French Door + Transom Installation with Home Depot

Candace

6 years ago

When we moved into this home the downstairs guest room was an office space. It had this gorgeous bay window, high ceilings and crown molding… but it was without a door. The room just screamed for a french door set. My husband agreed.

We wanted the room to be able to serve as a guest room for our parents (less up and down stair action), but it was also important for us to keep as much of the bay window sunlight as possible. French Doors would allow the sunlight in; keeping the entrance light and airy instead of feeling like we were closing in walls.

On the opposite side of the downstairs area, we have a den that leads into a dining room, which we are currently using as a playroom. It leads in with a pretty transom and french pocket doors. (#ImObsessed)

We used those as our inspiration.

I called around to a few local companies, but Home Depot was our best bet. The cost was right, the timeline was great, and it’s Home Depot so we just had a sense of trust.

Being the selective Type A human that I am, I took a million photos of the existing windows and door ways into the store and asked them to match it as best they could. I naturally had a few minor freak outs about things not being exactly the same, but being a John Wieland home nothing was going to be an exact match. That’s another super fun story. The moral is, when doors and windows are that far from each other they may not need to be EXACT. As long as they flow, you are good to go.

See more of the after here where we made a DIY Industrial Curtain rod for a little guest room privacy.

We got the Builders Choice french doors, and I love them. It’s one of the best changes we’ve made to the home. It’s like they were always supposed to be there. When Home Depot came to install them, it was one guy. I was confused. I have no clue how a single guy puts in a transom and a door set and then re-trims everything in just a few hours, but he did it. He was incredible. Reegan was in complete awe.

You can choose the hinge color – Ours is oil rubbed, but they look fully black. These are easy to switch out or you can bring your own. – but we ordered the door handles ourselves to match the ones we had put throughout the house. The home was originally all 90’s brass and I immediately switch all knobs and hinges to matte black. It made a HUGE difference. You’ll also need to let them know if you’ll be doing 1 or 2 pin locks at the top and bottom of the door. For us, because of the carpet and wood floors we only have the pin at the top.

The french doors and transom with installation came out to just under $1200.

_______

Here’s a few tips!

Know that they leave them raw wood!
Scheduling is really easy, they call when the door/transom is ready and schedule a time.
We used/opened a Home Depot credit card for this. It gives you 6 months with no interest. Which is incredibly helpful when you have a bunch of projects going on.
The transoms are custom built for your space.

_______

As much as I would have LOVED to just stained them, they would not have matched anything in the house. So, when the painters came to do the girls’ bathroom, we had them paint the doors to match the trim.

I’m glad we made this change immediately. After removing some red wallpaper in the kitchen on the day we got the keys, it was the first change that we made to the house. We purchased the home in November and added the doors in January. From walking into Home Depot to install, the process took about 2-3 weeks. There is something about edits like this to a home that make it start to feel like your own. The previous owners took impeccable care of this home and it has inspired me to elevate it in the same mindset that they had, but as me.

If you are looking for french doors, I highly recommend using Home Depot. We will be using the in the future for other projects I have in mind.

As always, if you have any questions or are nervous about a project – comment below or shoot me a Direct Message on Intsagram. I’m here for you and hope this helped!!