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Are you looking for ideas to upgrade your home’s exterior that pack a lot of bang for your renovation buck? Installing a new front entry door, and then designing around it with beautiful door casings, is a cost-effective and curb appeal-boosting project.
There is an endless variety of front door designs to choose from. Unfortunately, this means that selecting the right front door for your unique home—and how you tend to enter and exit it, welcome visitors, and more—can be somewhat overwhelming.
Today’s post aims to ease some of your uncertainty about choosing the right front door design. We’ll help you discover a few distinct front entry door designs that fit perfectly with many of the most popular architectural styles in San Francisco homes.
Your Front Door Design Can Make or Break Your Home’s Curb Appeal
This may sound extreme, but a front door that needs some help—either because it’s in disrepair or it is merely not the right style for your home—can absolutely give your neighbors and visitors a negative impression. In other words, a bad front door hurts curb appeal.
The same thing is true of a front door that’s just “blah” in terms of design!
The good news is, with help from The Moulding Company (TMC), and our range of unique exterior moulding options, you can create a custom front door design that will win you compliments from everyone who approaches your home!
Front Door Design Styles to Consider
It’s true that you’ll need to make decisions about front door design elements and details, like:
- Hinges, knobs, and locksets
- The overall use of glass on and around the door itself, including sidelights and fanlights
- Paint or stain colors for the door and trim
- Door material, including wood, steel, and more
- Whether you prefer double, French doors, a typical single entry door, or even a unique pivoting door
However, making these accessory and detail choices become much easier once you’ve decided on an overall design style for your front door. These are popular options, and ones that can make great use of some of our favorite door casing options.
Historically Accurate Styles to Match Your Vintage Home
In the Bay area and beyond, some of our “vintage” homes were built as far back as the mid-1800s. Distinct styles such as Italianate and Queen Anne Victorian ruled the day when the city was first rapidly expanding.
Later waves of housing booms happened in the early 1900s and in the post-WWII period of the 1950s and 1960s. Those associated architectural styles include Mission, Craftsman, and even minimalist mid-century modern designs.
In any case, when you’re looking to remodel one of these older homes with a very distinct style, you often have to think about historical accuracy. That’s a fancy term that relates to making sure your improvements complement any and all original design elements in your home’s architecture.
Unfortunately, if your new front door is not a stylistic match—say, you try to put a minimalist modern design on your ornate Victorian home—it will detract from your home’s overall look. Perhaps this doesn’t bother you, but it will hurt your curb appeal. Additionally, if you live in a neighborhood or town with a historical review process for home renovations, you may not have a choice.
Contemporary Front Door Designs
It’s true that many people use the words “modern” and “contemporary” interchangeably. But, when you’re talking about design, these terms can mean very different things.
We’ll talk about specifically modern or “mod” front door designs in a moment, but contemporary front doors are those that fit homes built recently—in the time period that’s “contemporary” with our own.
Many of these newer homes incorporate stylistic elements from a variety of American home architecture traditions that have come before, but these homes won’t have one particular dedicated style. Contemporary homes incorporate building materials, like stone veneers, stucco, engineered exterior siding, and more that make them unique in their own, new way.
The best thing about contemporary front door designs is that there are so many potential options with an even more extensive range of details to consider—all of which will look great on your newer home! From a relatively unadorned carved wood entry door to something with a few Mission-style references, you have room to get creative with your contemporary front door!
Mod Front Door Designs
Recently, a style referred to as “mid-century modern” has become popular. And, if you live in a home built in the middle of the 20th century that tends to be somewhat minimalist in overall design, you’ll want to select a modern or mod front door design. The hallmarks of this style include minimal decoration and highlight straight lines, geometric forms, and often incorporate a lot of glass.
Traditional Front Door Designs
The word “traditional” can describe many different front door looks, but it typically refers to those that are somewhat understated and don’t include a lot of extra design elements. Sidelights and fanlights might be part of a traditional front door design, but they will be in scale with the door itself.
The traditional front door is itself a single entry door that’s not oversized (as is more common in the contemporary or mod styles we talked about above). Imagine the doorway into a home portrayed in a typical 1950s TV sitcom, and you’ll be on the right track! These designs look great on a wide variety of home styles—they can lend an air of formality without overwhelming the front entry.
Don’t Forget to Consider How Your Front Door Will Look from Inside Your Home
Some renovators may indeed be so preoccupied with making the exterior of their home look better and brighter that the way their new front door will fit into the interior design of a foyer or other front entry becomes an afterthought.
Remember to think about things like whether you’ll want the same material, color, or hardware on the interior face of your new front door as on the exterior. For instance, if you like the look of natural wood inside your front entry hall, but you want your door to lend a pop of color to the front of your home, you’ll need to consider how to make that happen.
Additionally, you’ll need to consider both interior and exterior door casings, nearby window trim, and other interior and exterior mouldings.
Looking for Door Casings, Exterior Moulding, and Design Advice? We’ve Got It All!
The Moulding Company is the Bay Area’s favorite resource for remodeling products that take your home from ordinary to extraordinary!
Whether you’re a DIY-enthusiast homeowner embarking on your first home renovation or a seasoned professional contractor, The Moulding Company has the millwork products and supplies you need for sensational project results. Drop by one of our conveniently located California showrooms to discover how working with The Moulding Company makes beautifying your unique home a stress-free and project budget-friendly experience!
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