For a long time I have been wanting to update my front door. I live in a condo complex and to put it lightly, my curb appeal is a snooze. I can’t do any structural changes, but I do believe some small changes will make a big impact! Here’s where we are at now:

Let’s break this down- here are the hard parts:

• My door is white and it has to stay that way.
• Just to the right of my door is my neighbor’s door. Fun! (sarcasm :))
• The white circle is where my door number is- edited for a bit of privacy
• The beige blah siding has to stay.

Now here’s what I can do to fix it up! Let’s start with some front door inspiration photos:

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Very cute, but more cute because of the color of the door. In my head I have always wanted to do a door like this one:

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I did a TON of googling and couldn’t figure out what that kind of molding is called (if you know, please leave a comment!). But, I found this and used it for my inspiration:

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Her little square indents are 3″ wide and I thought it was too small, so I decided to do 6″. I was also nervous to cut much smaller pieces with my miter saw.

I set-up my saw in the garage while my baby was napping and went to town cutting. I use some quarter round I bought when I was doing the molding in my hall. We accidentally bought two pieces of a slightly bigger size than we normally use so I decided the front door would be a great place for them to not go to waste. When I usually cut trim, I make a list of which sizes to cut and go to town. Because I had never done the inverted corners, I cut a piece, laid it down, and then cut the next piece so I was definitely cutting the right angles. It took me about an hour to cut all of the pieces.

Next, I set up my nail gun in my entry and went to town nailing. I have figured out a few shortcuts with this that I thought I would share. I only do a little bit of measuring while install the trim on the door. For the first piece, I mark the spot it will go on the door- I find the height and center and draw that on the door. I then find center of my piece of trim and match those up. Finally, I use a level to make sure the trim is up straight and nail it to secure it.In the past, I have drawn the pattern on the wall first, but it saves SO much time to just use a level and go to town. In the past I have also used liquid nails to attach the trim. We had to take a piece down and it left SUCH a mess on our wall. So now I just skip the liquid nails step and attach with my trusty nail gun and then caulk and paint. Believe me, it’s on there just fine. Plus it’s not supporting any weight so I’m not worried about it.

So now the trim is up! I still need to caulk and paint and add some more finishing touches, but we are one step closer! I actually think my inverted corners are a little big. It’s fine, but I probably should have gone for 4″. So learn from my mistake :). I still love the doors, but the trim is a tiny bit exaggerated.

Next, I pulled out my caulk and filled in all of the nail holes and seams.

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