5 Easy Ways to Update Your Front Entrance

Make the front of your home & your entry inviting & stylish

A Note: Emtek provided customized hardware for this project and Illuminate Vintage provided one of the light fixtures, but the opinions are all mine.

Swap Out & Paint Your Front Door

Our home is an Atomic Ranch – built in 1958 with Mid Modern aesthetic and appeal. However, over the years all of those Mid Century touches have been stripped away. When we bought the home, the front door was a vestige of a mid-90's misguided makeover with leaded glass and heavy oak. The Mudroom door was utilitarian – steel, paneled, painted, pathetic.

As part of the Mudroom Makeover, I hunted for a new Mudroom door. I ended up finding a matched pair of vintage Mid Century doors taken from a local church. I found them at an architectural salvage yard where they cost a small fraction of the price of brand new doors. They are gorgeous! I painted both the same shade of turquoise – a pop of MCM color which dramatically changes the curb appeal for our house. The entrances are both visible and don't disappear anymore.

Architectural salvage yards are wonderful places to find elements like these doors which can transform a space for very little money. I got an estimate for new, matching doors in a similar style. The vintage doors ended up costing about 10% of what the new doors would have cost. Going the salvage route means playing a waiting game — it may take several trips or even months or years to find what you need. But the cost savings makes it worth the wait!

Choose High-Quality Hardware

When Emtek offered hardware for this project, I was a little overwhelmed by the idea of customizing my door handles with so many choices to be made. But here's the thing: I ended up getting EXACTLY what I wanted and more than I ever knew was possible.

Front Door

For the front door, I chose a very contemporary look from the Davos collection with a chrome finish. I wanted a little sparkle for this door, so I picked the Modern Square Crystal Knob. There are 40-some knobs and levers to choose from in a range of finishes just for the interior handle, and every door hardware set is built to order, so I may be the only person in the world with my beautiful combination. But it suits our home and our new front door perfectly! Because this isn't the primary entrance for our family, I chose a traditional keyed entry.

Keypad Set

For the Mudroom, we chose a SMART Keypad entry set — the EMPowered Motorized Touchscreen Keypad Entry Set with Baden Grip, to be exact. I will be honest: I wasn't sure we really needed this. But I was wrong. This is the best thing ever! Our family has a set of codes to use for entry, and no one is ever locked out of the house — even when we are out gardening or for walk. I can set one-time entrance codes for maintenance people or visitors. For regular visitors, like our cleaning people, I have given them a code which only works on certain days and times. I can unlock or lock the door using the Yale Access App from anywhere in the world as long as I have a signal. And our child has a code for himself which feels very empowering – without the risk of losing a physical key. After a few months with our SMART Keypad, I will never go back to only having keyed entry on our home again! It is a wonderful technology – and it's absolutely worth the investment. Frankly, the difference in cost is recouped considering we will never have to rekey this door again. 

But don't imagine that our SMART door is without style. It is beautiful! We were able to completely customize the handset both inside and out so that it works well for our family – and is beautiful in the room, too. Having a lever on the inside was important  – it makes getting out the door with lots of things in our hands a lot easier. And the chrome finish is just gorgeous!

Knobs & Hinges

Emtek also sent a set of their Grayson knobs which I used on the dresser in the Mudroom and on a cupboard in the front entry. They perfectly match the door knob on the front door and have a wonderful heft which just feels good when you pull. Knobs and pulls are more than just jewelry for a room — particularly when they are in us all the time — and they are worthy of an investment.

Emtek also sent along hinges for both doors (these). Now, as a DIY-er, we have used our fair share of door hinges. But they have never been so beautiful nor so sturdy as these from Emtek. I suddenly realized what I have been missing all these years. And they are chrome, so they match everything else beautifully.

Upgrade Lighting Inside and Out

As projects tend to go, this one had significant project creep. The new front doors and hardware looked so beautiful, that I then needed to replace the exterior lighting – something that had been on my list since the day we moved in. And the front entry needed a new fixture, too… so one at a time I updated the light fixtures. But they make a HUGE impact!

