Front door questions

[Susie]

We are replacing our windows this fall, and will probably do our front door within the next year or so.  I'm still thinking about colors, but I've settled on a style similar to these:

 (minus the transom light)



The exact grid pattern is TBD, but will be chosen to coordinate with the windows (which are ordered but I forget what the exact dimensions/proportions of the grids will be).

This is our house:



Two decisions I am still considering:

1.  Do you think we would want some kind of privacy glass, or just clear?  I mostly want the large light for the natural light into the house, but I also like to see outside.  I do a lot of work on the yard, and I like to enjoy it from indoors.  Our current side lights are clear and I'm fine with it.
OTOH, it's a lot more glass than I've had in a front door in the past.  Another street ends in a T in front of our house, with headlights pointing at us.  There are lots of mitigating factors -- that street is curved, short, with no real through traffic, and our house is on the back side of the neighborhood -- but it could be worth thinking about.

2.  Yay or nay on a storm door?  We have one now, and sometimes I open our main door and just use the glass storm door in the shoulder seasons because I like the light, but I wouldn't need that if we had the bigger door light.  We got rid of the storm door on our last house, which also had a porch, and I didn't miss it.  The front of this house faces ENE, and the door is sheltered by the portico.  We live in the NE.  

TIA for any input.

[sacattack]

I'd go with the door style you like - I think those are so nice! You can always add curtains if you feel like its too much. Based on the style of the house, I'm guessing if people were looking they wouldn't see too much as I assume the door opens to a foyer/hall/staircase. As for the storm door, I'd wait since you can always add one in later - I think you'd get a ton of light as is.

[alf17]

We have this door on order.  Can't wait for it to come in (October)

[simpsongal]

Maybe a seeded glass? My neighbor has a door like that in frosted glass and it doesn’t look great. Esp bc the glass looks noticeably different from the windows.

Re storm doors, it’s Such a personal choice. I don’t love the aesthetics of most storm doors. So unless you use it a lot (which I don’t think you will in your climate). I’d vote no.

[af1212]

I would do clear glass. You can always do sheer curtains if you don’t like it and those are way easier to replace than glass.

I have never lived in a house without a storm door and I think I would really miss it.

[libbygrl109]

I like the clear glass in a door like that. You can always get a large wreath that will to take up some of the space on the door if you're worried about being too transparent.

As much as I like a screen door, I don't like them on a door like this.

[deadwing]

1 - Privacy glass (or something that obscures the view, like the seed glass mentioned above)
2 - No storm door. Why would you go to the trouble of installing a beautiful door and covering it up?

[Wallflower]

1 - I like the clear glass. It sounds like the privacy glass would be nice once in a while (headlights), but not enough to justify the glass. Plus, I'd want the sidelights and the door to be the same and if they're both privacy glass, that's just too much for me. (I'm also a little obsessive about matchy-matchy, and I know that could just be me.)
2 - I vote for the storm door. I love having my main door open when I can, leaving the storm door. My cats love it too, sitting in front of the storm door and monitoring their neighborhood. Also, I'm without a storm door right now (replacement on the way) and I really notice how much I worry now about the front door closing but not latching. Not that it happens much, but when it's really humid, I find I'm double and triple checking that it is latched.

[lessel]

We did a double door instead of having the door w/sidelights. Went with clear glass. Door faces NNE without a portico (want to add one of those someday...). We're on a cul-de-sac and even with the clear glass you can't see inside our front door from the street. Our house is perched a bit up and the reflection of the outdoor light makes it so you can't see inside. If you're standing on our steps you can see inside, but it's just a view of our entry way and stairs, and a bit of our formal living room. Doesn't bother me that folks can see inside... if it was like our family room or straight into our kitchen where we're always hanging out, that might be different.

Eta: Here’s a pic for reference. It’s taken from the walkway leading up to our front steps from our driveway. You can see it’s mostly reflection vs. peering inside.



