Designing Our New Front Door

As we’ve been making great progress on our new home, it was time to design the front door and although our house had been designed with a large single front door, I decided to go with a double front door instead. I thought I’d take you along on the process that went into designing the door and my thoughts in the process.

Doors are tricky because you can spend a fortune or you can make some choices that will look great and save you some money. This is true with pretty much every choice when building a house. It’s easy to get an image in your mind on how you want something to look but it’s important to be open to other options if your first idea becomes too expensive or hard to make happen. If you’re not willing to be flexible, your “must-haves” can really add up.

As I mentioned before, the front door had been designed as a large single door but I didn’t quite like how it looked in person. Double doors seemed more fitting. I had a lot of inspiration to pull from for the style but quickly pulled it all back when I learned that most of the doors I was inspired by were custom and really pricey. Going with double doors allowed me to add a special element with standard doors and I carefully selected a style with raised molding that fit with the overall look I’m going for without breaking the bank. The doors will be painted (see below) which will add another nice touch, and the hardware I selected is really pretty. (You can read all about that on a lengthy post I wrote on The Hardware Hut blog). The hardware is really important!

The doors will be painted some sort of grayish-blueish color somewhere along the lines of the samples above. I like this palette combined with a light stone or brick exterior and grayish roof which feels French inspired to me, and that’s what I’m going for. I will also be adding some sort of decorative element to the doors once we’re all done. Maybe door knockers, etc., but I don’t want to decide on that until the house is done and something really speaks to me. I’m feeling happy that I didn’t break the bank and the front doors will be so pretty.

On the overall project, the house progress is full speed ahead and I can’t wait to share some progress pics with you! The sheeting is all on and dormers in place. The plumbing rough-in starts today. I’ve also started the process of finalizing the cabinet design in the kitchen, pantry, and bathrooms, ordered all the appliances, finalized roofing selections, and chosen all the tile, hardwood, countertops, and wallpaper. There’s also been some unexpected developments on the siding and we might be back to our original plan. More on that to come!

Note: This house update is part of a long series of posts on the progress of our new home we’re building in Spokane. You can find the first post here, the second post here, the third post here, and my guest post on selecting door hardware here on The Hardware Hut blog.