Front Door Curb Appeal Makeover — Door, Trim and Sidelights as One Job
The front door is fine but the entry looks like nobody ever thought about it.
Reply within one business day. Or call / text 763-204-2099.
A front door curb appeal makeover treats the whole entry as one job: a new door in a color and style that fits the house, wider exterior trim or pilasters with a head piece, sidelights or a transom where the opening allows, hardware in one finish, and the storm door decision. JMB Builders lays it out from photos, orders the parts to match and installs it in one or two days across the Twin Cities metro. Priced per project.
- Priced per project, door and trim on one quote
- Door, surround, sidelights and hardware chosen together
- Storm door kept, replaced or removed as part of the plan
Most entries were built with the cheapest door the builder could buy and a strip of brickmould around it. Replacing the door with a better one helps, but the entry still reads as a hole in the siding with a nice door in it. What makes an entry look designed is everything around the slab: trim wide enough to frame it, a head piece or crosshead above, sidelights or a transom that bring glass to the front of the house, and hardware that matches across the handleset, the kick plate and the house numbers.
Doing it as one job means the parts are chosen to work together. The door color sets the trim color. The sidelight glass matches the door lite. The trim width is set by the sidelights, not by the leftover brickmould. The storm door is decided up front: kept if it fits the new door, replaced in a full-view style that shows the door, or removed so the new door is what you see. Ordered separately over a few years, those pieces never quite line up.
We lay the entry out from your photos — door, surround, glass, hardware — and show you the pieces before anything is ordered. Then it is one order and one or two days on site: old door and trim out, opening checked and repaired, new door or door-with-sidelights set in a pan and flashed, trim built up and sealed, hardware fitted. Options such as ProVia, Therma-Tru and Pella for the door; PVC or composite for the trim. Painting the trim is quoted as its own line.
Get a written quote for this job
Three photos and a sentence is enough: a reply within one business day, or ask for a free in-home estimate. Or text the photos to 763-204-2099.
What you supply
- A photo of the whole front of the house from the street, and a close-up of the door and its trim
- The look you want: a color, a photo of an entry you like, or just 'make it match the house'
- Whether you want glass: a lite in the door, sidelights, a transom, or none
- What happens to the storm door: keep, replace or remove
- Paint color for the new trim — painting quoted as its own line, or paint it yourself
What JMB supplies
- A layout of the new entry from your photos: door, trim widths, glass and hardware, before the order
- The door, or door with sidelights or transom, ordered with hardware in one finish
- Removal of the old door, frame, brickmould and storm door; haul-away
- Rot repair at the sill or jambs, found when the old trim comes off and quoted before going on
- Sill pan, flashing tape, head flashing, low-expansion foam and sealant
- Built-up exterior trim in PVC or composite: pilasters, head piece or crosshead, sized to the new door
- Interior casing to match the house; a new or re-set storm door if kept
- Painting of the trim and casing when you want it, quoted as a separate line, and photos in your job folder
How it is priced: per project
Quoted in writing from your photos, with a reply within one business day. What moves the number:
- Door alone vs a door with sidelights or a transom, which changes the opening
- Door material, color and glass: steel, smooth or woodgrain fiberglass, factory finish
- Width and build-up of the exterior trim: brickmould, flat casing, pilasters with a crosshead
- Whether the opening is widened for sidelights, and whether that wall is bearing
- Siding type at the entry — lap, vinyl, brick or stucco — and how the trim meets it
- Storm door kept, new full-view, or removed with the holes filled
- Painting the new trim and casing, quoted as a separate line
Send the street photo and the close-up and tell us what bothers you about the entry now. The quote lists the door, the glass, the trim, the hardware and the storm door as separate lines so you can trim the scope.
How long it takes
Door and trim in the existing opening: one day. Door with new sidelights in a widened opening: two days plus the siding patch. Parts are ordered after the layout is approved; factory colors take longer than stock.
