Front Doors Sell Houses
To me the front door of any of our homes is always a big focus. Before the show, we flipped a house on Cape Cod with an awesome view of the nearby pond which we appropriately referred to as our Pond View Flip. The reaction we got on the front door was outstanding: many people asked about the door, the color and accessories as well as the rest of the finishes on the front of the house. The front door is the first true interaction a buyer has, the first thing they touch and the first thing they experience as they enter the space. To me it is THE most important thing to nail with the design of a home if you are selling it.
The Pond View Flip Door
The Pond View Flip door is a solid Hemlock 6 lite slab made by Jeld-Wen. This model is called the Craftsman. I Surprisingly found this door at Home Depot during an unrelated trip for other materials. Even at full price it is a bargain at $189 but I found this on clearance due to a customer return. You can find it on their site HERE. If you buy it in the store it is most likely a special order.
The tricky part of the slab is that you have to fit it to a jam. We custom ordered a Bosco jam from a local lumber yard since any over the counter jam we found had an crappy aluminum threshold. We really wanted to have the quality look and feel of an Oak threshold so we paid for it with a $350 pre assembled jam. After installation we cut the door down to fit, cut in the hinges and 3 hours later had a swinging door.
Painted and ready to cut.
The lockset we chose is made by Baldwin. Although you can find Baldwin in many big box stores it still holds a great reputation for quality and it also has a solid look and feel. Again we want to make a first impression so it was important for us to have the first contact of the house reflect quality. We went with the classic look of the Baldwin Bethpage in a satin nickel finish.
Now the knocker... Since this house is so close to the water on the Cape we wanted to bring the local culture into the home right off the bat. We chose to go with a custom knocker by Michael Healy. He has several nautical theme options. We thought about a scallop or clam but ultimately the Humpback Whale Knocker in the chrome finish stood out to us as a classic option that reflected the cape perfectly. It also fit the style of door since it was a bit more bulky while not crazy expensive at about $130.
Lizzy decided to go with the Benjamin Moore Harbor Haze for the color (2136-60). Many designers on the cape go with a deep red or darker colors for the front door. We wanted to stand out and look a bit more modern and fresh. The Harbor Haze absolutely did it!
The finished product accomplishes exactly what we wanted. It helps the entrance stand out and shows a high level of quality and detail for the first impression. The Clappord siding on the front ended up getting painted an off white cream color called Sea Pearl by Benjamin Moore (961). The last two accessories on the front where the shutters and the light. We ended up going the extra mile on the shutters and went with the solid wood option instead of Vynl. Although expensive (about $1200 more) they really do pull the entire house together while keeping the classic Cape Cod look. We painted these ourselves and went with a Pewter Gray Krylon spray paint believe it or not. (Gloss - 51606) It worked perfectly and went on super quick. Finally the light is a classic onion light made by Norwell. You can get crazy on this subject as far as cost. These things can run as much as $1000+ per fixture if you wanted to go nuts. We chose to go with Norwell since it is a great quality light and affordable at about $127 for the small version. We used the larger version on the other two exterior doors. We found them at Granite City Electric.