Shut the front door!!

If you remember, after we knocked down the wall, the front door looked like this:

I know what you were/are thinking - DUUUUUUDE!!  That door doesn't match!  Break out the paint girlfriend! 

Well, I would have but I had another plan. 

A NEW front door.

Once with a glass insert to let the light in.

But, um, have you priced new front doors?

Yeah, I actually like my first born, so I wasn't willing to give her up for one.  

Taking down the wall really brightened the space up, but I wanted MORE.

I had resigned myself to living with the door "as is" for awhile.

*sigh*  

And then, mom and dad decided to replace their perfectly good front door with a brand new one. 

Cuz, you know, they felt like it.

Who am I to argue that they really didn't NEED a new gorgeous wood grain mac daddy front door?

Mom and dad making unnecessary purchases is how I get awesome hand me downs.

So, I snagged that perfectly good, glass paneled, old front door faster than you can say 

"CanIhavethat?Thankyouverymuch"

It needed a little work - there were dents that needed to be filled, a few holes from something mom had attached to the door that needed to be filled and a good sanding and painting.

The door isn't as fancy as some and the glass panel has that brass in it (I can deal with it). 

But it is my favorite door EVER.

Cuz it was free.

The outside got painted the same color as the old front door - Red, Red Wine by Behr.

Here it is, in bad lighting, with one coat of paint.  Yeah - it looks bad.

But I promise it's not.

I still need to do touch up on the outside, so you'll have to wait for pictures of the door from the outside. 

I

We used the same hardware from the old door, thereby saving ourselves another $100+.

(Seriously - why does everything cost a bazillion dollars????)

And finally got it installed....

Yup, I painted it black.  

(gratuitous Rolling Stone reference)

And I love it.

I mean LOVE IT.

You can see the back side of my fall door decoration.  It adds a little color and blocks a lot of the clear glass (the panel is a mix of frosted/bubbly/clear glass).

I actually walked through the kitchen the first few days and was SURE someone left the front door open because so much light was coming in.

At night:

In the morning:

Love the little prisms it throws on the hallway walls. I still have a few things to do in the hall (a few pictures to hang and new rugs) but the door just changes the whole look. 

The only downside?

I have to be careful running downstairs to the laundry room to grab clothes in the morning. 

Probably not a sight my neighbors want to see at 7:00 a.m.

And that is the story of our new FREE front door.