Hi Gonzoactive, have you bought from Milano Doors? I placed an order with them but have not paid for it yet. I went to their showroom in Huntington Beach but all the Stainless Steel doors that matched my opening size happened to be defective in some way, and they told me I'd have to wait until new ones arrived. My concern is that the doors are produced in Russia, which isn't well known for top quality merchandise. Can you please give a little more info on your experience with them. I don't want to put out over $3K if I'm going to end up with a faulty product. Thanks

I'm with you on this one. I wouldn't considered beveled craftsman or ranch style, so personally I'd go with the solid glass. I think it looks better. However, full glass isn't going to provide much privacy, if that's what you are looking for.

If you want an entry area, put up a wall and have one. We have a home now where someone knocked out the wall between the nice entry and the living room and we basically put the wall back with a shoe bench and shelf arrangement (freestanding because we didn’t want to do construction work) because it just flows better that way. We also just looked at another house which we decided not to go for after much deliberation in part because if we opened it up to get much needed space, we’d end up with a big box with the front door entering right into everything, like a small apartment layout. Houses, especially houses with kids and lots of visitors, need some way to control the flow of traffic and direct people to where they should take off coats and boots and what have you. If you have room for a mud room, great, but if not - entry area is a necessity, IMO. And people are going to be beyond bored with HGTV style everything probably sooner rather than later - next year or the year after it’ll be some other designer and they will be putting walls up because everyone is sick of open plan and always being on display while cooking. If this is your forever home then do what you like and what feels good to you, not what’s popular on HGTV. (If you were going to flip the house then I might be saying something different.) Personally, if my front door were that close to my kitchen, I’d really really really want some kind of wall for privacy. Who wants all your mid-meal cooking mess to be on display to anyone who comes to the door?

erika,,,light sand w/a 220-320 grit. wipe clean. use the shellac OR another wood sealer. You want to close off the pores. and, should the time come when you want to strip the paint, it will come off easily and not damage the wood. after the sealer or shellac is dry, lightly sand again w/the fine sandpaper to knock down any nibs. use your hand to feel it. wipe clean with mineral spirits. blow away any other dust particles with a shop vac or brush, wipe again w/tack cloth. you don't want any dust particles. lay the door on a sawhorse in a clean area. I always wet the floor where I' m painting so the little particles don't float up as you move. use a spray bottle mister and really dampen the area. buy the best brush. purdy or wooster,,,one meant for trim painting. you can get the budget pack w/the 3" and the angle 1.5" and save money. as for the paint, the color is on their paint chip. Classic Collection 1043D-chartreuse. they will also match any BM paint color. Here is my can for reference. also check to see if they have the Front Door Paint. I believe they do. check their website for that. and they will ship the paint. after the first coat, I use a wet/dry very fine grit sandpaper. wet it, and light go over the dry first coat. just enough to smooth out any brush marks. wipe w/wet paper towel or rag and dry. now you're ready for 2nd coat.