I’ve needed a screen door on the front of my house for a while… like ever since 3 years ago when I put in my new front door. The problem with just going with a stock screen door is that there were some calculations in error made when installing the exterior trim around the door. A stock one won’t fit.
That means: a) either take off all of the trim & siding then cut and/or replace new, or b) a custom screen door.
Since it is less costly to go custom, my inspiration is this door I pinned on Pinterest.

(I’m not linking to it since the pin doesn’t link to the original post. I’ve since learned the importance of that.)
I’ve drawn this screen door in every CAD & drawing program that I have. I just couldn’t visualize it in real life. So tonight I took a dollar store roll of wrapping paper & some scotch tape to a sorta real life version.
This is what the inside of my front door looks like. I didn’t want to go outside to do the mockup because it was getting cold & it’s supposed to rain so that would ruin my tape + paper mockup.

I taped the rails up first. The top one went at the top of the door (smart, eh!>) and the middle one went equally spaced at the bottom of the oval window.

Then I taped up the stiles.

The middle rail looked too high … so I made it the same height as the window sill of my dogs’ favorite lookout window. I moved it down 4″.

I tried a couple of different rail options … neither of which I liked:


The middle & bottom rail will become one bottom panel … at the lookout window height.

PeeEss: I cost me about 1/2 a roll of dollar store wrapping paper + about a foot of scotch tape I already had on hand. 10 minutes to do the mockup including taking the pictures. Then another 45 minutes to upload the pictures & write this post. It will probably take me all day tomorrow to decide what wood & door hardware to use. Weather permitting & I get some help … maybe it will be done by Monday.