How to Spruce Up Your Entryway

First impressions are important, especially when it comes to your house. Interestingly enough, your front door is likely to influence how visitors view the rest of your house far more than the siding, roofing, windows, or any other single element can. A handsome, well-designed entrance also does more to welcome friends and family than a perfect paint job or a lush, weed-free lawn. The irony is that most front entryways are boring portals that merely let people in and out. Here, we'll show you how you can transform an ordinary door into an elegant entryway in one weekend.

The original wooden frame was still good for this project, so we saved time by replacing just the door, not the entire unit. Next, the exterior of the doorway was trimmed with a pair of fluted columns and a stately crosshead pediment. The trim visually extends the doorway from 3- to 5-feet-wide. Instead of using wood trim—and committing to years of scraping and repainting—we opted for millwork molded from durable high-density urethane foam. This lightweight molding comes primed white and is impervious to rot, insects, moisture, cracking, and splitting. Best of all, it looks like handcrafted wood molding, even up close. We finished the entryway with an attractive midview aluminum storm door.