Updated Sputnik Style

Inside, I used coordinating fixtures from Illuminate Vintage. If you were following the Mudroom Makeover, you might notice that the light fixture has changed since the reveal. I loved the Houston fixture I purchased from Illuminate Vintage, but it always looked a little small in the Mudroom. It provided great light with 6 bulbs, but the scale was a little off in that room. However, at the time it was what I could afford for the project.

As I began work in the front entry, I moved the Houston into the front entryway. It is perfect there! What used to be dark and uninviting, is now bright and cheery day or night. Illuminate Vintage sent their larger Toronto chandelier to replace it in the Mudroom. The scale is perfect! It has all of the Sputnik style I wanted, but still accomodates the door swing. Both are polished nickel which coordinates nicely with the chrome finish of the Emtek hardware, and together with the new doors, they make what were once dark and dreary spaces, light, bright, and stylish.

Mid Modern Exterior Lights

After a lot of searching, I finally found exactly what I'd been looking for for the outside: bow-tie fixtures for that Atomic Ranch pop. I purchased them from Modern HQ on Etsy — vintage style but newly-made and easy to install. They make a fabulous statement and go a long way to bringing character back to this 50's house. 

Modern HQ also offers a version of this fixture that isn’t perforated, but the pinholes make these lights sparkle from the street. They are especially beautiful at dusk.

Generally you don’t want to install an up-mounted light fixture outside for two reasons: the light confuses migrating birds and insects and the fixtures can collect moisture leading to problems. However, our eaves are so deep, that neither is an issue at our house. If you are considering such fixtures, though, keep those two things in mind.

Give Your Mailbox Some Personality

I gave our mailbox a makeover, too. I am fairly certain it is original to our home. It's lovely, heavy steel. But it had been painted a few times and was a drab gray-green with a Federal-style pull on the front. I wanted less utilitarian and more 1958 Ford Thunderbird.  So, I took it to a local shop which sandblasted all of the paint layers and rust away. Then they powder-coated it in cherry red. I added a new chrome pull, and now it would be at home at the Back to the 50's car show! It’s right under one of the new light fixtures, too, so even at night the red pops.

Keep the Accessories Minimal & Functional

Outside, plants and pots draw the eye to our front entrance without adding visual clutter. I change the plantings out seasonally, and add color with blooming annuals. We also built out raised beds along the front of our home. They are planted with native and water-wise plants with an aim of drawing bees, butterflies, and other pollinators while also conserving water in our dry location. As they grow, these beds will become more and more dramatic and full with an ever-changing array of blossoms through the seasons.

Both inside and outside, I want to avoid clutter. The Mudroom is styled simply and functionally – there is enough going on in there with all of our gear, coats, and shoes. We don't also need a lot of accessories. You can read more about the choices I made for the Mudroom here. 

The front entryway is small and narrow, so the same holds true. Simple accessories and a clean palate welcome people into our home, and clutter is banished in favor of style. The rug is a vintage rug that I have had for years. It was absolutely filthy, and I considered throwing it away after some mice made a nest (and a small hole) in it. However, after leaving it outside for disinfection, I gently washed it in my bathtub over the course of about a week. The results: it is GORGEOUS! And it perfectly disguises the unattractive tile floor which someday will get an update. 

I used some leftover paint from the doors to repaint the antique medicine cabinet that hangs inside the front entryway. It hangs over an antique radio cabinet I scored for $5 at the Oronoco Gold Rush Days long ago as a poor high school teacher. That radio cabinet is one of our favorite pieces, and has had a prominent place in every home we have had since the day I brought it home! I also added knobs from Emtek to these pieces which further serves to unite these two entrances and adds a little sparkle to this part of the house.

So this little project – which started with the Mudroom Makeover – took nearly a year to complete. But the results are fantastic! Our house has more curb appeal and functionality. The improved lighting and wonderful windows make coming home even more pleasant. And each detail – from the door hardware to the vintage touches – infuse personality into a home which had very little when we moved in five years ago. Are we done? No. But we have come a long way! 

I hope these five little ideas help you make a big change to your home, too!