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).
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…
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.
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…
In the words of Heather from the NY Housewives: Holla!
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.
And speaking of the little things that make ya happy, take a look at the sexy ORBed hardware. Me-ow.
But back to how we’ll use them. Most of the time we’ll just open this right door to slip in and out…
… 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).
Dear Old Slider, you had your day, but man, I won’t miss the front view…
… or the rear view.
New guy’s much better. Let’s call him Frenchie.
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.
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.
Bethany Annechino says
Shut the fro… err… side door! They came out so nice! Delicious, even!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha! Thanks Bethany!
xo
s
Sarah in Indiana says
The doors look really nice. I can see why you’re excited about them, but what really gets my mouth watering in these pictures is the light fixture. It’s so gorgeous. I always eye it when it shows up on your blog.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks Sarah!
xo
s
karen says
very nice!!! happy for you two!!
Jessica says
I love the doors! But I am curious how you handled the no screen thing before. Did you not keep the doors open very much? Or, if you did, were bugs getting in an issue? Due to living in NC and dealing with humidity or winter, we don’t use our screen very much. We have sliding doors from our dining room onto our deck and, honestly, french doors never occurred to me. But after seeing how nice yours look my wheels are turning.
YoungHouseLove says
Nah, we just slipped in and out but kept the door closed. Most of the time we didn’t want the hot air in the house, so even if we had a screen that worked we might not have used it.
xo
s
tjack says
Your french doors are gorgeous. But, what I really love is that little rocking scooter in the 6th photo. So cute!
Joy Franks says
The last project we did on our house was to have French doors replace our awful slider leading out to our deck. We had hired it out, too. My husband prepped the area by removing all trim, etc. When our handyman showed up he just had to push out the door and install the new one. Trimming it out didn’t take much time. What a difference it makes!! Your door looks terrific.
melissa says
So Fun! I would totally put a baby gate up on the deck stairs on
nice days so you can enjoy the “openess” and Clara can run back and
forth between the inside and out, still getting to enjoy the
outdoors safely while Mommy and Daddy are working!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, we have a baby gate out there! Haha.
xo
s
Kiki says
Definitely the right choice with those doors! I love how when they’re open they make the deck even seem more spacious! I also liked that the door came with the trim–amazing. After we moved in, my husband ripped up all the fake red-brick linoleum floors (I know, ew) that were in the kitchen and main living area. They were super ugly, but actually easy to clean and I could rollerskate on them, so they had like two pluses. Though he’d never tiled, he read up on it and we chose a gorgeous (and 68 cents a pop) slate gray tile from Home Depot that’s now in the front hall, living room, and kitchen. It looks amazing! Definite upgrade from red linoleum to gray tile.
(in case you want photo evidence, you can check http://www.stillhatepickles.com/2009/02/put-on-your-hard-hats.html and after http://www.stillhatepickles.com/2012/03/i-want-to-paint-it-black.html.)
YoungHouseLove says
That’s awesome Kiki!
xo
s
Stevie says
Out of curiosity…do you get much snow out there in Richmond? I’m excited for you guys that your deck is coming together! Here in Utah, no one would even dream about fixing up an outdoor space this late in the year, no time to enjoy it before the snow hits. Which will probably be in the next week or two.
YoungHouseLove says
The winters here are pretty mild (usually only one small snow that sticks, but might be 3″ deep- haha). Quite different from the NY winters we used to have when we were up there living in the city!
xo
s
Gabriella @ Our Life In Action says
I love French doors – just something about them makes it so much more elegant.
We have a brand new set in our garage but since we keep tinkering with our house, we haven’t decided where to put them yet. I am now more determined to get these beauties in. ;-) Thanks for the motivation.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, you’re welcome Gabriella. Good luck!
xo
s
Laura says
We have french doors and opted not to put any sort of screen on them because other folks we know hadn’t had much success with the *awkwardness* of them. (We never planned to leave them wide open on a regular basis anyway. We use one to pop in and out, and our 8-year old tends to forget to close doors.) We had our first party and left them wide open. The traffic flow was awesome and although we live in deep woods (in Pennsylvania) full of mosquitoes, moths, and whatnot, we really didn’t end up with too many bugs in the house. We found a few sad, dead moths here and there, but I think it was not an issue that would make me want to bother with a screen.
YoungHouseLove says
That’s awesome to hear Laura! We plan to have some dinner parties and test things out, but we think everyone will be seated around the table for the meal and we’ll close the doors behind us, so hopefully we won’t have too many bugs flying in and out like the might if it was more cocktail-ish. Will let you guys know how it goes!
xo
s
Suni says
Seriously this blog is the most inspiring thing, and makes me believe my husband and I could do anything to our house. Love the new doors, openness is just so thrilling. Makes me shake with excitement for you!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, you’re so sweet Suni! If John and I can do it, anyone can do it! I truly believe that. Five years ago we had no idea what we were doing- heck, sometimes we still don’t! Haha.
xo
s
Suzana says
Ha, I feel the same way! This is wht I pre-ordered the book. I have a feeling my kitchen and laundry room will get a facelift in the nearest future.
