Front Door Facelift

So we moved into our new house a little over a year ago and there are still a million and one projects we want to do.  It seems that we start a hundred of them and only completely finish one or two.  Now that we are finally getting warm weather in Michigan, let's just be honest and admit that the projects we started over the winter are going to be on hold until next winter.  We have to seize the moment and make the most of nice weather while we have it.

Ever since I decided to paint the front door and shutters, the weather has not been cooperative.  Seems like we are getting the rain we should have been getting in April.  Today I had a couple hours and the weather was beautiful so I decided to take the plunge and tackle the front door.  (Quick confession...I was so anxious to get the door painted, I actually removed the handles and tackled stripping and cleaning them days before I actually painted the door.)

Here is my front door before I started painting, but after I already removed the door handle and taped off the kick plate.  As you can see it is B-O-R-I-N-G...boring!

 

I spent umpteen hours scouring Pinterest for the easiest and fasted way to paint a front door.  Here is my take on a combination of all those tutorials I read and found useful.  I'm by no means an expert, but if I can help you save time, save money AND complete a project from start to finish...bonus!  (By the way...our door is a standard fiberglass door with the wood grain finish.)

Basically all I did was:

1. Prep it
2. Paint it

That's it!  Pretty simple, huh?  I didn't take the door off the hinges.  I didn't patch the dings.  I didn't give the door a light sanding.  I didn't tape off the outside.  I didn't prime it.  I was starting with a bare door so I didn't feel it was necessary for all that extra time and energy.  Ain't nobody got time for that!  :)  If you feel you need more instructions than that, please feel free to keep reading.  If you're good to go, then have at it!

Materials needed:

• paint - I chose Sherwin Williams brand Resilience in Red Bay #6321.  I went with SW even though it is way more money than I would normally spend on paint because I didn't want to have to redo it again in a couple years.  Word on the street is this stuff holds up well to weather, sun and power washing.  And the Resilience is the only one at SW that you can get in a quart.  I hardly used anything from the quart...like not even a quarter of it.
• foam brush - I started with a 1 1/2" regular paint brush for the the panels and then a foam roller for the first coat, but switched to a foam brush.  I liked the foam brush better because I didn't have to fight with brush stroke marks.  I wish I would have used it the entire time as I could have saved myself time, money, and energy since the foam brush is disposable and you don't need a tray.
• tiny paint brush for touch-up 
• two hours of your time

For prep, I gave it a wipe down with dish soap, and water.  There were some spots where the previous owner had used tape on the door that the soap and water wouldn't remove.  For that I just grabbed the rubbing alcohol and a rag.  I removed the hardware and taped off the kick plate before I tackled actually painting.

I painted the panels first.  I started in the upper left corner and worked clockwise in each panel and then filled in the middle section of the panel.  My first swipe on the top and bottom of the panels I ran horizontally, but then went back immediately and ran my brush up and down so the strokes went with the grain.  I did this for all six panels before painting the rest of the door. I will admit, the foam roller made the first coat go quickly, but the splatter mess and cost difference makes it not worth it.  *Remember:  Less is more!*  It is tempting to put a lot of paint on your brush, but it will look better if you do light coats and fill in the spots you missed with the next coat. 

Not looking too purdy yet.  No turning back now!

The directions on the can say to let the paint dry two hours in between coats.  If you haven't figured out already, I'm not the patient sort.  I did go out and spray paint the door handles that go on the inside of the house in between coats.  They were brass so I spray painted them brushed nickel to match the rest of the door handles throughout the house.  I'd say I let it sit maybe 30 minutes before I gave it a second coat.  There was a beautiful breeze so I figured Mother Nature was helping me out by blowing on it to make it dry faster.  While the second coat was drying, I went out and gave the handles another coat of paint.

I cleaned up my mess and went outside to start another project I had that needed sprayed red.  After a half hour or so I went in and started putting the harware back on the door.  I was very careful with this step so I didn't scratch the door and peel the paint that I'm certain wasn't 100% dry yet.  Again...I'm not that patient.  I decided to shut the door completely to see how it looked from the outside.  While standing in the house, everything looked honkey dory.  Once I shut the door, the light revealed I still had missed some spots.  I just grabbed a detail paint brush and hit the spots where I could see white.  There weren't enough to warrant giving it a third coat.

Drum roll please....

From start to finish, I'd say this project took about two hours.  On a scale of one to five for difficulty, I'd rate this a one.  This project was easy peasy!

Are you still nervous to be bold and give your front door a pop of color?  Think it won't make that much of a difference?  Check out how it looks from a distance.  I think the red makes a huge difference.  I can't wait to tackle the shutters next!

Boring Before

Awesome After

Before & After of the door handle

Thanks for scoping out my how-to.  If you have any questions, please ask!  Hopefully I'll be as inspired to write about painting my shutters.