Before & After

Thanks to all of you who chimed in on the door decision in my last post. It's great to know so many of you have Larson doors and love them - I had never heard of the brand previously, until I started doing my homework on purchasing a new storm door, and I have to say I'm sold!

Before I show you the before and after on the doors, I want to show you the before and after on the fall foliage. Let me just say, what a difference a week makes!

Above is the the view from my deck a week ago....

And this is where we're at now! 

The firepit area a week ago....

And now. What a huge difference!  We had a ton of rain and high winds which just demolished any foliage that was left on the trees. 

My mountain view is back, but I sure do miss all that beautiful fall foliage!

The lack of color in the landscape makes me even more delighted that my doors have gone from this:

To this:

What a huge difference this color makes on the house! 

Thanks to everyone who gave an opinion about the color!  A lot of you loved the red door, as did I, but honestly I think I had to stay away from that color because that's the color I painted the doors in my marital home, the home that unfortunately I had to give up in the divorce. I think a new home that I own all by myself deserves a new color!

I truly loved the orange door, and when I first decided it was time to paint the doors, I was initially leaning towards that color. It really wowed me! 

It would have looked great from outside, without a doubt. The deciding factor was how it would look inside when the door was open, against all the other decor already in place. 

The answer was that it was going to clash terribly with the light fixture above the kitchen sink....which I love to bits. 

So the orange door was out. 

I'm happy with the way the gold color plays off the green walls and white trim. 

What a huge difference from the black that was there before. This color just adds so much sunshine to my days!

The hardest part about this whole painting project was taping off the glass in the kitchen door. Oh my gosh, I think I spent more time on that than actually painting the door!

The door to the garage, which I see from my kitchen window, has gone from this drab and poorly painted black....

...to this sunny and cheerful gold. 

I see I need to touch up the paint on the trim....oops, I didn't notice those chips when I had the painting supplies out! Drat!

I guess I was blinded by the sunshine beaming off the new gold door!

This used to drive me absolutely mad every day when I was entering the garage, leaving for work. Look at all the black paint all over the white trim. I don't know why the previous homeowners never finished the project, I guess life just got in the way. 

Not any longer! I want to find a nice weather resistant wreath for this door....it will add just the right finishing touch. 

I might even hang some lace curtains to hide some of the clutter in the garage. 

Hey....it's a garage, but it can still look cute!  

When I come home from work after a long day, this is the cheerful sight that greets me and welcomes me home now. 

I was trying to take this photo while holding open the ugly old broken screen door....I'm delighted to say the new storm door was officially ordered yesterday, so stay tuned on which one I selected! It will be here in about three weeks, just in time, before we get into the heart of winter. 

I never used to open this other door....I guess it's supposed to be the 'front' door but we always use the kitchen door, as do our guests. We use this door in the summer occasionally, going in and out to the firepit area. 

Now I open it all the time when I'm home! I'm just so thrilled with the transformation!

I'm so glad I went with my gut instinct and chose the gold. The second I saw that color my heart went pitter-patter. 

My blogging friend Lisa over at Life Away From The Office Chair summed up my feelings for this color perfectly when she said she liked the gold because it was 'cozy and country cottage-ish.'

That's exactly how I want my home to be. 

Cozy and country cottage-ish. 

Perfect. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sharing at A Stroll Through Life - Inspire Me Tuesday