Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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We Have A New French Door!

Yesterday we shared a little ditty on DIYing vs. hiring things out with our busted old sliders as the star. They got stuck, had a broken screen, wouldn’t lock, and were rotting (you can read more about that right here).

French Doors2

Then we decided it was high time that we finally sprung for a set of pretty new french doors that were the same style as the door in our laundry room to keep the house from feeling too hodge-podge. Here’s a process pic during the whole switcheroo…

French Doors4

You can read more about the how and the why on the new french doors here. This post is all about the pictures (especially now that we’re done painting them – well at least one side of them, but more on that in a minute). First here’s a shot of the door after it was all installed. We just needed to paint the trim and both sides of the doors, which came primed but not painted.

French Doors5

So we taped off the trim and the hardware and John used a small foam roller to apply some Benjamin Moore Advance Paint in Decorators White (the same gallon leftover from this project and Granny’s bathroom cabinet) while I manned the short handled paint brush to get into all the grooves and around all the edges & trim that the roller couldn’t handle. In one afternoon we got one side of them done (the inside) since they only needed three thin and even coats, but we still have to do the outside. Maybe tomorrow…

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In the words of Heather from the NY Housewives: Holla!

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Isn’t she pretty? Don’t mind the hardware above that purty door, that’s just from the curtains that used to hang there (back when we were trying to hide the rotten parts of our old slider). We did try putting them back on for a hot second, but after seeing it both ways it was a lot better naked, if you know what I mean. But you can see the curtains in this pic that I took to demonstrate the coolest thing ever: when the doors are open, they don’t block traffic in the hallway. Thank goodness. It was hard to picture them before we got them installed, and we assured ourselves that we’d probably only have one door open most of the time (the one on the right) but it’s so nice to know now that they’re in that if we ever want to throw both doors open, the left door doesn’t block the whole hallway or anything. Whew.

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And speaking of the little things that make ya happy, take a look at the sexy ORBed hardware. Me-ow.

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But back to how we’ll use them. Most of the time we’ll just open this right door to slip in and out…

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… but I have to admit that there’s something oddly thrilling about opening them both. It’s just so much openness that we didn’t have with the slider. And thanks to the screen being broken on the old doors, we don’t know what we’re missing (in other words, we don’t yearn for a screen yet since we haven’t used one in the almost-two-years that we’ve lived here, but there’s an add-on screen option for this door that we can later spring for from Home Depot if we change our minds).

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Dear Old Slider, you had your day, but man, I won’t miss the front view…

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… or the rear view.

French Doors3

New guy’s much better. Let’s call him Frenchie.

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And thus ends the french door replacement picture-fest. Isn’t it crazy how a deck that takes months to come together can almost be immediately surpassed by a quick door upgrade? And once we stain/seal the deck, hide that ugly-riffic electric meter, and string some big bulb string lights overhead… well, I think this old alley will be straight up unrecognizable.

DeckDemo 1 Before

What have you guys upgraded that somehow made everything around it feel a little more swanky? You know how sometimes when you fix something up it makes the rest of the room just look bad by comparison? For some reason now I’m convinced that new doors have the opposite effect. Even our old scratched parquet floors look better when they’re next to Frenchie…

Psst- Clara + goats = love. More here.

Comments

  3. Kristen | Popcorn on the Stove says

    I really like the way the door turned out, and it’ll be nice having such a large doorway (in case you ever buy giant furniture). Do you think you’ll add curtains on the doors themselves (like the kinds that are bunched in the center) or blinds or keep them as is?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      I think for now we love seeing straight out onto the porch (it’s a really private side of our house, so we don’t look out at people or the street or anything) – but who knows where we’ll end up!

      xo
      s

  4. Janice says

    Are you going to replace the other two sets of sliders as well? You could do them all for around the $2000 you had allotted for the one set.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yeah, we have definitely thought about it, we’d just actually have to replace three (there’s one in the sunroom that leads out to the same upper patio as the left one in the living room, so to keep things consistent we’d have to spring for three new ones – and those are custom sizes, not regular sizes (more expensive). They also work perfectly (aren’t rotting, the screens work, they lock, etc) so we’re thinking for now they stay and maybe down the line if we have more loot saved up it might be something we’ll think about!

      xo
      s

  5. Ellen says

    It really is SO pretty! Such a great upgrade! (We’ve got sliders in our den that we’d like to replace with French doors down the line, so I really appreciated the rundown on your options that you had yesterday…)

    Reply

  7. Beth says

    Hi John and Sherry!