YoungHouseLove says
Aw thanks guys.
xo,
s
Reenie says
Beautiful :)
Jenny from Made2Love says
WOW! What a HUGE difference! Love, Love, Love!
jeannette says
loretta young, (old hollywood, clark gable’s baby mama) was famous for the entrances she made on her tv show in the ’50s. i think later on she entered through french doors in an evening dress, sort of flinging the chiffon about, and would lie back on the door jamb and look smoulderingly at the camera. flinging the french doors open always remind me to raise my arms high, pivot and lounge against the jamb, then walk toward the camera working the flounces.
here is the short dress version of loretta’s famous entrances:
YoungHouseLove says
Hahahahah, I need to practice my Loretta Young entrances.
xo
s
Krystle @ ColorTransformedFamily says
I think the new doors look pretty swanky. it excites me when I get to swing our doors open all the way too… but that’s rare here in the deep south with all the mosquitos.
Erin says
Looks great! Do you think you will use the same kind of doors for the office when the time comes?
YoungHouseLove says
We’d love something similar, although we won’t need exterior doors, so hopefully some pretty wood ones in the same style but not as heavy duty!
xo
s
Nina says
Funny – when you talked about adding French doors to the deck, I must have glossed over that they’d be a substitute for the sliders. Instead I thought you’d add them from the bedroom.
I love the frenchies here – they make things more formal and crisp. But would you also consider adding french doors to the master? All that glass would make the former alley seem so much more open.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, we’d love to add a single french door from the bedroom out there someday too!
xo
s
JessieBelle says
Hey Guys! You may have answered this in another post before, or maybe someone already asked this, in this post, but anyway, my question is:
You guys seem to uninstall ceiling fans a lot, and remove screen doors. How do you keep energy costs down in the spring and fall? Do you miss the feeling of air circulation, espically in your bedrooms (I’m a spaz and have to have the feeling of air moving/white noise while I sleep) or because you are home most of the day, do you just open a lot of windows and use box fans that we never see? Also if you do open the doors, don’t bugs come in without the screens? I live with the cheapest man alive, and we don’t turn our A/C on until WELL after Memorial Day, and our heat on until WELL into October. So the ceiling fans are a must in every room of our house.
Or are you guys just one of those families that as soon as it hits 80 degrees out, you turn the air on, and as soon as it’s below 60, you turn the heat on?
YoungHouseLove says
We’re huge fans of table fans at night (we have one in our bedroom and one in Clara’s room too) – they’re often really efficient now and can move air around just like a ceiling fan, which we do still have in our guest room and sunroom. We also are so thankful to have a sold little brick rancher (just one level, and very solidly built) so often our house regulates itself really well (we only run the heat or the air a few months out of the year while the rest of the time the house sort of “maintains” just from being on a shady lot and not having a second story that can get hotter than the first. We also have other doors with screens (the side door to the carport, and two sliders that lead outside from the sunroom and the living room) so those come in handy. We just come from families who said “wear less clothes if you’re hot and put on a sweater if you’re cold.” Haha. Hope that helps!
xo
s
Kelly says
I love the new door! We are looking for one to replace our doors from the kitchen to the patio… did you tell us the name of the door? I love how both the doors open. It’s the small things really.
YoungHouseLove says
It’s the same make and model as the door we have in our carport/laundry room which we love – it’s called a Masonite door and it’s metal so it can’t rot. Hope it helps!
xo
s
Christina @ Homemade Ocean says
They look great! It is funny that you spent sooo much time DIY’ing your deck and them BAM doors go in and the deck is old news!
Are you using the same bulbs from your wedding? How sentimental!!!
YoungHouseLove says
We’re hoping to! They’re glass so we’re not sure if they’ll somehow shatter if we hang them (someone warned us of that and getting glass all over the deck) so we’ll have to see where we end up!
xo
s
Marcy says
I love this transformation. I have a question though. You said you put three coats of BM Advance paint on the door in a day. How? My can of the same paint says that you have to wait 16 hrs to recoat. Is there something I’m missing? We are going to start putting it on our cabinets – it’s currently being used on a bookcase/storage unit as a test case – in a few weeks and it would make the whole process faster if we didn’t actually have to wait 16 hrs between coats.