How your project works
- 1
Send photos, get a written quote
Send three photos of the space and a sentence about what you want. You get a clear, itemized reply within one business day. Prefer a look in person? A free in-home estimate is always an option.
- 2
Pick materials, or bring your own
We help you choose profiles and materials that fit the house and the budget, or match your existing millwork exactly — or you buy the door or trim yourself and we install it. Everything is confirmed before the crew is scheduled.
- 3
Clean, precise installation
The crew shows up on time, protects floors and furniture, and installs with tight joints and consistent reveals. Photos of the finished work go in your job folder.
- 4
Walkthrough and invoice
We walk the finished work with you. If anything is not right, we fix it before we call the job done. Then one invoice, paid by check or direct deposit — no card fees, no payment links.
Situations and options
Door and surround, same opening
A new door in the existing opening with wider flat trim, a head piece and matching hardware. No framing changes. The most common makeover and the one that changes the most for the least.
Door with sidelights
The opening widened to take a door with one or two sidelights, glass matched to the door lite, trim sized to the new width. Brings light into a dark foyer. The header is checked and sized for the wider span.
Door with transom
A fixed glass unit above the door in the same frame. Adds height to the entry on a house with a tall porch ceiling. The header moves up; the width stays the same, so the siding patch is small.
Storm door decision
A new door in a factory color often looks best with no storm door, or with a full-view storm that shows it. We set the storm door choice first so the trim depth and the handle positions are right for it. See our storm door removal page for the holes-filled option.
Front Door Curb Appeal Makeover — Door, Trim and Sidelights as One Job: questions, answered
What makes the biggest difference to front door curb appeal?
The trim around the door, more than the door itself. A good door inside a strip of brickmould still reads as a hole in the wall. Flat trim wide enough to frame the door with a head piece above it makes the entry look built, not bought. After that, glass — a lite, sidelights or a transom — and hardware in one finish. The color ties them together.
Can I add sidelights to my front door?
Usually, if there is wall beside the door. The opening is widened to take a door-with-sidelights unit, the header is checked and sized for the longer span, and the siding is patched to the new trim. One sidelight on the handle side is common when there is room on only one side. We tell you from the street photo whether the wall has room and what is in it.
Should I keep my storm door with a new front door?
Decide that before the order. A dark factory-finished fiberglass door behind a standard storm door can overheat in full sun, and a storm door hides the door you paid for. Options are no storm door, a full-view storm that shows the door, or keeping yours if it fits the new door's handle position. Our sun-facing front door page covers the heat question; this job includes whichever choice you make.
What exterior trim do you use around a front door?
PVC or composite trim boards, which do not rot and hold paint, built up to the width and profile the entry calls for: flat casing with a thicker head, pilasters with a crosshead, or a simple wide flat surround on a modern house. Wood is an option on a historic house where it has to match. The trim is primed and painting is quoted as its own line.
How do I pick a front door color?
Start from what will not change: the siding, the roof and the brick or stone. A door color should contrast with the siding and agree with the roof. Hold a sample at the door in afternoon light, not indoors. Factory-finished fiberglass doors come in a set palette that is hard to get wrong; a painted door can be any color and repainted later. We bring samples to the in-home estimate.
Can the entry makeover be done without replacing the door?
The trim, the hardware and the storm door can be done around a sound existing door, and that is a smaller job. But a makeover usually starts because the door is tired, and new trim around an old door shows the door's age more. If the door is solid and you like it, we quote the surround alone; if it is dented, drafty or dated, the door is the first line on the quote.
Recent JMB work, from our job log
59 installs recorded across 30 Twin Cities communities since Dec 2025. Window and door installs for homeowners and the builders we work with. Counts come straight from our job log; no customer names.
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Read morePage reviewed October 10, 2026 · JMB Builders LLC, MN license BC809005 · All doors pages
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Door Replacement & Installation near you
Based in Zimmerman, scheduling across the Twin Cities metro. Closest first: