The front of your home is everyone’s first impression. What does it communicate to others? When we bought our home I wanted to keep the brick on the front of the house and just do a German schemer or white wash over the entire thing to give it some texture. We tried both looks in a small area of the brick to test it out. When we applied one layer of white-sanded grout to the brick, it came out perfect.
The shutters were the next project. They were actually harder to find than we thought. I searched for modern, wooden shutters that I could just buy. But I could not find anything I liked online that would match the color of our door. So I found photos of some that I liked and talked with one of our handy men that could build them for us. I showed him photos, we measured, and he tested a few stain colors on some wood so we could hold it up to our front door to match it perfectly. I absolutely love how these shutter turned out!
Our front door is actually a hurricane impact door… welcome to South Florida. One of the reason we bought the home was because it already had all hurricane impact windows… we just had to replace the doors. We were able to find a pretty modern impact front door that looked like wood and even had texture!
Next I switched out our outdoor sconces for something a little more modern in black. I love the way it looks against the brick. Never under estimate your lighting and how big of an impact it makes on your home. The lights we found were only $50 from Allmodern! So inexpensive for how much different it makes our front door look! There’s so much symmetry in the front that I paired the black sconces with square black planters from CB2 and it worked perfectly! The planters help give it a modern feel as well! It all pulled together so well!
When we bought our home I wanted to find a doormat that said “Come as you are” because of the message it communicates. Don’t have that door mat yet but I hope it communicates exactly that and makes the people who walk into our home feel welcome.
Design a life you love!
– Hope
Love it all. We have similar front door. I’ve been wanting to do shutters but don’t like any they sell at home improvement stores. Do you happen to know how wide yours are?
Author
I believe they are 12in. We measured it all out before we had them built.
So you know what color stain was used on your shutters?
Hi Hope. The shutters are a beautiful design that I would like to simulate but make them operable for storms (we are in Central Florida). Would love more details on how your handy person constructed them and what materials they used. I would paint mine.
Author
Thank you! Not sure they would be operable for storms but they were made out of 2x4s, sanded, stained, and sealed. You would maybe have to use a different type of material for them to be hurricane proof?
Where did you get your front door? Love the look of wood and I’m also in Florida. Hurricane impact doors are the way to go.
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Reliable windows and doors
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