Home Tips: 5 Things to Consider When Buying a New Front Door

Are you considering some home renovations or makeovers? A new front door can really boost the curb appeal of your home! So today we are sharing the top things to consider when buying a new entry door as part of a sponsored campaign with Therma-Tru Benchmark at Lowe’s. Over the past few years, we’ve really making some changes to our house. We started with a mini kitchen makeover, then recently overhauled the entire downstairs with new flooring. As part of that, we painted the bathroom vanity and built a large faux built-in in our living room that changed the look of that entire entry room. As you might imagine, that really changed the look of the house – especially when you first walk in. There’s one big exception though – the front door. Our front door is inexpensive “builders-grade” and has that slightly orangey oak look (with all kinds of wood grain patterns) that was so popular in the late 90s. It’s not my favorite and we’ve been trying to decide whether it would be better to attempt to paint the door or look into getting a new door.

With some major cracking around the door frame and wanting a new door look anyway, we decided to look into getting a new door at Lowe’s! After researching options and doing browsing both online and in-store, we decided on a  Therma-Tru Benchmark door exclusively available at Lowe’s. We could customize a beautiful Therma-Tru Benchmark Door – getting the exact look we wanted at an affordable price and made out of a good material (fiberglass). Having never purchased and installed a front door before, it was a learning process! So, I’m sharing our top tips for things you should consider when making your purchase: 1. Choose a high-quality door. Through this process, we learned a lot about the types of doors (wood vs. steel vs. fiberglass). The Therma-Tru Benchmark Doors are fiberglass, giving you the look of a wood door without many of the issues (warping, splitting, rotting, etc) that wood has. Another benefit of fiberglass is that it’s energy efficient. Given that we live in the desert which can see VERY high temperatures in the summer, we want something that will insulate against heat. So going with fiberglass was the right choice for us – giving us not only a beautiful look, but good efficiency, stability, and quality!

2. Create a great first impression. Our next big decision in the process was deciding on the type of look we wanted. With Therma-Tru Benchmark, there are a number of looks you can go with – Mahogany, Oak, or Smooth Surface, with various paint and color stain options depending on your selection. You’ll want to consider what kind of look you want for the house, the style of homes in your area, whether you want glass or no glass, etc. With such a variety of options though, it was easy to create a look we liked for an affordable price! 3. Consider the look on the inside too. In addition to boosting your curb appeal though, you’ll want to consider the inside look of the door as well. When you’re inside your house, what do you want the door to look like? Do you want the extra light from a glass feature? Do you an opaque door where no one can see in? Do you want a color to match the look in your house? You can customize all those things depending on your door selection. Since the style here in our area is to have an outside security-screen door, very few homes have any kind of glass panels. So, we opted to stay true to that trend as well. BUT we were able to choose a panel look that we liked, as well as select a different color for the inside and outside of the door! I am SO excited about that feature and cannot wait to have a black door inside my house!  4. Decide on any accents. As you choose the look you want for the door, you’ll also choose any accents. If you’re doing glass in the door, there are a variety of different looks and patterns to choose from. You’ll also select things like the colors for the hinges, whether or not you want a peep hole, whether or not you’ll be doing a sidelite, etc. Those are all things you can customize and will need to decide on.

5. Figure out installation. Unless you are really handy, with a fair bit of carpentry/contractor/etc. knowledge, this is one thing that I recommend leaving up to the pros. I did NOT realize that putting on a new front door is NOT as simple as placing a new door slab on hinges. You’ll actually be replacing the whole door frame (if that’s even the right terminology, lol)! There’s molding to take off and framing that goes in…and your area could have specific local building codes that have to be met. So, do keep in mind that the installation part of the process is a little more involved that you might think! Although I love a good DIY project, this is one area that I’m happy to leave to the pros!  The team at Lowe’s is there to walk you through the whole process though! We were able to customize our Therma-Tru Benchmark Door exactly as we wanted it. Then, Lowe’s sent an installer out to measure and make sure everything would be just right for the installation! We are SO excited about this front entry refresh and I can’t wait to show you the completed new look! Stay tuned…

Have you ever gotten a new front door? Share your best tips in the comments! 

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Therma-Tru Benchmark Exclusively available at Lowe’s.