Tuesday, February 23, 2016

The French Doors {Indoor/Outdoor Before & Afters}


French doors are beautiful.  But when a home has nine doors all leading outside, and there used to be windows where the doors are now.... one really has to wonder what the point of MORE DOORS was??  Paranoid about fire escapes?  When we bought the house, the sconce lights had been stripped, and the door handles broken so they were unusable.  There was also about a two foot drop off so if you opened the door to step out you'd probably break an ankle.  Yeah, not a good thing when you're trying to get home insurance!


The threshold was dingy looking so one day when I happened to have some black paint on a brush, I painted them.  OH!  I was surprised at how much it dressed up those doors!


We bought lantern style sconce light fixtures to go where the old ones were.  I love them and bought them to go over the fireplace in our family room, as well as upstairs at both ends of the landing.

The herringbone curtains are from good ole' Wal Mart, but they were so narrow that I had to buy a double set to make them fuller.


Okay, let's see if we can spot the differences in this before and after picture, shall we??
(hint: look at that big black rectangular hole in the wall on the right for a major one...)



Here you can see how the doors had no steps on the outside to the patio... nor could they for that matter because they had vent pipes sticking out right where a step would go.  That was one of the first things we hired someone to do - move those pipes!  We snapped this picture before we closed on the house I do believe - you should have seen all those vines once spring woke up and it all turned green.  HELLO, JUNGLES EXIST IN MICHIGAN!


 Oh wait, let's make this more fun, shall we??  How about a photo from about 1963??  Here's how it looked when the Lefere's first obtained the property:


Oh yeah, and one little project I almost forgot to share that's hanging between the french doors.  
This arrow (that I didn't do such a swell job at cutting straight) is made from an extra piece of floor laminate from the sunroom.  It was my practice one. :)



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7 comments:

  1. Painting the threshold really did make a difference--the room is lovely!

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  2. This is a great idea! The room is lovely. I love how the painted threshold makes the room look so different!

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  3. I can not visit your blog without feeling inspired and wishing I was as cool as you! It looks fab, and the steps outside are perfect, what a difference!

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  4. Love! What's the paint color on the walls?

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  5. What a gorgeous room! You must be so happy! The fireplace is so lovely, and I adore the rug!!

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  6. Such a gorgeous & inviting room. Love all the doors- it adds so much light to the room. & you dressed them up so well with the paint & curtains. Great job!

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  7. I have the exact same double set of french doors in my family room - even the same handles, and I am always scrubbing the threshold because it gets black and mildewy. I never thought to just paint them - fantastic idea, a stroke of genius!!!!! I am painting them tomorrow, along with the other 4 sets of french doors which lead onto our decks. THANK YOU so very much for sharing this!

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