If you follow me on Twitter, (find me @shouserehab) you might have read my teaser about updating some outdoor curb appeal in our sub-10 degree weather. Well, it was just that. A teaser. If you think I’m spending more than 42 seconds outside with that wind whipping at below zero, you’re craaazy. I’m not that hardcore. My skin is delicate, y’all.
However, I was aware of the cold front approaching, and I sneaked* out to Home Depot to grab these to have Matt put them on the garage before the teeth chattering cold made it’s way to CT.
And sneak I did. You see, by surprising Matt with the purchase, I’d be able to spring the installation task on him without his input. I know, I know, I’m a greeeaatt wife. That’s toootaaally normal behavior in a blissful marriage, right? Love you, darling!
I didn’t want him to have time to come up with an argument against putting the hardware on the garage door because I was (and still am) in love with the idea of beautifying our builder’s grade, boring as all get out, plain Jane aluminum garage door. If, in fact, it is aluminum. That was a guess. Garage doors aren’t my specialty.
I beautified our garage facade with a wreath last spring, and it made a huge difference. Matt wasn’t thrilled with my mancave meddling, but he was a pretty good sport. After all, he tells me all the time, “Whatever makes you happy, baby.” I’m not making that up. He really says that. All the time. I’m so lucky. He knows that this makes me happy.
So pretty, right? We don’t have nice windows or bead board on our garage door, but the hardware I bought will help to soften it up a bit. Without the crazy price tag of a new door.
You see, when we first looked at this house with our relator, I told Matt that if we went with this property, a new garage door was on our must list because the garage was so front and center. When you pull down the driveway, you pull right up the front porch, and the garage is right there, as well. Staring at you with it’s cold, aluminum(?), rectangular eyes. Well, a door to my liking ran around $2,500. So, I learned to like our garage door. I learned to like it quickly, too. You know, since we needed some other things that were of higher priority. What, you ask, could be of higher priority than my beloved carriage-style garage door? Well, a new septic, some new windows, a new roof, a comprehensive filtered water system, wood floors, and some appliances to name a few.
Alas, without my dream garage door, I’m left to make the best of what I have. I have two exterior lanterns for either side of our garage door to add to the cause. They’re currently sitting on a shelf in the garage, too. They’re also from Home Depot and they look like this:
Oh yeah, they’ve been in the garage for over three years. We just need an electrician to help us run a new line and that will probably be a summer project.
But back to the project at hand. I blame the cold for this post being all over the place. The hardware I chose at Home Depot was $12.88 (!!!) and would attach directly onto our existing garage door. It’s black, carriage door style, and has fleur de lis accents which I thought would be pretty with the flowers that bloom on either side of the garage door from spring to fall.
Matt spent a few minutes bemoaning my purchase without his consent and the fact that I was asking him to put holes in our garage door, but I showed him a million pictures of how nice a boring garage door can look with this simple hardware addition and he acquiesced. Like a good husband. Just kidding. Sort of. Here’s a terrible, shadowy picture of our door before the hardware went on. Is shadowy a word? Google tells me yes.
To figure out the correct dart placement, we looked at pictures we liked online and figured out the best fit for our door. Matt used masking tape to affix the darts on the door while we stepped back for a look.
It was a lot of trial and error, and we walked back and forth a bunch of times to different angles of the driveway to make sure we were happy.
When we were positively happy with the placement, Matt drilled a pilot hole with his drill using a 3/32 drill bit. I know he hated putting holes in the garage door, but I assured him he’d be happy with the result. At the very least, I’d be happy, and that’s all that really matters to him, right? Right?!
With the pilot holes all drilled, we were ready to lock and load. I’m not referring to guns, here. I’m referring to putting the screws in, but it sounds so much better when you say, “lock and load, baby!” Lock and load, we did. The set came with two handles, but because of where the indentations sit on our particular door, there was only room for one. I was fine with that and I was more than fine with the outcome.
It makes such a big difference, and it cost under $13. Seriously, can you go wrong?! This is definitely one of the most impactful $13 I’ve spent in a while. I am envisioning my grapevine wreath loaded up with spring flowers above the door and the two black lanterns on either side of of the door. It’s going to be so pretty in the spring. I’m going to look into a big black planter for the left side to fill with colorful flowers from spring to fall and an evergreen in the wintertime. I’m so pumped.
What do you think? What kind of door are you rocking at your place? Maybe you have a carriage-style door yourself. This girl = jealous. Maybe you have a plain old door like me and are thinking about doing this kind of upgrade yourself. Tell me all about it in the comments below. I LOVE hearing from you guys!!
*The verb tense “sneaked” sounds so wrong to me. “I snuck out to Home Depot” sounds way more normal but alas, “I sneaked out to Home Depot” is grammatically correct. I checked. Since grammar is of utmost importance on this blog and all…
Have a great weekend!