at times. Whether it is just a small change, such new throw pillows to go with the seasons, or a kitchen renovation, we always look for that one element that will catch the eye. It is no surprise then that we enjoy decorating our homes with chrome hardware for our cabinets and we always manage to find a few copper and nickel accessories to adorn our kitchens and bathrooms. Of course, all these things are found on the interior of our homes, but what about the exterior. What is the thing that sets off the exterior of our house and gives it that extra special look? Of course, there are a few things that can draw our eye to a house, but there is one element that can really set the tone to your home that is your Front Entry Door.

Think about it, the main door to your home can either say, “hey look at me,” “welcome to our home,” or at the very worst “stay far away from here”, “run”. I invite you to take a stroll around your neighborhood and check out the front doors. Take special notice of the ones that catch your eye, and really look at that house. Then take notice of what you didn’t see on the house, because when a house has an awesome entry door your eyes tend to overlook the little things wrong with the house. If you are looking to add that little something to the exterior of your house, consider replacing your front door. For those of you thinking about selling your house, please do not think, “Oh the people who buy the house can change the door out, why should I spend the money?” Remember, the front entry door is basically the first impression of the house, so if it a little worse for wear than it would be worth the effort to install a new door.

Materials

There are many things to consider when purchasing a door, let alone an exterior door. First let’s consider the type of material used to build the door itself. Each material should be considered carefully against which direction your front door faces, weather, and how accident prone you and your family are (more on that under metal doors). There are three types of material we will consider.

Wood Doors

Solid Stained Wood Door with three windows and mailbox

Wood doors of course have been around for thousands of years before the synthetic stuff could be made, so we know they work well, last long and are solid (sorry for the pun). In terms of looks they look amazing and give you that high end welcome to my home look. Wood doors do have to be maintained regularly with stain or wood to make sure they last, so if maintenance isn’t really what your looking for then these doors are not for you.

Do beware if you house is facing west or doesn’t have an overhang to protect from the weather because some manufactures will void the warranty on your door. This is of course is to protect themselves against things that are really not their fault if the door fails. For example, you don’t have an overhang over your front door and it gets wet all the time. That of course leads to rot and the door will likely need to be replaced (not the manufactures fault). So do your homework, read those warranties, and make sure a wood door is right for your house. Remember you can’t change the orientation of your house, but you can change the material of your door.

Metal Doors

Dented Metal Door at Big box store

These doors are fairly low maintenance and low cost. You don’t have to keep up with painting them or worrying about expansion and contraction. You do have to worry about dents though. If you stroll through the door section of your local big box store you will likely see the metal doors on display and most of them have dents. Another thing that we found out when visiting a home with a metal door was that when some metal doors faced directly with the sun the exterior of the door was hot to the touch.

Fiberglass Doors

Fiberglass French Door

These doors tend to be the typical choice for most people. They don’t have the maintenance requirement of the wood door but doesn’t have the dent issue as the metal door. They also can be made to look just like real wood and come in a variety of styles. You can get these doors a decent price point, and very little maintenance.

For more buying information check out Consumerreport.org

Trends

As always with trends, they come and go, but they can help you have some inspiration for your own project. Many of our customers are currently purchasing doors like the following and then having them stained/painted to their color choice.

Then of course there is the classic glass door in white.

For more trends and installations check out our gallery.

We hope you found our blog beneficial. Please subscribe to our blog to get more tips in the future and share with your friends. If you have a question or would like us to come to your home to give you a free estimate, please contact us, we would love to hear from you.