A photo of the home would help.

Here yah go!

minimizing the panes

larger lights left and right of the door:

same door as about, but double doors.

It is my personal opinion that the door you posted looks as though it belongs on an apartment complex door.... it lends not beauty to a Colonial. All personal preference, but it's a decent investment so as not to make the wrong choice as you well know.

Perhaps something more as such if you lean that way vs. the tiny windows.

same site it appears where you found the other. The other would not do your home justice.

Something like this if you want them only at the top would be more fitting vs. the above on a Colonial.

Good Luck!

Take a look at Simpson's Bungalow series. You can get as much or as little light as you want.

I love the red one that Porter posted!

Love the last two that Porter posted. I also like this door on my brother's colonial home. Agree a portico would be great.

I like the 6-lite red door and portico ideas for your home.

The red one looks pretty nice, I agree I would love to have a portico, maybe I can do one as a project next year. It would help reduce the sun's effect on the front door and we could keep our glass storm door to boot. We have talked about that vs doing a front porch. Though I don't know if a front porch would make it less colonial. We do live on a cul de sac and a porch could be nice to watch our daughter play with the neighbors. The cul de sac is kind of rallying point.

We actually do like the style of the 6 light 1/4 panel as well as craftsman houses. Though my biggest concern about the 6 light door is that it was a craftsman's door and that we have a colonial. I guess the lack of the stool under the window and the red color makes it look less craftsman. The only reason why we are looking at the fan lights and the 4 lights as there were some Colonials have 4 lights or fan details on the transom. The picture I posted does look like it is is from an apartment, though it was hard to find a pic of a 4 light door. I guess I feel better about going to a door like the red one posted. I was worried it would look out of place to some people.

Lastly as much as we would like side lights, I don't know if we could do it easily w/o setting the door off center. We have a short wall with light switches on it next to the door.

Thanks for the suggestions so far!

Agree you need some larger lights such as the red door or what Chloebud posted which is a great door. A portico when you can would be a great option as well as a walk to the front door (as Chloebud's inspiration photo shows) to give some pizazz to the home.

As we say, "Rome wasn't built in a day".

Good luck!

Only thing about his door it would be fairly custom/expensive to purchase. I need to look into brands a bit more. I am 90% sure we won't to go with a fiberglass door. I see a Therma-Tru cost about $300 for unpainted, while Pella is up to $1,200 for a red painted door.

You absolutely can have a porch on a colonial. Seems to me with a porch, you wouldn't need a storm door.

I think we are going with the red 6 light door. Mom and wife both like it, so I am fine with it as well. Just need to find what brand as the price varies a lot.

The portico idea kind of stuck with me. We have talked about it, though we bought the house because of the privacy of the backyard. We later found out we have a lot of mosquitoes, the wife is scared of the back yard and it already is afforded sun protection. I walked through the neighbor hood and took a look at some houses.

One house had a portico with a gable roof, which we both like, but it doesn't have any room for seating and would afford less protection to the door from the sun. It seems like it would be only form vs the functionality of a front porch.

I looked at three other houses that had porches, two had a hip roof, which I think looks much nicer than the shed style roof of the third porch. Two covered 1/3 of the front porch, while the last one ran the full size of the house. Granted the one that ran the width of the house was a little narrower than our house. I will post some photos from my phone shortly.

Best of all the portico/porch would make the house look less blocky.

The photos aren't great, but I was trying to be descrete.

It's a pretty door and the bottom portion is more colonial that some.

Jeld Wen makes one very similar... it has mixed reviews at Home Depot. Not sure if you want wood, steel or... not sure what part of the US you are so that would dictate your material to some degree.

JELD-WEN

32 in. x 80 in. 6 Lite Craftsman Mesa Red Painted Steel

https://www.houzz.com/products/exterior-pre-hung-pre-finished-mahogany-prime-jamb-right-hand-prvw-vr~74902095

Another very similar from Houzz.... you might look in to some local people that do doors vs. the big box stores. Print out your picture of what you like.

Window companies typically do doors so they can come out and you can show them what you want. At least you have somebody to fall back on. We had our double doors and sidelights factory painted and hung by a window company and worked well.

Good Luck!

Porter

I guess finding the style was the easy part. I went to Lowes and HD with toddler in tow. It seems like a lot of the in stocks slab/door are consider as good quality as the custom or special order. The special orders are twice the price and the custom are quadruple. I am wanting fiber glass. The only one with the identical style that just required paint was that steel door you mentioned. I read good things about Therma-Tru, though Lowes sells the Benchmark line of TT, which has less than steller reviews. Pella and JW got good reviews as well. I am a DIYer and love doing stuff myself, though my wife would rather I farm out the install and paint. Still need to weigh my options. As of know it is the following:

$250 JW Steel door + non factory paint + install
$1,100-1,550 Pella red fiber glass door + install.

The price variation is for features such as wood vs aluminum clad jamb and 3 point vs double bore locks. Same door.

I have yet to check out Anderson Doors or any mom and pop places.