Back when Lynette Jennings was no TV she was into painting the door inside and out with color. She recommended that the inside of the front door be the same color as the wall. I had a accent wall on the far side of the room that was a shade darker than the walls. I painted the door to match the accent wall and it really looked nice. I noticed someone posted a photo of their bedroom here and they had the door to the bedroom painted the same color as the wall. I thought, hhhmm, wonder if they watched Lynette. LOL Guess it comes down to personal preference.

Namarie, you have a beautiful home! If you paint the orange or navy on the panel around the glass doors, would you also be painting the solid doors adjacent to them orange or navy as well? I was trying to find pics of something in Orange, but could only come up with an exterior pic. It does look nice with gray siding and white door trim . I think orange would be a strong statement and navy would be neutral and more reserved .Just depends which look you prefer. I loved this stripe color combo. I was envisioning one thin pinstripe of orange going down the length of your gray and white striped wall! I know you said dh doesn't want rugs, but just a small rug as you step in to wipe your feet would be nice in an orange and/or navy .

White trim/doors like the doorway to room across hall in photo 2

This town has many rules and we would’ve needed a variance to move the front door (which I had wanted to move to the right side of the house and create a foyer space in that study area). We would also need a variance for a portico. We are planning to add a porch in a year or so due to needing a variance (which takes 6-12m in this town) and budget. Without getting into too much detail, we did not buy this house under the most ideal conditions. We had lost over 10 bids on other homes in this town, inventory was low and every listing in the town was “best and final” 3 days after it was listed. We basically bought this house to get into the town. We potentially will move in 5 years when our girls get older but we might stay because we already love our family friendly street so that’s still up in the air. This whole remodel has been so extremely stressful, esp while pregnant. But I’m trying to work with the decisions we’ve already made and can’t take back. We hired an architect who did an addition on our neighbors Cape down the street from us and came recommended. We were happy with most of what he did but the 2 parts that were bothering me were the bathroom off the pantry and the created foyer space with the undesignated front area. I considered getting a second opinion from another architect but figured I would try to get some ideas from the Houzz community first, which has definitely been helpful. The study is going to be an office/playroom to contain the way too many toys we have for my daughter. The wall with the fireplace is coming down; the fireplace is crumbling from the inside/unstable, and goes through one of the already small bedrooms on the second floor. This is the front of the house currently. And the plans of what we are doing to it. The street is 75% older Capes but builders have been buying them, tearing them down and building 2-3 story colonials in their place. I tried to answer most of the questions you all had but let me know if I missed anything and thanks for the input.