Show me your front doors!

[shazapple]

We are trying to pick out a front door for our addition project. Our house is typical for our area and somewhat 'gothic' in shape. I'm leaning towards a windowless door or a craftsman style door, but I am unsure how it would look.

What does everyone else have for an exterior door on their old house?

[Neighmond]

Mine has an oval window and wood storm door. The house was built in 1914.

[Texas_Ranger]

Isn't that a Sauron's Eye door?

[Neighmond]

A which?

[Texas_Ranger]

A while ago, someone on OHW linked to a blog post about those doors with oval windows and called them "Sauron's Eye doors" because when the sun shines through the oval window, it creates an eye-shaped spot of light.

What I forgot is that it has to be a leaded glass door for the full effect:
http://twentytwowords.com/2011/04/26/th ... ront-door/

[Neighmond]

Ahhhh. Now I see!

[Sooth (WavyGlass)]

You might try having a look through salvage yards, or sites like "Historic House Parts", which usually has a wonderful assortment of antique doors. Even if you don't plan to buy through the website, it's a good place to look for ideas.

http://www.historichouseparts.com/antique_door_directory.html

Another good idea is to drive (or walk) around your area and look for similar homes, or older homes and see what the local door styles look like.

I salvaged a beautiful antique door in a "prairie" style, and several houses down the street have identical or similar doors:



Here is another front door that I salvaged from a house in my neighbourhood:

[Neighmond]

I wish you were closer-I have another of those prairie doors and you could have it for the asking.

[cat2014]

Those are the styles of doors I have been looking for. Hard to come by or waaaaaaaaay too expensive. Love 'em!

[Sooth (WavyGlass)]

Cat: You'd be surprised what you can find at places like Habitat for Humanity Re-Store (or similar big salvage places), especially ones in big cities. The one I visited in Ottawa had DOZENS of beautiful antique doors at very decent prices (especially considering it's in a big city). They had probably about 50 antique solid wood doors, and probably over 200 modern hollow doors. This place also carried a decent selection of antique hardware, mortise locks, tile, etc. They actually had a second location at the other end of town, but I didn't have time to go visit it when I was in Ottawa.

The second best place to look for beautiful old doors is on the curb. Sad, but true. That blue prairie door above (solid pine and in near perfect shape) was lying in the wet grass for garbage pickup. The second best place would be a house being renovated (dumpster). This is where I found the second door above. Luckily for me, it was sitting propped up against the dumpster, but the best part was that I was also able to get the hinges, strike plate, and the original strike plate for the old Yale lock (still on the door) which were left on the old door jamb in the dumpster.