YoungHouseLove says
When we paint doors we do super thin and even coats without giving it tons of drying time since we need it to be dry by evening so we can lock up! It seems to have those long drying times in case folks load it on thick (the risk being that it won’t cure properly) but it cured really well and is already hard as a rock.
xo
s
Jena C says
If you do end up looking for a screen they have ones with magnetic closures in the middle so people and animals can just walk right through and they close automatically. We have some friends that have one and it works really nice and is really easy to remove when not wanted.
YoungHouseLove says
That’s cool!
xo
s
Diana says
I too have doors like this, purchased from HD. I love them, however, I am unable to find a screen door because it does not have a slide rail on the bottom frame. Will you have this problem?
YoungHouseLove says
They told us you can add a slide rail to add it later. Not sure if the design changed so it’s more easy to incorporate one later? Anyone know?
xo
s
karine says
From the point of view of a french women I have to say that ” Frenchie ” is really nice !!! Bravo !!!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, thanks Karine!
xo
s
Mary Ostyn (Owlhaven) says
This looks absolutely lovely. We have an exceedingly decrepit slider door that I am itching to get rid of one of these days!
Mary, momma to many
sara says
Love the french doors and all that openness.
I had a set installed to walk out to new balcony, hmmm … way back in the spring. And I still haven’t painted the trim and the frame is not even primed to kind of hide that fact! Good job.
Shannon says
Door looks fantastic! I think you guys should do a pergola over the deck, mounted to each side of the house so that it gives the illusion of a continuous roof line. Not that you asked for my opinion….
YoungHouseLove says
We actually planned that before we built it but now that it’s built we like the open feeling of top-less-ness if that makes sense (since there is house on three walls of the opening, the open ceiling is nice). Who knows where we’ll end up though!
xo
s
Crystal @ 29 Rue House says
I knew I’d love the view with both doors open! I love the idea of being able to have space where inside and outside can merge into one. If you can forget about the bugs (which aren’t an issue all the time), it seems like it’d be so freeing. Does that sound really weird?
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, not at all! I totally threw them open and did this big crazy sighing thing. Haha.
xo
s
Amy Boyd says
Can you explain how the door was trimmed out? I can’t tell from the pictures if you have a wide trim around the opening and then door trim on top of it? I love how the wide trim looks, so I just wonder how it is in person. Thanks for the help!
YoungHouseLove says
We were really certain that we wanted the height of the new doors to be the same as the other nearby doorways so it felt balanced so we convinced the installer to beef up our trim so everything had the same height. It’s a bit chunkier but when painted it’s not noticeable and we’re so glad the heights match up (we thought that would be more noticeable and look wrong if it didn’t).
xo
s
Amelia says
What an upgrade! I absolutely love French doors and those are gorgeous.
If you’re ever thinking about a screen, my parents have a retractable/magnetic one for their French door that is amazing. I’ve been trying to find the specific brand (no luck so far) – but it’s similar to this one (http://wholesalescreensandglass.com/RollAway_Retractable_Screen_Doors.html). It’s great because it’s easy to open and shut (because of the magnet), you can accidentally run through it and then just push the screen back in and it’ll be good as new (perfect for clumsy people – a.k.a. me – and for kids – my nephew has done that I don’t know how many times), and it keeps the bugs out (I speak from experience when I say that D.C. mosquitoes in the hiz-ouse are no fun). Our family loves it!
YoungHouseLove says
So cool! Thanks for the tip!
xo
s
Rosanne says
We dyi’d a french door in our kitchen to open to our patio. We built a bbq island and fireplace…yes a fireplace! Love, Love, Love it. It changed the total feel of the house. I most always have both doors open. I am not bothered my the few flies we get. Getting pretty good at catching them and gives the dog something to do.
Kay says
I have *always* wanted french doors! There is something about throwing open those two doors that really appeals to my inner drama queen :)
YoungHouseLove says
Hahahah!
xo
s
Bboss says
Sliding doors are from the devil! I need to cast out a couple of them in my house.
Did the trim come with it, or did you have to do that yourself?
YoungHouseLove says
They trimmed it out as part of the install! The guys was so nice! I’m not sure if it’s standard or a case by case thing, but since they have to pop off the trim to get the other door out, he seemed to think they should always put it back on and caulk and everything. All we had to do was paint!
xo
s
Sayward says
This is the golden unicorn of upgrades! I love it.