    I am so jealous that you can have the doors open like that! Here in Australia we are in the middle of spring and the flies and mosquitoes are already bad! I hope you have some good weather to enjoy the deck before winter hits you :)

    beth x

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Aw thanks Beth! I wouldn’t say we leave them like that all day, but it’s nice to crack one for Burger to slink in and out. The deck is his new favorite place!

      xo
      s

  8. MJ says

    I really want to “hide that ugly-riffic electric meter” of mine, too. Will you go ahead and get on that so I can get an idea of what to do to mine? ;) Everything looks great!

    Reply

  9. Emily says

    Do you guys plan to paint the exterior side white also? Just curious…I was thinking black or yellow like the front doors could be nice. Maybe that’d be too much color out there. That’s why you guys are the experts and I’m not!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We’re going to keep the doors white from the outside for now, just because we have an identical door on the side of the house (that leads to the carport from the laundry room) and it’s white too- we like keeping it balanced and cohesive.

      xo
      s

  11. Christina says

    Looks so pretty and clean…isn’t it amazing how a simple door style alteration completely makes ya want to just *sigh*?

    Reply

  13. Elizabeth says

    Wow! It looks great! Hard to believe a door could make that much difference. Happy to hear you had it installed, it is a lot harder than it looks, we had two replaced last year and there were all sorts of complications.

    I do not know if you posted about this I am behind this week but I saw this…

    http://livingblog.marthastewart.com/2012/10/3-design-inspiration-books-were-loving.html

    on Martha Stewart Blog, a great review and give away of your book!

    Congratulations on all of your success.

    Elizabeth

    Reply

  14. Emma (Broke Ass Home) says

    WOW! This looks AHHHHmazing. I know the feeling though…after we spent weeks prepping and doing our bookshelf demo to add the pallet back it ended up being the $13 chandelier from Habitat that I spray painted that finally made the room make sense. *sigh* I guess it’s all in the details…

    Are you guys planning to keep that light fixture in the hallway?

    Reply

    • Margaret says

      I always liked that fixture, I was hoping that you’d keep it! I just moved into a new apartment with parquet floors – never had them before, and the jury’s still out on them. Sometimes they feel splintery (maybe that’s ours though) – our dog is still a little leery of them. Which leads me to a question – when you finally tackle the big floor refinish, do you think you’ll try to refinish the parquet or replace it with something like what’s in your bedroom or dining?

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes, I think since it’s sold wood we’ll just refinish it and help it feel more seamless with the other hardwood floors here (ripping out wood parquet to replace it with other wood flooring seemed expensive to us).

      xo
      s

  15. Annette says

    Hey Sherry! Your door looks awesome. We did a door upgrade and LOVED the results!
    Just curious> Are ya’ll gonna paint the interior some crazy fun color or leave it white? For some reason I cant see you guys leaving it plain….
    :)
    Blessings from IN,
    Annette

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      All white for now! It’s the same as the other identical door that we have that leads from our laundry room to the carport so we’re embracing the seamlessness of them looking alike for now!

      xo
      s

  16. Lenore says

    Love the new doors! You don’t use screens? Don’t you get bugs in the house that way? We have a lake behind our home, and if I left a door open in my house without a screen in the summer it would quickly become a large mosquito den.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We definitely don’t leave the doors thrown open like that all the time, so we just open them to slip out and then close them behind us which seems to keep the bugs at bay.

      xo
      s

  19. SimplySam says

    Love the French Doors!! Our backdoor had no window to the backyard. We replace with an exterior door that had a blinds built into the full glass. No fuss, no cleaning, we can let in as much light as we want. :)

    Reply

  21. Natalie @ barnesdailycircus says

    That looks so great! Are you guys considering painting the siding on your house still? The new white door is making your house trim look not so white. And I remember when you painted swatches on the house last fall.

