This front door update has been a long time coming.  My husband says my favorite words are ‘builder grade’ since I point out all of the builder grade fixtures he constantly needs to replace.  It’s true though, most houses are constructed with the same basic doors and I wanted ours to stand out, but I didn’t want to break our budget either.

While door shopping I quickly realized just how expensive front doors are and thought my dreams of changing ours out was lost.  Until I discovered the company Zabitat. They are a company that sells glass inserts for your doors. I was so excited to learn that a company like this existed. The concept is simple, rather than replacing your entire door you just remove the panel section(s) and replace them with glass.

They have a huge selection of glass to choose from; everything from farmhouse style clear glass to privacy and decorative glass. Their prices will shock you, they are very affordable when you’re comparing against purchasing a whole new door. Originally I was set on all clear glass, but with the help of their design team we chose clear glass for our ‘real’ front door (our house is a unique layout and we have a lot of doors) and then a full panel decorative glass for our downstairs front door. We are beyond happy with the results.

The process of switching out the panels for glass was very simple. We were nervous to make the first cut in case we messed something up and had to scrap the door, however it was much easier than we imagined especially because the measurements are right in front of you and thanks to the helpful you tube videos Zabitat created to walk you through the process.

We spent less than 90 minutes doing each door and it went flawlessly! We had all of the tools already at home so there were no extra expenses there.   We are so happy with the results and have received so many compliments on our new doors from our friends and family.  You can click here to see my Instagram stories of the whole process from start to finish.

Here is the before of our ‘downstairs’ front door:

and here is the after! We love it, especially the fact that it lets natural light pour in which makes for a happier space.

Here’s the before of our upstairs front door:

and here is the after: We love that it makes the front entry so much more welcoming, plus all of that extra light pours in up here now too. A few of my friends mentioned they would be concerned about privacy with the clear glass and that did cross my mind, however I think adding the big wreath helps make it feel more private.

We did order an additional full, clear glass panel for the side light but after putting in the half panel glass my husband thought we should leave it as is? What do you think, should we swap it out for a full panel side glass or leave it as it? Leave a comment below!