Turning a Window into a new Exterior Door for the Mudroom

With every change we make to our house, we're always looking to solve problems and make our home work for us and our family in the most beautiful way we can think up. This time, a door was (literally) opened when we turned a window in the former laundry room/now mudroom into a functional entryway!

Up until this point, the doors to the back of the house go through our dining room or living room (literally have never used the living room door), which doesn't really make sense for all the foot traffic we have with kids and a dog. So when we decided to put lockers and Cricket's "station" in the mudroom, I couldn't help but dream up a beautiful door to boot. I had this vision to create an arched doorway that would echo the brick overhang entrance next to the driveway.

Here's the view now:

Lantern Pendant | Lantern Sconce | Hose Box (similar) | Outdoor Planters & Faux Topiaries

And here's the before of the window:

We reached out to Simpson Door Company to execute our custom design idea, and they worked with us to create the perfect look (they were so kind as to gift the door to us as well!). Here are the specs for the arched door:

Once we had the door in hand, it only took our contractors a few days to turn the window into a doorway. They saved the bricks they removed around the window, cut a hole to make the arch, installed the door, and then re-bricked around it. Because our brick is a few decades old and hard to find a match, so it was important that they were able to use all the same brick. It was a painstaking process, but they did great work!

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Mudroom Pendant Light

Inswing vs. Outswing

I've gotten a few questions asking "Why did you do an inswing door on such a tight space?" The truth is that I just don't see a lot of out-swinging doors on exteriors. In some climates, you can't even do an out-swinging door. There was no such thing as an out-swinging door when we lived in Idaho because you'd be stuck in your house from the snow! We did have this new mudroom door swing open in such a way that the girls would be able to come in and access their lockers.

The Paint and Mortar Colors (Interior, Exterior, and In-Between)

We had the painters match the exterior of the mud room door to the trim (Cromwell Gray by Benjamin Moore) in semi-gloss. And the inside of it matches the red of the lockers (Preference Red by Farrow & Ball). The painters didn't even ask me whether I wanted brown or red for the edges, but they did something incredibly cool: It's a round door, and when you are opening the door, they painted it exactly in half at the very top of the arch, so one half of the door is red on the side and the other half is gray, so the sightline matches the side of the door! I can't explain how much I love that attention to detail.

The one issue is that they had color-matched the brick mortar from a different part of the house, and it did NOT match at all. We were freaking out a little. But! Fortunately they were able to tint the color and match it better the second go-round. The header is still a little bit heavy, but it actually matches other arches around the house. I'm really happy with it now.

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The Hardscaping and Grounds

We have been trying to figure out how we want to fix the grounds around the door. (Not helping that it's raining so much and everything is a muddy mess because of all the construction foot traffic). We're going to make the turf design stop before the left corner, and just do a bluestone path (no turf) that will start after this edge, similar to what we have around the pool.

Right against the right wall, I want to do a super shallow gardening bed to disguise some of the meters (you can see them in the progress photos above). And then I'd love to do a diamond-shaped trellis of vines going up the brick wall on the right. Soon there will be a copper gutter there as well!

While it was a tedious process to preserve the brick, did it ever deliver the "wow" factor I was hoping for! It looks like it was always meant to be there, and has added so much functional flow to our home. We still haven't really started using the door yet, because we're still hanging up hooks and honestly, it's going to take some training for us to start using this door (we still habitually have been walking through the dining room!!) Can't wait to finish the details inside and do the full reveal!

Other Posts About the Mudroom

• Introducing the New Mudroom Plans
• Come On In! Mudroom Mood Board Reveal
• Our Mudroom Tile: A Vision Of Black & White