Modifying a New Screen Door to Fit on a Modern Exterior Door

Besides finally completing my screen door here I also went ahead and painted the already white trim around the glass on the door because, after being outside for over a year, it wasn’t exactly “white” anymore! With the white on the trim and door painted I went out to find the old screen door.

This old screen door that I’m using I’ve had stashed since the renovation with the expectation to use it exactly right here, it used to be on the old screened in porch that we enclosed for my office. It is VERY old and had been built specifically to the height of the screened in porch so it was nearly a foot too short so I had to do some modification. You can see it also wasn’t wide enough so I had to add a 2×2 to the side of it. I then used some 1xs I had leftover to extend the bottom to make the door taller by sandwiching it between them across the bottom. (I used outdoor deck screws throughout the door) From there, it was on to paint! Yes, I was a little sad about losing that awesome old green color – which happens to be one of my favorite colors actually. But my little heart called for all of the screen doors in this house to be red. I took it out to the garage, taped it off so I could paint the trim white on one side and I got to work!

I used gloss red rustoleum for the color not because I needed rust-proof paint but because it is the exact shade of red that I wanted and I happened to have it on hand! I left the hinges just as they were in all of their rusty glory I also picked up a new screen door chain to pull the door closed. After I got it hung I finally had the opportunity to paint the outside of the exterior door black like I’ve been planning to do forever!