The series of Creating White Cottage Farm has been such a fun series for us to look back at the house when we first moved in, some of the history before us, and to look at some of the updates we have done and are doing now. My motivation when it comes to remodeling this house is a few parts… One part bring back the original glory of the white saltbox farmhouse when it was first built, one part fulfilling our family needs, and another adding some subtle touches for my love for cottage style. When I do QA’s about our home on Instagram, we see a lot of common questions come across, and I plan on working those into this series. I think it helps showcase some of decisions we make here on the farm, the intent to the design and a review of the products we are adding into our home to better help your remodeling journeys. We are just getting this room put together. Finishing up some painting and some small things before we turn this room into a more functioning space. So please don’t mind the half storage half playroom phase we are in right now.
Lately, the question we have been getting is why French doors? If you are new to the blog, we have added six exterior french doors to our home since purchasing it in 2016. The latest are three Andersen Windows A Series French Doors in our newly constructed back family room. Looking back at some of the decisions we make when it comes to remodeling our farmhouse, this is definitely a design choice that leans to making the farm reflect my style and love for cottage style homes. I love french doors because they give off this classic cottage and French country style to me. This room already had a ton of light from two sliders with a side light, and I didn’t wanted to keep as much light in this space as possible.
Here is where we started…
Here is how it’s going…
As you can see above, we removed the little side door that we had never used before & we replaced that window & all of the sliders with French doors. I think it was the best decision we had ever made in this back room! Another look at this back living room before…
& today…
They can add so much light to a space, add the function of opening both doors, which for furniture lovers like myself that always change things up, this is very helpful. From a design perspective, the back of the house is tied together from the sunroom with simulated divided light (SDL) windows, or windows with grills, to the French doors with SDL in them as well. I have always been drawn to windows with grids on them, they are so classic and charming to me. We also noticed that the original windows installed from the collection of black and white photos in the houses earliest time, the windows had grids on them, so another way to tip our design hat to the original style. I am so excited to see this space take shape this summer. Two of the French doors are on the backside of the house and walk out to our patio, right next to our little white greenhouse, and the other French door walks right out to the pool area. This space is going to be a main room during the summer, being connected to all of the entertaining outdoor spaces. We replaced some weathered and leaky sliding doors, and an old wood-framed window to get these French doors into this space. Last week we shared the Specs and how we brought this room in a bit to work around the step down that was back here before. Adding these French doors helps keep all the light in this space, while giving it the perfect cottage style charm that comes with French doors.
They can add so much light to a space, add the function of opening both doors, which for furniture lovers like myself that always change things up, this is very helpful. From a design perspective, the back of the house is tied together from the sunroom with simulated divided light (SDL) windows, or windows with grills, to the French doors with SDL in them as well. I am so excited to see this space take shape this summer. Two of the French doors are on the backside of the house and walk out to our patio, right next to our little white greenhouse, and the other French door walks right out to the pool area. This space is going to be a main room during the summer, being connected to all of the entertaining outdoor spaces. We replaced some weathered and leaky sliding doors, and an old wood-framed window to get these French doors into this space. Last week we shared the Specs and how we brought this room in a bit to work around the step down that was back here before. Adding these French doors helps keep all the light in this space, while giving it the perfect cottage style charm that comes with French doors.
These French doors have been installed less than a month ago, but I will say the climate in this room is significantly better. Being a converted old garage, this space, unless you were running space heaters, would be so cold in the winter. When we built out this space we covered the cement flooring with foam board insulation to help, After adding these doors, we can tell it has significantly took the edge off the room. We are addressing the HVAC system later in the year to make this more comfortable all year around. The other rumor around French doors is the security or lack of security. Lower quality models may have issues these Andersen Windows A Series French doors have a fantastic security mechanism within their doors. They call it a multi-point locking system, with a hook bolt above and below the door. For my styles, I like French doors over sliding doors, so for transitioning from inside to an exterior space for entertainment, like a deck, patio, or pool area, if you have enough wall space for a French door, I would add a French door, or in my case, three. If you are looking at adding these exact French doors, you can go to Andersen Windows website (here), or find a local building supplier. We use West Michigan Kitchen Studio, a local building supplier to get all of our material from the bead board to these French doors and everything in-between. A tip, if you are taking on a remodeling journey like ours, find a good lumber and building supplier and make good friends with them… We have everything delivered saving us the extra work of going out purchasing, loading, and unloading material.
For those wondering why I love French doors, I hope this answers that question. So far love our new French doors and cannot wait to use the space we installed them in this summer. This room, formerly used for storage, will help us continue to create fun family memories this year and we cannot wait to share them with you. Thank you so much for stopping by the blog today and every other day, it truly means the world to us.