    This is completely unrelated, but this weekend, family did a fall project inspired by you guys! Thanks for giving me the idea for something to do with my daughter that was age appropriate!

    http://barnesdailycircus.blogspot.com/2012/10/pumpkin-painting-party-troy-is-not.html

    Reply

  24. Cara says

    The doors look much better! We just installed new gorgeous bamboo floors and they made the the house look “fancy” BUT immediately made the ceramic tile in the kitchen and the carpet in the bedrooms look ugly :(

    We are getting retractable screen doors for our french door. I found some by pliss which look interesting and are almost invisible when you don’t want them.

    Reply

  26. Alison says

    Simply beautiful. The transformation to that whole area inside and out is just stunning! I really appreciate how you guys go into such great detail about your projects, it’s a bonus for newbie DIY-ers like me to get an idea of what’s really involved.

    Reply

  29. Kim says

    I am so painfully jealous – we have a horrific 70s era slider to our backyard that I’ve been anxious to get rid of since we moved in 2 years ago!

    Did you have Home Depot come out and measure first, and then they gave you a bid? How big is your opening? Ours is 8ft, so it seems we may need to do sidelights, which of course ups the cost.

    Anyway, it looks fantastic! Enjoy :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      The way it works is that you do a rough measurement, go to the store with that and look at options, then you pay $35 for them to come out and measure again and make sure what you want will work, and that $35 goes towards the installation fee (so it’s not extra). They called a few days after coming out to measure things to install- very simple! Hope it helps.

      xo
      s

    • Susanne says

      This is valuable info – would you consider adding it to the post yesterday for people who are trying to figure this out on their own and really don’t know where to start? I think it would help. Just a suggestion.

  31. Jessica says

    The French doors look soooooo good! I honestly didn’t even recognize that it was your house when you posted the pic yesterday!

    Reply

  33. becca says

    Did you add trim too? It kind of looks wider now than the trim around the other doorways, but maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me.

    love the over all transformation though! impressive!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yes, we had them add trim to make it the same height as the other doorways so it would look nice and seamless. We didn’t want one doorway a few inches lower, and it seemed to work out nicely!

      xo
      s

  34. Lynn @ Our Useful Hands says

    We tried upgrading our guest bathrooms green toilet for a modern cream one but about 3 steps into YOUR tutorial (thanks guys!) we realized that the builders or previous owners installed the toilet and THEN put the countertop over it. So now it is nearly impossible to (no wait. ABsolutely impossible) to switch out the toilet before switching out the countertop first. What a tragedy. Now we are going to have to settle on just switching out the old grungy toilet seat for now.
    Anyway, Frenchie looks sooooo good. It’s style and function is impeccable. Good upgrade guys and hiring it out is exactly what I would do. Watching enough diynetwork.com renos has convinced us that doors and windows are definitely not for the beginner. Something always goes wrong.

    Reply

  35. LB says

    Ooh, it looks gorgeous! If you did want to have them open for some reason you could totally rig up some of the $5 mesh curtains from IKEA over the opening. It could be like a Southern nod to all of the European homes that hang velvet or tapestries over the front door to keep the drafts out in cold weather when the door is opened.

    Reply

  37. Jess @ Little House. Big Heart. says

    We have french doors in our office that were improperly installed. The frame was rotted and the previous owner didn’t replace it; he just stuck the new doors in. There’s so much wiggle room with the doors now because he didn’t do it right that you can push the doors open even when they’re locked from the inside.

    I’d love to replace them with big open ones like those. We’d definitely add the screen though, since our windows are all painted shut!

    Reply

  38. Amy says

    WHat is the screen option for a french door? I love the look but would miss being able to get the breeze from my screened open slider.

    Reply

    • Pat E. says

      When I had french doors installed I also wanted security doors (woman living alone, yadda yadda). My amazing handy man actually made 2 security doors into a bifold door. I primarly just use one door (the left one) to go in/out of the house–it opens in. Its security door opens out and hinges to the second security door that has a pin that goes into the top rail and the bottom rail to keep it secure. If I pull in the pins I can fold the doors back along hinges on the second door and it folds back against the exterior wall. So, if necessary, I can open both Frenchies and bifold open both security doors for a big big opening. (This probably makes no sense, but think of bifold closet doors and now imagine them to be screened security doors.) It has worked really well and I’m so happy to be able to have it locked, but still get a nice breeze.

