help with front door, garage doors, etc

12 years ago

We need to replace our front door (forced entry break-in!), and that has of course caused us to look at other areas of our front that need help. Any thoughts or especially Photo-Shop help would be greatly appreciated!

Most urgently...what to do for the front door? Rather than replacing with colonial 6 panel as we have now, I was thinking more of a euro country feel.. tad more informal and perhaps a touch rustic (but no sure about that). I can either replace the entire unit (sidelights and transom) and have all parts be the same wood look (wood grained, stained fiberglass and the good ones look amazingly like real wood) or get even a higher grade more realistic wood-look (such as JeldWen Aurora) if I keep the current sidelights/transom and only replace the door. (Either way I think I will ditch the storm door.)

Garage doors - yes, its a case of the garage that ate the house. Its huge and bland looking but no budget for anything major. The white doors are bugging me. Should we paint them the main tan color (perhaps a shade or two darker) and hope they blend in even more? OR, online I've seen metal garage that have embossed wood grain like ours do, faux painted to look like real wood. Some look awesome! This would be a drastic change and draw attention to this area rather than minimize. But, to me the garage is so huge there is no hiding it so perhaps jazz it up to balance with the rest of the house?

Copper roof areas - I love green patina but after 12 years ours are only streaky with a rust splotch. They have never been cleaned. Not a fan bright shiny copper. After cleaning I think I can buy something that will either re-darken them brown, or I can go the green patina look. (For example, the color of the pot at the base of the crape myrtle.)

Of much less importance, we ripped out some overgrown bushes under the living room and bay windows. I was picturing perhaps a small "disappearing" water fountain and some hostas...

House is at end of court, so this is view most see:

Straight on view

Close up door/bay window. The lighter area on the door at the bottom area is where it was patched up for the moment:

Newly empty area to left of front door. (I do know I need to put some kind of decorative hose pot here!) We have since greatly pruned back the Japanese Maple.

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Comments (3)

teacats
12 years ago
Sorry about your break-in!

But yes -- a BIG vote to remove the storm door and replace your current front door with a European-look plank-wood-look door. Add a black-iron door knocker and a large half-moon doormat in black. Move your house numbers to a painted wood plaque on the right-hand side of the doorway.

And yes -- a taller fountain would be very charming by the front door! Do make sure that you place the new fountain on some darker stones -- and then plant around around it. The stones will make it easier to refill the fountain if needed.

As for your metal roof -- perhaps check out the colors from Rustoleum or Tremclad -- there might be something there that would work on those areas ....

As for the garage doors -- yes -- another vote to paint them (and the arches above them) in the same cream as the walls. OR (and this is the next step) repaint ALL of the painted walls areas (including the garage doors) to a much darker taupe-gray to work with the colors in the brick.

Perhaps consider adding a long white window box under the main window above the garage doors -- to draw the viewers eyes up -- and away from the doors.
dtchgrl
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks, teacats. If I go with a more casual style door, can I get away with only replacing the door and leaving the sidelights/transom as is? (except no storm door)? If its only the door, I can probably afford a nicer, heavier weight door, perhaps even with some wrough iron "hinges" and or clavos, etc. But will it look OK with the white trim sidelights? Or, would it be worth giving up the nicer quality door (but still more relaxed style than current)and replace the sidelights/transom to have the same wood look as the door? In other words, it would look more like one "unit" rather than door with sidelight/transom trim? If we go with the 2nd option we would have to put a fair amount of $ with the insurane money b/c the insurane company only pays enough to replace in the style we currently have, plus there was a deductible.

I love the idea of window box on garage (and address numbers on house near front door), however, the house is dryvit and I really don't think there is a way for it to support the weight of a window box. Wah! And the main color is going to have to stay the light tan...no $$ to repaint all the dryvit and we just had all the wood parts (window trim, bay, soffits, etc painted white last year.

My concern with painting the garage doors the same tan color, is that its going to be even more bland than what it is now and since its dryvit I don't have many option for jazzing it up with window box, etc.

Any thoughts on painting the garage faux wood?? Big change, but with a new richer looking door and the brown of the copper roofs on the main part of the house, might this actually help the garage tie into the rest of the house...rather than something I try not to look at?! LOL

example door, except this one has matching sidelights. If I go with a door this 'fancy" not sure I can affort to also replace the sidelights. Door itself might have to be downgraded
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adriennemb2
12 years ago
Clever girl. I think that you found the best answer there yourself. Don't worry about the current sidelights - they're fine as they are. After all, the windows and soffits are white trimmed, right? And if I were you, I'd buy the best quality door as possible, seeing as you've already had one break-in, for peace of mind if nothing else. I would probably try to reference the style to the garage door panels though , rather than the vertical planking shown. The hardware would be nice with your light fixtures. If you do go that route, I might try to balance some of the strong colour with a proper pair of shutters on the single window above the garage, nowhere else. Otherwise, sounding good, dtchgrl...

help with front door, garage doors, etc

Comments (3)

teacats

dtchgrl
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help with front door, garage doors, etc

Comments (3)

teacats

dtchgrlOriginal Author

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adriennemb2

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dtchgrl
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