Door dilemma

[WhatapityWapiti]

Help me decide what to do with our front door!

We’re doing up the whole of the front of the house- getting bricks cleaned, repointed, refreshing the cream painted bits in bright white, new lighting, new path etc so it’s all going to look nice and smart.

The old door is not fit for purpose so we’re having a new one, but the frame is in great condition and we are keeping the fanlight above.

Here’s my dilemma. The door is not a standard height. A quote for a bespoke one came in at over 8k. I’ve since spoken to a door fitter who said that he can extend the frame downwards to fit an off the shelf door, so the bar between the door and the fanlight would be thicker. We’d have it properly filled and finished to look neat. I’ve added a pic of the door that I like. Cost is £2.5k.

I’m worried, however, that a thicker top bar will spoil the symmetry with the neighbour and look “off”. As you can see, neighbour’s house is not well maintained, he is old and in very poor health and I think the house will probably be sold and renovated at some point in the next 5 years.

I’m worried that the lack of symmetry will annoy me every time I look at it, but it seems like a lot of money to go bespoke and maybe the other door height will get changed in the future anyway as any buyers will have the same issue.

Also, do you see the tiles in the vestibule? I love having tiles and these are the original ones from 1898, but I don’t think they were top of the range even then, the brown is a bit meh and they are very faded. I am also having a nightmare sourcing the brown edge tile that is missing. I was thinking it might be nicer to retile in new ones but similar configuration. Again, however, that would ruin the symmetry.

Finally, what door colour should I go for? (This may be dictated by the tiles.) They can do it in any RAL colour. I’ve ruled out royal blue, sage, duck egg blue, teal, bright red, bottle green, purple and black. I’m quite keen on canary yellow or deep blood red.

Thanks!

Sorry, should have said- I am the cream door on the left!

I would honestly get the existing door refurbished. Old wood is so much better quality that anything you can buy nowdays. You could even get some nice patterned coloured glass put in. If you are worried about cold then a good carpenter can draft proof it and you could have the glass replaced with double glazed panels and maybe even for a door curtain?

Here’s a better pic of the whole front of the house. Garden wall is also being renovated and made slightly higher to hide the bins.

How much thicker does the bar need to be to make the cheaper door work? If it's just a little bit I'd go for it. IDK if it's just the photo but the door on the right looks like it has a slightly thicker top bar anyway. Is that your neighbour?

No, we’ve considered that but it is warped, was never great quality and can’t be refurbished to the standard we need.

This.

The lack of symmetry with the new door will be visually jarring imho.

Edit: Oops, cross posted.

The other option would be to go to a salvage yard or similar and see if you can find a reclaimed one, if there are a lot of similar houses in your area then you might be in with a good chance of finding one. It might be cheaper to refurb a reclaimed door and end up with one in a better condition than yours is, currently. I don't know how you could tell if a prospective door was warped without putting it into a door frame, though.

It will add an extra 3cm to the top bar, so it will go from 8cm to 11cm.

Neighbour’s is identical thickness, must just be the photo angle.

And here is a pic of a pair of houses further down the street, where the equivalent one to me has a door design similar to what I am considering, though same thickness top bar.

3cm difference won't be noticeable, I'd go ahead and do that! Unless you live on a very wide road, and people spend a lot of time standing opposite staring at the houses (😁), there is no need to worry about symmetry.

Can you put a strip of something like masking tape along the bottom of the bar to see how much a thicker one annoys you? You're the one who is going to be walking up to it every day!

That’s a great idea, so obvious now you say so! My current door is pretty much the colour of masking tape so will have to make a bright white paper strip.

Any thoughts about tiles and colours while you’re here?

this door looks similar to the existing Victorian ones and says it can be made in bespoke sizes? Worth a look? They have other Victorian styles too

Can I ask why did you choose the door you did? And are you changing the colour of the glass in the pic as that would also dictate colour. I like the door but I think with the high arched glass and the 3cm drop the top of the door frame will look smaller again. I prefer the door on the right but then that is just my opinion. I do like the door you have chosen but I prefer the other one. As for colour the deep red sounds lovely but I like the idea of the yellow one too so I am really of no help to you 😂Sorry

Out of canary yellow and blood red, I'd go with red.

as for the tiles, I'm a huge fan of original but they're brown... I'm on the fence!

reclamation yards might well be worth a look for replacements though.

The door on the right is the original design from when the houses were built. Quite a few of the houses in the street still have it- look at the other picture I posted later in the thread and you’ll see it on the right again.

I think that at some point the door on my house was re-glazed and they removed all the extra squares round the outside.

In an ideal world I’d have a replica of the original one made bespoke but that would likely be 15k just for the door. That’s not in budget given all the other work we are having done too. The bespoke quote of 8k I got was just for a bog standard two rectangular glass panels with frosted glass. I was never happy with the design.

I’m keen to have stained glass, but aware that some can look really tacky. It also needs to look like the right period, and our hall is dark and narrow so I need a big central glass panel. There aren’t many nice ones in the pre-made door market. That one is made by a local company and I have seen it in the showroom (pic below) and thought it looked good but I do agree it might be a bit busy. As you can see from the subsequent pic, another neighbour has a very similar one.

Funnily enough I had previously seen the one that @minipie posted and I really liked that it had the same single rectangle detail at the bottom. I might follow that up, but I’d be happier with something I can see first, and the “Door Deals” people are in Chesterfield but I am London. My fitter is independent, he was recommended the manufacturers of the door I had chosen, but he is not tied to them. That said, will likely have his preferred suppliers. Everything gets very expensive when you are putting together each element individually.

I’ve actually been round a few reclamation yard and tile places in North London and it’s been disappointingly slim pickings. They have a lot of fireplace tiles but no sets for entrance hallways that I have seen, which I find weird given how many houses in London have tiled entrances like mine.

my fireplace tiles are brown too!

this is another option, these guys are based in Hampshire. I do understand wanting to see it in the flesh, but this looks pretty authentic to me

… and is available in a range of sizes

Thanks @minipie . All the sizes are in inches, I know I can convert but how weird!

Traditionalists 😄

All trades work in millimetres though, they must spend their lives being asked “how many mil is that?”

The door you've chosen is fine. And nicer than the one in situ.
It's not the same as your neighbours so I go symmetry isn't relevant and a slightly thicker top bar is neither here nor there IMO.
And yes absolutely with you on the tiles.
The existing ones have nothing to recommend them (IMO) other than being original.
Replace with something sympathetic.

Have you got plans for the front path ?
Have you considered having the path , the door and the tiles in a style that does not match the original ?

Thanks!

Haven’t thought path and steps through fully yet, but was going to keep them pretty simple. I think that having a pattern tiled path (like the geometric black and white one on the further away neighbour’s place I posted upthread) is too much for a modest terrace with a very small front garden. Do you have any suggestions?