Our house is situated on two lanes… with exterior doors on both… and therefore it isn’t quite sure which to call the front door and which to call the back.
It doesn’t really matter because we don’t have a postal delivery service here, but go and pick up our mail and packages in the Village almost every other day. And I have my opinion about which door is indeed the front and which is the back, because it’s obvious to me, lol. But even when we bought the house, it was listed twice, under each lane, and difficult to find on maps because of it!
What I consider our “front door” is the one you see above, which is ridiculously close to the fireplace, but is situated on the side of the house that looks typically like it would be the front. What I consider our “back” door, is the one right off the kitchen {and ridiculously close to the oven} and leads to an outside deck/patio… my office is downstairs as well and has a slider to the same deck… So I consider this the backyard.
There’s another door off the kitchen which leads to the mud/laundry room then another door to the outside from there, which is our true “back door” {that we use most often} and is just solid white. Quite a few doors for a relatively normal sized space, really. But when we moved in, the front, back, other back, and mud room doors were all very different. As if the sellers had a few extra doors and were like these will do lol, but they don’t.
So I used the classic, solid wood door to the mud room as my muse, and we replaced the two beveled glass inset doors {one was white and one was dark brown} with doors that match, since these 3 doors share the same space. The doorways all had the same nicely stained moulding, which also matches the window sills and other design details like the banister and stair railing, so the stain color of the doors was an easy choice. We kept the simple dark bronze hardware to tie in the lamps and curtain rods we installed… And we’re so happy to have a space that all looks like it was meant to be together now.
A few before shots for reference…
Mud Room Door {always}…
This door to the mud room generally stays open, but this is what is hanging on it, on the mud room side.
After…
Apparently three months is still not long enough to wait for creases to fall out of the curtains on their own. I will eventually have to break down and steam them one day. blerg. And admittedly, they look better in person than in photos.
Go to my African Juju Wall Art DIY to see more of the console/shelving unit {which used to be in my closet} and the decor details.
And the angle up…
When we first moved up here {Dec 2012}, I began painting my closet, thinking I could cover the dark wood paneling, no problem, and after a day of complaining, the husband went out and found a painter who came to the rescue.
Mike Zweber and his team at Z Painting have now painted my closet, my office, all of our ceiling beams, our master bedroom, have stained our doors to match our existing moulding PERFECTLY, just painted one of our guest rooms, and are in the process of painting the exterior of our house this week. We could not be MORE HAPPY with their workmanship and would recommend him and his team to anyone in the area {and maybe even down the mountain} I think he accepts projects in the greater Los Angeles area, Palm Springs, Redlands, and San Bernardino. He’s AMAZING. seriously. {find him here: (909) 273-0466} He recommended Wilhelm {wil} Wolfsohn {WilhelmGW.com} to do our doors. AND the first time I met Wil, when he stopped by to look at the project, my closet bar had just collapsed and he came in and fixed it for me, at no charge. These two come HIGHLY recommended, if you need some work done. We are so happy with them.
