Can we all agree that choosing a front door for your home is really important? Like really important! Your front door will be the first impression that most guests will have of your home. So it should be more than just functional – it should be beautiful, and it should set exactly the right tone for the exterior of your home, plus give a little hint about what might be happening on the inside of your home as well.

*I was not financially compensated for this post. I received a sample for review purposes. The opinions are completely my own and based on my experience.*

We’re getting to the point on our own build where we will soon be installing doors and windows (finally – can’t wait!). Because I know choosing these architectural elements are super important to the overall success of a design, I want to share with you my thoughts on the selection process in case you might be making similar choices yourself soon.

Choosing a Style

First up, of course, is choosing a style of door that relates well with the rest of your exterior finish choices and your home’s style. In the first picture on this post, the wood stained door is a perfect counterbalance to the white painted brick because it adds warmth and charm. The 2/3 glass and the simple mullions look perfect with the simple, charming style of the home.

This white painted door below blends in with the siding used on this home, but the stained posts on either side help present the door, the lanterns, and the plants as an entire welcoming package. The 12 mullions in the upper part of the door are a perfect fit with the mullioned windows flanking the door, too.

Whether you choose a door that has glass, partial glass, sidelights, or no glass at all depends on the style you’re going for and what fits in best with the rest of your home. This door below is probably original to this beautiful old house, and I love how it’s traditional styling and that arched window above it compliment the front of this house. Your house can be charming as well – as long as all of the elements work together in harmony to create a unified exterior.

Since my husband is all about low maintenance with this house, the door we chose has to not only look good, but it also has handle our somewhat brutal weather conditions (cold and snowy winters, hot dry summers). For the front door and breezeway door of our house, we decided to go with a fiberglass door, mostly because fiberglass doors look like wood, but they don’t warp or rot like wood doors can, and they don’t dent or rust like steels doors.

A fiberglass door also has great thermal properties because the inside of it is filled with heat and cold resistant materials. So it’s a win/win, right?!

Everybody has different comfort levels when it comes to security. Someone who lives in a neighborhood where the houses are close together would probably choose a different door than somebody who’s in the country. We all want to be safe, so just make sure you choose a door that is well constructed and built for security.

If you really love glass, but don’t feel comfortable having it be a big part of your front door, then you can always opt for a transom window above your door. Our last house sat more in a neighborhood, so I chose to limit the amount of glass in the front door. Our door was so tall that even though it had a window at the very top of it, no one could see in or out through the window. In our new house, I’m not worried about anybody looking in through the door (except maybe a stray deer or two), so we’ll be using more glass in the door.

Choosing your specific door

Now that we’ve talked about some different features to consider when it comes to choosing a front door, let’s look at how you can actually decide exactly which door is right for your home.

After doing our door research, we decided to go with Therma-Tru exterior doors for our home because for us they check all of the boxes I talked about earlier – style, durability, and security. But deciding on a manufacturer didn’t mean I knew which of their doors to get. Now I needed to select the perfect door to complement my home.

Here’s where I get to show you a couple nifty little tools I used that helped me decide exactly which Therma-Tru door to go with.

First off, I went to the Design Your Door page on Therma-Tru’s website.

The design page walks you through different choices of door size, glass size and type, etc. I had way too much fun playing around with different options that actually had nothing to do with my own door or house 😉

Therma-Tru also has another nifty way to visualize one of their doors on your actual house. It’s an app called DoorWays, and it came in handy in helping me visualize the exact door I wanted on my house.

It was pretty easy to use – all you have to do after downloading the app is choose what type of door you need (entry or patio), choose your door height and width, how you want you door configured (single, single with transom, single with sidelights, double, etc.), and then just upload an existing photo of your home or take a photo of your house right in the app.

Because my house isn’t built yet, I uploaded a photo of my front elevation and went from there.

After seeing several different doors on my exterior elevation, I decided to go with this one. It’s from Therma-Tru’s Classic Craft Rustic Collection. Even though the visual shows a stained exterior, I’m actually planning on having the outside of the door painted black because there will be stained cedar siding in the sections of the house where the doors are and I want them to stand out against the siding. Plus, the windows are black and I think a black door will coordinate well with the black windows. But the inside will look just like this – with a natural oak stain.

Therma -Tru Door – Classic-Craft Rustic Collection

I’m pretty pumped about finally getting to the stage in our build where we get to see some of these design choices coming to life! I hope you check back in a couple weeks when I share our beautiful new doors (and windows!) installed.

Thanks for stopping by today – have a great one!