Eta2: Here’s a pic taken from the street… glass is totally reflective.

[SusanBAnthony]

I'd do clear glass and start with no storm door and see what you think. They are super easy to install so you can add it later. Plus it will likely void your door warranty, FYI.

[Susie]

All good things to think about, thanks for the input.  lessel, I really like your double door.  I've seen so many double doors on RE listings that I hate, but yours looks really good.  Did you switch from single to double more for the looks or the function?

Now that I'm paying attention to front doors, they're all I can see.  This house sold recently semi-near me and I'm like whyyyyyy :-(  Something else could've looked so much nicer.



The other thing that kills me are these balconies over front doors.

Totally nice and reasonable house otherwise, but why put a balcony off a window??  I see a ton of these, and I wonder what I am missing because they seem bananas to me.

[macmars45]

Which way does the front of your house face? My front of my house faces west. The light coming through my window front door is blinding in the summer evenings. I wish I was exaggerating.

[Susie]

Aug 10, 2022 9:15:21 GMT -5 macmars45 said:

Which way does the front of your house face? My front of my house faces west. The light coming through my window front door is blinding in the summer evenings. I wish I was exaggerating.

We have that on the back side of our house, so I know what you mean, but the front faces ENE.

[kadams767]

What part of the house does the door open up into? Is it an actual room, or just a hallway/stairway/entryway area? If it isn't an actual room that you use actively, I wouldn't worry at all about the glass and get what you think looks best. Your door is far enough away from the street that neither headlights nor privacy seem like a big concern to me, especially if the door is only opening up into a foyer-type area.

[Susie]

kadams767, yes, it's a foyer, so really just hall/stairs.

[lessel]

Susie - We did the double door mostly for looks. We have French doors on the back of our house and into our basement--so in terms of functionally needing a wide space to get something inside the house, we really didn't need it on the front. I really just wanted more light and when you look around our neighborhood, the houses that had been updated more recently had double doors instead of the door w/sidelights.

I can't remember exactly but I think our sidelights were skinnier than standard sidelights? There was some issue there where it would have had to be a custom size door one way or the other, so we just went with double doors.

[ewall]

Previous owners built our foyer as a solarium of sorts. So we have one clear sidelight and then a giant glass window larger than the front door. Privacy isn’t an issue because it’s just the foyer. Also we don’t have anyone across the street and live on a dead end. The neighbors can easily see in while driving by, but again, it’s just the foyer. I think clear would be fine.

[ewall]

And no on the storm door! We don’t have one.

[bittybomb]

I like both styles you posted. We have full glass, and my barky dog loves to sit right there and bark his head off all the song day at anything that moves - I wish I had considered that and gone with something similar to what you posted instead.

I’m not a fan in general of storm/screen doors. I think that’s because I don’t think it would look right on my house. Besides, our front door leads to an enclosed front porch, and then there is a second door to enter the house right behind. For temperature control reasons we generally have that second door closed so the storm/screen wouldn’t make sense here. I think maybe that’s why I’m biased against them. If you would get use out of it, I could see how it would be worth it, but I would definitely go with full glass there rather than anything else.

[gummybear]

We have almost the exact same door and we love it. We also have clear glass and got rid of the storm door. We have no problem with privacy as pp mentioned, we usually have some sort of wreath or decoration up. Our dog isn't a runner and is a 'fraidy cat so he won't leave the front stoop even if he gets out. We also face W/SW and get a lot of sun. It isn't an issue in fact it brightens up the whole foyer which I find cheery. When we had the old door w/ storm door we had that open most times so it's actually a little bit less light.  I LOVE our door. We've renovated a ton of things in our house and this door gets the most compliments by far. 

[RockNVoll]

OMG, Susie, yes regarding those kinds of balconies. I comment on them to DH every time we see one when out on a walk, LOL. It's not like you're going to put a chair out there or climb out your window and hang out on it. So stupid.

