Transformation: New Doors
We did not realize how lucky we were with our last two houses to have beautiful original solid wood doors until we came into this 1970s fixer upper. These shiny wood grain, flat panel, hallow core doors were quite the eye sore in this dated house. We were spending the money on retexturing and painting the whole house, so I knew that now was the time to replace the doors too.
I knew that new doors would look beautiful, but I cannot say that I was fully prepared for how incredible of a transformation it would really be.
We decided to use Lowe’s for our door order because this is a portion of our renovation that we wanted to finance, and they have zero or low interest financing options.
The Process
it is important when working with a big box store to do your research ahead of time and have an idea of what you are looking for.
To start, you need to schedule an in home measurement appointment where they come in and measure each door that you are interested in replacing. Once completed, they will submit the measurements back to Lowe’s, and they will call you to schedule an in store consultation to build your door order. They were able to build our order with a mix of interior, exterior, stock, and custom doors with matching styles to fit our needs. Once the doors were all available, they will schedule installation. We opted for all new doors, framing, and trim, and I feel this is what completely transformed the space. Problems you may run into if you do not replace the framing, especially in old homes, is lack of squareness. If we were spending the money on the doors, we wanted them done right, without any unnecessary gaps and crooked lines. I was given options for trim, but I asked to use a simple 1x4 primed pine with mitered corners instead because I was looking for a more simple and modern style.
Our experience
The door process took longer than expected. There was a lack of communication and attention to detail that ultimately resulted in errors with the order that further delayed completion.
Our order had 13 doors total: 8 stock doors, 2 custom french closet doors, 3 custom exterior doors
Our door order timeline:
November 12th- scheduled measurement
November 17th- doors measured
November 18th- consultation & doors ordered
December 13th- stock doors installed (inadvertently missing two stock doors with order)
January 2nd- customs doors and remaining stock doors installed (garage exterior custom door ordered incorrectly and installed much later)
The third party installers hired by Lowe’s were kind, professional, timely, and did an incredible job with attention to detail.
Doors
Interior doors:
I wanted an overall simple and modern door. I looked at a few different options in our search, but I was immediately drawn to one specific style (making this home reno decision very easy). The smooth vs textured wood grain finish was the most important detail to me- a smooth finish door gives it a more refined look in my opinion. I love that a smooth finish door is more reflective of light in a home rather than absorbing the light with a textured finish door.
We liked several styles from the Jeld- Wen collection at Lowes, but I really loved the simplicity and straight lines of the Monroe square two panel door. The clean lines were exactly what I was looking for, and I love the simple detail of the small, beveled edge. We used a similar small bevel for our kitchen countertop edge as well.
We went with the hallow core doors to save some money, but you would want to consider solid core doors if you are looking for doors that are more insulating and/or soundproof. Most of our interior doors were stock door sizes which are cheaper and available more quickly, but we had two larger closet doors that they were able to customize into a double french style door that I was hoping for.
Exterior doors
Lowe’s was able to build custom doors that most similarly matched the style of the Jeld-Wen Monroe interior doors. I knew that I wanted a modern style with the larger 4 window pane, and we wanted a french style back door. The front and back doors that fit our needs are fiberglass doors from Feather River. Since they are custom designed doors I cannot link the exact doors, but you can show a picture, and they should be able to build the door for your order!
Cost:
Our door order came to just over 6k with the largest portion coming from the three custom exterior doors and two interior custom french doors. I truly never understood the impact that doors make on a space until we bought a fixer upper with basic flat panel, hallow core doors. In hindsight, I am glad that we chose to replace the doors now before investing in full house painting.
Hardware:
We went with a simple and modern matte black handle for the interior doors that were very affordable. I decided to do unlacquered brass dummy knobs for our two sets of french doors, in the playroom and Lily’s nursery, and they are just the most beautiful added detail.
I linked all of our hardware to shop below!
Shop here
