Door Canopies and Door Awnings

Building your own front door awning can help you protect your home while saving you plenty of money.



Often times, it is simply much easier to go out and buy a product than it is to actually take the time to build it. With little available free time during the day, especially as people work more than one job, or have a family to consider and take care, it is generally not realistic to even consider building something that would essentially add an addition to one’s house or place of residence. However, it is not as complicated and time consuming to create or build a door canopy or awning as one might think. In fact, it is possible for someone to build a front door awning by using common household tools, and actually do so in less than a few hours. With that being known, there is a good reason to build your own front door awning.

In order to build your own door canopy, a task which is considered fairly easy in all actuality, you’ll need a variety of tools and other common items. For example, you’ll want to make sure that you have with you a tape measure, an electric drill, wood screws, wood glue, a variety of 2x2s and 2x4s, two decorative wooden dowels, wood stain or paint depending on your house color, a marine canvas, and, of course, nylon thread. Now that you know what you need, let’s take a look at the steps that you should follow to build this door awning.

The first thing that you should do when building your own door canopy is to use your tape measure to measure the width of the door from where you’d like the awning to hang. It is important that you do not simply measure the length of the awning, but that you also add another six inches for the necessary front overhang. The second step that you should take is to double the overall thickness of the body of the door canopy. This act will help provide for a much more efficient and effective sun protection. To better explain, you should have two pieces of canvas that measure the same width of the door and desired length of the awning.

The third step is to take the marine fabric that you have to create the awning, and cut it into two completely identical pieces. You should take these two pieces, and then put them together. You should sew together three of the sides, and leave one of them open. After this task, you should then take the fabric and turn it right side out. After measuring six inches, you should draw two parallel lines a few inches from each other, as this space will be where you should insert the true front of the frame. After this task, you should then calculate another two and a half inches from both sides, drawing another line, and carefully opening it to allow for the frames to be placed into the fabric. In order to seal the fabric, you should use both glue and screws for a very secure fit.

Once you have completed the previous steps, use the 2×2 pieces in such a way that will fit both the length and the width of the frame, though you should take away about three inches from the length of the open side where the material would actually attach over the door itself. Then, in the sewn pocket of the fabric, you should place the front width portion. After placing in the 2×2 pieces and using a wood screw to connect them, you should glue the corners while the edge of the fabric is hidden away. With more of the wood screws, take the 2×4 that you brought along and connect it to the front of the house approximately six inches or so over the door. Take the back part of the awning and attach it to the 2×4 at the top and bottom. With your decorative dowel, you should use your screw driver to screw in the corner of the awning frame. Lastly, stain or paint the dowel to match your house, and you are all set!