[VillainV]

We have this kind of glass (not sure what it’s called). It gives us some privacy, but let’s in a lot of light.

We’ve had storm doors before, and it was nice for letting light into a space when we had a solid front door. Now that we have so much glass in our front door, I don’t think we’ll add storm doors. In my opinion they definitely take away from the beauty of a huge set of double doors like you’re looking at.

[flygirl]

I guess I’m in the minority but if you do sidelights, I’d have those clear glass and then the rest with some sort of privacy glass. You can always add the contact type stuff though if you decide you want to try clear first.
I live in MN so a storm door for me would be a yes 🤓

[af1212]

I’m surprised how few people here have storm doors! I can’t think of a single house near me that doesn’t have one.

[ssmjlm]

Our neighbors have that style door and you can see right into their messy house as soon as you hit the bottom of their porch steps.

Our door is just a top glass with glass sidelights, but also our stairs/layout block being able to see anything through the sidelights.

I am 100% team storm door, but we also have limited visibility on the front of our house (side loading garage) and we can open the top and get a good cross breeze.

[Wallflower]

I'm curious - those of you with a greater amount of window in the door, do you worry about security? Is the glass heavy enough that you don't worry about someone breaking it?

I'm not trying to insert worries into your brains, so I'm sorry if that happens. I just live alone and my first thought when I see some of your doors is, "Oh, no!"

[Susie]

Aug 16, 2022 10:53:04 GMT -5 Wallflower said:

I'm curious - those of you with a greater amount of window in the door, do you worry about security? Is the glass heavy enough that you don't worry about someone breaking it?

I'm not trying to insert worries into your brains, so I'm sorry if that happens. I just live alone and my first thought when I see some of your doors is, "Oh, no!"

No.  We have a glass slider in the back and an exterior laundry room door, also on the back, with half glass.  Our last house had both a glass slider in the kitchen and a french patio door in the family room.  Anybody who is intent enough to break in that they are willing to shatter glass, is not going to be deterred by walking around back to a different door.  Frankly they'd probably prefer the back door where there's little to no chance of being seen.  I'm not willing to give up as much natural light as it would cost me to make all those doors solid.  Plus what about windows?  And, if there are sidelights, it doesn't matter how solid the door is, the same thing could happen.

Could what you're suggesting, happen?  Sure.  I just don't think the partial prevention is worth it.

[gummybear]

Aug 16, 2022 10:53:04 GMT -5 Wallflower said:

I'm curious - those of you with a greater amount of window in the door, do you worry about security? Is the glass heavy enough that you don't worry about someone breaking it?

I'm not trying to insert worries into your brains, so I'm sorry if that happens. I just live alone and my first thought when I see some of your doors is, "Oh, no!"

No, not at all. A few reasons why - we have a very loud large barky dog, we have a very obvious security camera on our front door, we have an alarm system with signage, our street is a thoroughfare for the neighborhood and thus fairly well-traveled, and as pp mentioned, there are several other more obscure entry points a thief could try that would be far less obvious.

FWIW, we have had several break ins/robberies in our neighborhood (actually our house was burglarized before we owned it) and in the vast, VAST majority (in fact I am hard-pressed to think of any that didn't happen this way) the thief entered through the basement; either by coming through the walk-out entry point or by sliding through the easement/windows. It makes sense bc these point are usually in back, underground or mostly hidden due to lying so low.

[MrsDarcy]

Within the past year or two we got a door just like the first one you posted, no transom and no panes in the sidelights. We went with clear glass, because where our living room and kitchen are, you can’t see us. Part of me wishes we would have done a somewhat privacy glass. We do not have a storm door. We had one in our old house that had a solid door, which I enjoyed.

We got the door from Zen Windows, which I think is a chain. Very happy with them.

[circa1978]

Sorry to bump this but I was wondering if any of you who got a door similar to this would share how much it cost? We just got a quote for close to $12,000 (but $7,500 with "discounts."