Entryway Refresh and a New Front Door Window

Last month we did an entryway refresh on our home and now I’m wondering why we waited so long?

That’s how it always goes.

I prefer to sit with things before I write about them. It gives me some perspective on the change. It helps minimize the number of instances where I have to apologize because whatever thing we changed didn’t hold up or perform as expected.

Also, it gives us time to “laugh about this later” when things go wrong and they always do with our projects. I really want to meet these people where things seem to run like clockwork for them. What’s that like? How do they build character?

Anyway, this was our front door and entryway before the refresh. When I say ‘before’ I mean 30 seconds before Handy Husband got out his screwdriver.

There’s nothing particularly wrong with this scene.

Not even the part where my family tries to see how many coats and hats will actually fit on the coatrack. It’s a little funny that I spent time searching for a pretty coatrack because you can’t ever see it. Haha!

However, if you were here in person, you’d know that something wonky was happening with the front door.

Our working theory is that the seal around the window had started to fail. That meant the rubber had turned into little granules that looked like seeds. Every time someone slammed the front door, more of these granules would fall out of the doorframe and nestle in-between the two panes of glass.

Let’s hope our theory was correct because the other alternative is that we were on the verge of a major infestation of something unpleasant.

Did you know that it’s pretty easy and relatively inexpensive to change the glass in your front door?

If you have a door with a glass window, look carefully at the trim around the window on the inside of the door. There are probably screw hole plugs covering where the window trim was screwed into place. If you unscrew this trim, you should be able to pop your old window out and insert a new one in its place.

Our front door is metal, not wood. If your front door is like ours, then the door is filled with foam to keep it insulated. Keep in mind that doors straight from the factory are sealed up pretty tight, so you may have to cut away some glue or caulk besides just unscrewing the trim and pushing on the window to remove it.

Not including painting, it took us 30 minutes to switch out the old window for the new one.

25 minutes of the project was spent getting the old window out. It’s kind of comical now how much trouble that window gave us. We seriously thought we’d unscrew the trim and the window would fall out of the door. Nope. It took a full 25 minutes of prying and pushing and a few curse words to get the window out.

The new window was around $200 with double-paned, Low-E glass. Low-E glass has a transparent coating on it that makes it more energy efficient.

The headache from getting the old window out was extra.

I do want to mention that the original leaded glass window in the door was arguably nicer, or at least, more expensive than the one we replaced it with.

We have leaded and stained glass windows in other parts of this house and I love each and every one of them. I think it was the frosted part of the old window that never felt quite right to me. It seemed to scream “this is a 1990s” door and not a “could have always been here” type of door.

The simple 2 over 2 grid on the new window insert I chose matches the style of the windows in other parts of this house. The vinyl windows on either side of the front door don’t have grids and will eventually be replaced with something that looks more appropriate to a colonial era home.

Of course, our projects always escalate, so after we replaced the window in the door, I had a hankering to add curtains around the windows.

Not that we’re going to close the curtains. Nope. This show is free, folks! Just drive on by and see what we’re having for dinner.

One of my quirks is that I don’t mind windows without window coverings, especially when they have pretty trim like ours do.

That said, once we installed curtains, my soul sighed a little in pleasure. The curtains helped soften this entryway and the room in general. This space also doubles as our dining room.

I am morally opposed to placing a rug under our dining table until we learn to not drop so many crumbs under the table while we eat, so the curtains are the only soft surface in this room.

After living with the new curtains for a month or so, I have resigned myself that they are probably going to always have a gently rumpled look.

Yes, I did iron them and spent three days training them to hang just so.

However, that doesn’t mean much when a teenager tosses their 40-pound backpack on the bench and crushes the curtains in the process. Or when we have to manhandle the curtains to get that closet door on the fireplace wall open.

It’s okay though. I knew this was an “active zone” when I hung the curtains. A gently rumpled house means we live here and use this home to its max.

Is your house gently rumpled too? Do you have curtains by your front door? Have you ever replaced the glass in your front door or any door? Tell me everything. You can always comment on this blog post, email me here, or reach out via Instagram or Facebook.

Happy Decorating.

Room Sources:

Buffalo Check Curtains (They are blackout curtains and come in different colors.)

Gold Curtain Rod

Window Insert (Not a sponsored or affiliate link. It’s just who we used.)

Rug – Thrifted

Bench – Handmade

Brass Coatrack – Thrifted

P.S. Head Up so you can learn from my mistakes. I should have been more careful painting the grid on the door. It sits on the outside of the window and I didn’t realize that paint could get behind the grid and it would be visible from close up. I haven’t figured out how to fix that yet. Also, when grids sit on top of a window, you can see through to the back side. I could always unscrew the inside window grid and paint it, but I can’t do that with the outside grid.

Thank you for coming along for this ride! I hope you had fun. If you’d like another blog post to read, buckle up and choose one of these. 

Our Colonial Farmhouse Dining Room

The Story of That Handmade Bench In Our Entry

Not The First Time I’ve Used These Curtains

Only Took 4 Years To Install Living Room Curtains

*affiliate links in this blog post*