The front hallway is looking sooooo good these days, thanks to our new mid-century modern inspired exterior door!
Last year I asked you to weigh in on my door dilemma: paint the existing door (which Hubs and I didn’t love), save up for an expensive, mid-century modern inspired exterior door that we did love, or buy an affordable replacement that was better, but not perfect.
Here’s the door we had:
At the time, I had a voting widget embedded in the post and 75% of you thought I should just paint the existing door, while 20% said keep questing (although some of you cheated and said paint the door and keep questing). There were some great comments too, with some excellent ideas, and I am so thankful for the sound advice. In the end, I took your advice and painted our existing door aqua, using Beauti-Tone’s Cyan Sky (C13-3-0681-4).
Paint was a fabulous, budget-friendly way to spruce up the old door. In a bright and cheery shade of aqua, it already made me smile, but I have to admit that we still didn’t love it. As luck would have it, I recently had the opportunity to partner with a Canadian home improvement store to help our little lake house make a better first impression.
Although we lived with the aqua-painted original door for about a year, these days we’re greeted by this mid-century modern inspired exterior door:
You’ll never guess where this mid-century modern inspired exterior door from…
Home Hardware! Canadians, are you a little surprised? I kept ogling Crestview Doors, thinking that was the only option for an exterior door with mid-century style. I was so wrong! The floor models at our local Home Hardware store are very traditional, but once we started to peruse catalogs for special order doors, we found a bevy of modern exterior doors, including the door we ordered – the Linea, by Standard Doors. (It’s from the Sophistica Collection).
The Linea has the mid-century feel we wanted, plus it lets a lot of light into our formerly dark and windowless hallway. The glass is deceptive because it actually provides a lot of privacy by completely blurring any shapes more that a foot or so away from the door. It actually rates a 9/10 for privacy in the brochure. So although you can tell from outside if someone is standing right in front of the door, you can’t see what (or who) is inside the house from outside.
It was professionally painted, courtesy of Home Hardware, using Beauti-Tone‘s Cyan Sky. I liked the original shade of aqua from Beauti-Tone so much that I wanted to use it again for this door. It was painted with an alkyd (oil) primer, followed up with a trim and door topcoat, from Home Hardware.
We had already replaced the old door hardware with a nice brushed silver knob and lock set, so we just moved that over to the new door.
The hallway has seen a lot of changes: we’ve painted the walls and trim white, updated the light fixtures, thermostat and smoke detectors, and also the door hardware. It’s a much brighter, happier space now! Some more changes might be on the horizon, though, because we’ve considered replacing the linoleum floor in the entry (and kitchen, laundry room, and powder room). We originally thought we’d put it off until we renovate those spaces and we invest in something like tile or concrete, but it’s been driving me nuts so we’ve been looking at affordable options for the interim.
What a difference a door makes!
Thanks to Home Hardware for providing the Linea door and the Beauti-Tone paint. I really shouldn’t be surprised that I found something so stylish at Home Hardware because that’s also where we purchased the fabulous green glass vessel sink in the townhouse – we were so smitten with it, we drove to a neighboring town to purchase it!
love that door! the color and style are awesome!
Thanks Cassie! I'm so thrilled with it – the hall is SO bright now, I love it!
Love the color and the design.
Thanks! I'm so happy I could find a door with mid-century style – in Canada!
Hi, Tanya. GH may 2020, page 57, hallway renovation. Please recommend the cubbies, and the art sourses. Ty.
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Hi Nina, of course! The cubbies are from IKEA – they’re shoe depth cabinets. I still really love them – they’re inexpensive, but they hold up so well. Here’s the blog post where I talk about them in more detail. The art was painted by my Hubby’s grandfather, who has since passed away. But I rounded up some coastal artwork here.
It's BEAUTIFUL! Just a wee bit jealous!
Awww, thanks! If it helps, I have a ton of very ugly problems still to deal with. This is just one slice that looks good, haha.
love the door. and love that table – where did it come from??
Thanks! That little table/stool came from an online shop, Natural Wood Decor. I've got more photos of it and links here:http://dans-le-townhouse.blogspot.ca/2014/05/hallway-perch.htmlI've had it for over a year and I'm still in love. It's so handy for our small hallway and sturdy enough (it's a solid chunk) that giant Szuka Sweetie doesn't knock it over when we go outside-outside-outside, lol.
Tanya, amazing the difference a door makes. I'd love to put a door like that with all the light streaming from outside into our dark entrance way, unfortunately we live in a strata. I am though, having the exterior of our door professionally painted a colour similar to yours but perhaps a bit greener. You don't realize what you've started in my house. I'm not as brave as you but I do have pockets of aqua/teal throughout. Thanks once again for being an inspiration.
Ooo, I'm excited that you're painting your door aqua! Pretty much any shade is beautiful, I can't wait to see (I'm hoping you'll show me on Instagram). I'm hope that the pockets of aqua and teal in your house make you as happy as they make me 🙂
It looks fantastic and I absolutely LOVE the colour! All that light streaming in makes such a difference! We changed our front door recently with pre made window inserts which were added to the original door. Saved us a lot of bucks!
The window inserts are such a genius idea!
I have a selfish question – do you know if that door is available in the US? 🙂
Good question! I'm not sure, but it looks like standard doors I based in Canada. BUT there's a company caller Therma-tru (I believe that's how it's spelled) which is based in the States and they make a nearly identical door. If you Google: "retrorenovation midcentury front door" you'll find an article on retrorenovation that links to those doors and a few other midcentury mod styles available in America. Let me know if you end up finding a great one!!
The door looks absolutely gorgeous! I love the color you choseDorahttp://www.adropofindigo.ca/
Thanks Dora! I definitely narrowed in on their brightest aqua, haha.
I love that door! The color, the windows, the hardware–everything about it is absolutely lovely. The dog is pretty lovely, too.
Thanks!! she always needs to investigate when I'm taking photos, haha. She'll come right up and stare at me, or saunter in front. She's a fan of the photobomb, but I love her hanging around so close I just roll with it. We'll say she's there for scale 😉
I love the power of paint! It's such an affordable way to make so-so decor pretty fabulous.
Agreed! I see so many paint makeovers online but I can never get enough! Cabinets, walls, trim, furniture, doors…paint can update anything.
Looks awesome!! So bright and fresh looking!
Thanks! It goes without saying that the colour is good, right?? 😉
Without a doubt! #teamturquoise
What a great paint job you did there. It looks as though you bought the door that way or hired a professional to do it. I really like the color. Normally, I don't like the bright modern feel some houses have but from looking at your hallway, I'd say it fits perfectly. The difference between before and after is staggering.
Thank you!