My aunt an uncle have this magnetic screen or a product similar to it. It’s not exactly drool worthy eye candy, so I think they just put it up when they host a social event, but it gets the job done and it was cheap. It’s also REALLY fun to watch the screen “close” itself. Magnets are like magic.
http://www.amazon.com/Bug-Off-Instant-Screen-32-Inch/dp/B002DR0DMS/ref=zg_bs_13398351_1
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for all the screen links everyone! So helpful if we ever decide to add one!
xo
s
Megan says
I love this! I’m actually in the process of getting bids to replace my horrible sliding glass doors so this was a GREAT motivation piece for me! Do you mind sharing a link of the doors you decided to go with from home depot? I’ve been looking online but am a bit confused with all the options. The doors really seem to vary in price and features…
YoungHouseLove says
So sorry, I don’t think our doors are online (they were an in-store option we only learned about when we went in with our measurements). They’re by Masonite if that helps.
xo
s
Jessica says
Megan, this door looks like it/really similar to it.
http://www.homedepot.com/Doors-Windows-Patio-Doors/Masonite/h_d1/N-5yc1vZbvpsZyqZ12l7/R-202249393/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&storeId=10051
Ariane says
‘Isn’t she pretty ?” … please … all things French are pretty !! ha ha !! Good addition to your house/deck … those doors look really good, especially wide open with the dining table behind. Nice job done (by someone else :))
Julie says
Your new doors look great!
I have a question for you. We have similar french doors off our dining room that need to be painted. When you painted yours, did you paint the trim that surrounds the window in the door? I don’t know about yours but ours actually has little screw holes at each corner and in between at the top, bottom and along the sides. I’d like to caulk/fill those and then paint…but I’m wondering if that might lead to problems if the glass ever has to be replaced.
YoungHouseLove says
They actually had filler for those spots (something that snapped in that was made of the same wood-like material as the trim itself) so the screws were hidden below that and we just painted those so it all blends. I think they can be snapped out for getting to the screws should we need to though!
xo
s
Jeanine says
The new doors look amazing! I love French doors; they really bring elegance to a room. Oh and I loooove the moulding around the doors!
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks Jeanine!
xo
s
Beth says
what a great open doorway to bring big furniture/purchases through! ;)
Christina says
I hope you post pictures when it is all done. I need to cover an electric box mess just like yours and would love to see how you end up doing it!
Suzana says
So beautiful!!! Really is!
I think screen would be nice in thos emonths when you can have the doors open to enjoy the weather but do not want bugs in the house :) Also, imagine if that little porch had some cute-looking cover, it rains and it is a bit cold and you are sitting outther with your book and coffee? Imagine, just imagine :))))
YoungHouseLove says
Sounds cute!
xo
s
Gaby says
Love them! Just wish there were two handles in the inside? Was that a conscious choice?
YoungHouseLove says
It would have been a few hundred more to add another hole/handle so we opted just to go standard with one.
xo,
s
Susan @ Sweet Little Nest says
LOVE!
We took out what used to be a window in our dining room and turned it into a slider to our stone patio, directly in front of stairs that lead up to the second level of our tiered backyard. We REALLY wanted to get french doors, but the window guy told us we’d need at least 5 feet of clearance inside the doors to make it work … and we just didn’t have that much space. Incidentally, we asked about having them open outward and it was deemed a safety risk since the pins could be popped right out and the door removed on outwardly opening doors.
YoungHouseLove says
Yes, we heard that too! In some counties it’s even illegal to get them to open outward! So random, right?!
xo
s
Coran says
Love love love it!! You guys rock. Makes me want to go replace a perfectly fine slider in our house with a Mr Frenchie!
Katherine says
Wow! I cannot believe the great price on the door and installation – this is a good one to know. I missed in the postings – did the installer put on the hardware/lock as well? Did the hardware come from Depot ?
It will look amazing with big bulb lights strung zig-zagged across … and tis the season to buy them at a great price {from experience : buy extra for replacements}.
YoungHouseLove says
Yes they installed the hardware too! It was also from HD.
xo,
s
kat says
I love it! I can totally see having dinner al fresco with some bistro lights over you.
Laurie says
We actually just completed a door upgrade of our own spurred by our daughter being robbed at work, thus giving the robbers our address courtesy of her license, along with our house and car keys. Boo thieves! Never one to let an opportunity to renovate pass by, we ended up replacing our mudroom door that leads to our pool with a French door and all the hardware in the entire house is now ORB. All those upgrades had me thinking our beautiful wood carved front door was looking tired so I painted it this weekend. Your new door is lovely, I cannot believe how much impact it really had. It looks amazing.
YoungHouseLove says
Wahoo! I bet that looks amazing!
xo
s
carolinaheartstrings says
WOW! Me-ow is right. That looks fantastic. Money well spent on that one!
Dee says
Great improvement! I just wondered: did you consider having the doors swing open to the outside? It just seems more logical to me, and you needn’t worry about the doors blocking your hallway. Why did you decide to have them open inwards? Or is it less expensive this way? Just curious!
YoungHouseLove says
That’s just the standard way they’re installed. In some counties it’s even mandated that they open in!
xo,
s