FRONT DOOR
When we bought our house, our door was had a fan window at the top. There is, of course, nothing wrong with that style of door, but as we attempt to make our house more mid century and modern, I started searching for a new type of door. Vinay and I both decided that we really like the long vertical window look. The only new doors I could find like this for sale were at least $800.. usually more. The door below is currently $888 at Home Depot.
We decided to try one of the salvage yards here in Nashville.. unfortunately this one is closed now, but it had fields of vintage sinks, tubs, mantles.. you name it. It was a really cool spot. Eventually we came to, what I’m guessing is, this old church door. I was giddy with excitement because it actually had the vertical window - and for only $70! We did a quick measurement and loaded it up into my brother’s pick-up.
The awesome part of the door is that since it was used in a church and is technically a commercial door, it is solid wood, then covered in a sheet of metal on both sides, so I know it is super sturdy and safe. Once we got the door home, we washed it, took off the hardware, and took out the window. We were able to sell the window on Facebook Marketplace for $50!
I purchased an exterior grade window form Tennessee Glass Co. They cut it down to the right size and packed it up for me. From there, I used trim form Home Depot to create a casing for the window, installed the window, and placed another casing not the other side.. that window isn’t going anywhere!
Install day finally came.. and well, it wasn’t easy. It took us about eight hours to install the door. Remember those quick measurements we did at the salvage yard? Well, they weren’t very accurate. We ended up having to add a big of trim to our doorway and then sand down the door in some parts, but we finally go the door hung!
All that was left was painting the door and trim! I used Lunar Surface from Behr for the gray. After two years, I still need to caulk and seal the window in some spots, but overall, I’m super pleased with how it turned out! All for about.. eh $150 or so.