  40. Anja says

    Cute! Even though sliding doors are very practical, I love the look of the new ones. The handle is also cute, this dark metal always looks awesome on white.

    Reply

  41. Anne says

    Love it! It’s so new and fresh-looking! In our rented apartment, it’s all about the furniture and accessories when we try to make things look more swanky and updated. Dreaming of bigger renovations one day!

    Reply

  43. Mallory says

    Looking great!

    Does your electric meter not have to be accessible for the electric company? It seems it might be hard for them to read it in that location.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      It does have to be accessible, but as long as it’s not under the deck (they just bend down but it’s above the deck line) it’s all good. They do most readings online anyway, so in two years no one has been out to our house.

      xo
      s

  44. Mary says

    That looks so nice! It’s a great update – and well worth the cost paid. You really can’t beat a flat install rate, especially when you’re working with an older house where things may not be square and level.

    Great work!

    Reply

  45. Koliti says

    Oooooh La La!
    A naked new door named Frenchie
    that leads out to Al-Friskie dining…

    Just when summer is simmering down,
    Things are heating up at YHL!

    Spectacular upgrade!
    Change your door, change your va-va-view :)

    Reply

  47. Bijoux says

    You mentioned possibly adding on a screen later. What kind of screens do they have for French doors? I have been thinking of putting a balcony on my master bedroom and would really love french doors, but also really want the option of a screen.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We didn’t check them out in the store since we didn’t use the old one, but I think there are pull down options and pull out from the side (like an accordion) options. Hope it helps!

      xo
      s

    • heather s. says

      It is obvious you don’t live in MI where you have to have screens otherwise you will be invaded by mosquitoes in the summer. :)

      My parents had french doors where only one side opened (the other side was just for looks I guess like one huge window) – theirs had a sliding screen just like your old sliding door.

    • Bijoux says

      Thanks! I will check out the retractable screens. I hadn’t heard of those, but I saw the comment about Plisse screens. Those look pretty great.

  48. Robin says

    When you did the deck, I had this thought, but didn’t post it then, because it seemed like it was probably just ‘too much’ – but with these new french doors (which look great!), I’ll go ahead with it:

    Looking at your house’s floorplan, it seemed like there would be enough room to add a door to this new deck from your guest bedroom (past the table, toward the stair end). I just had this idea of someone visiting you, waking up early, getting tea or coffee or whatever and reading in bed for a while, and then as it gets light out, wanting to go outside, and being able to go out and enjoy a lovely morning right from their bedroom…

    Like I said, probably ‘too much’ because it would mean cutting a hole in a brick wall, but for whatever reason, the idea really appealed to me…

    Anyway, congratulations on the indoor/outdoor transition upgrade!!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Oh yes we have thought about that! It would be really fun! Although we’re thinking more about making a door out to the deck from our master (there’s a window we could convert) so it feels more master-suite-ish with deck access!

      xo
      s

  49. Bethindc says

    What a difference! And how smart to turn to
    a pro for this job. Two questions:

    Many decorators insist it’s important to use
    the same trim color throughout a space. Have
    you used Decorator White on all your trim?
    (Or do you think it matters?)

    And have you considered replacing the parquet
    floors to be like the kitchen? Expensive, but
    maybe worth it?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      All of our trim is a clean white looking tone. Half of it is stuff we have repainted in Decorators White and half of it is goodness-knows-what-color but it all seems to look the same (sometimes the freshly painted stuff looks extra crisp so we’ll paint other trim nearby, but we haven’t gone crazy and repainted all the rooms or anything).

      xo
      s

  50. Kelli from LittleCottageOfMine says

    It looks great! We have a French door from our kitchen to our back yard and I love it! Opening it and my front door and sky light in the living room and I have a virtual windstorm the breeze is so awesome. But with no screen OH THE BUGS! Yellow jackets included so be careful :)

    Short story:
    One time we didn’t close the door all the way and it didn’t latch. We get home after a long day out and the kitty had pushed the door open. Our house was FULL of all kinds of flying bugs and fruit flies! Oh and a dead bird that I’m pretty due to the feather confetti saw its last days in my dining room! Ewwww and thanks kitty…haha

    Reply

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