The Blue Door

In my last post, I wrote about choosing paint colors, and you saw a photo of our front door with paint swatches on it.  I have been wanting to add a little personality to the front exterior of our house since we moved in eight months ago.  Well, it finally happened!  My husband and I agreed on a bright, cheery blue, and while my daughter was napping one fine spring day, I got busy painting.

First things first, I had to scrub down the door.  It was dirty, embarrassingly so.  I did wash it when we first moved in, but *ahem* that was awhile ago.  I just used some dish soap and warm water, but if you have any greasy or hard to remove spots, you might try using some TSP or a liquid deglosser.  Once my door was well-rinsed and dry again, I started priming.  I didn’t sand first, because my door didn’t have any chipping paint, and it already had a grippy feeling texture.  If your door has peeling paint, you need to sand first in order to get a smooth finish.

The nice lady in Home Depot’s paint department recommended a primer/sealer called GRIPPER for my metal door, and it seemed to work really well.  Leaving the door hanging right on its hinges, I applied a thin coat of the primer with a good quality paint brush, being especially careful to work the paint into the little detailed areas.  Once the primer was dry, I broke out the color!  This is always my favorite part.  For the front door, I used Benjamin Moore’s Blue Suede Shoes 798, color-matched to Glidden Semi-gloss exterior paint.  I used a 2-inch angled brush for the indented paneling areas and the frame around the window, and a small foam roller for all of the flat areas (to cut down on any brush strokes).  The first coat covered amazingly well, but I let it dry and put another one on for an extra-smooth finish.

It is important to do this project on a nice day, because you won’t be able to close your door until the paint is dry and somewhat cured.  Our door doesn’t have a really tight seal (a future project), so I didn’t have to worry too hard about the edges sticking and peeling the paint off.  Another thing I recommend is to take the door knob and locks off before painting.  I just taped around them, and I can see brush strokes in those areas.  I am seriously thinking about painting the interior side of the door this same blue color, so when I do that, I will take the door knob and locks off and touch up the exterior side, too.

My little project just wouldn’t be complete without the addition of two giant pots of flowers flanking each side of the door.  When I saw these huge (2 foot tall by 18 inches diameter) pots on sale at Fred Meyer, I strongly hinted to my husband that I would like two of them for my birthday.  After sitting out back for two months, waiting until it was safe to plant flowers without freezing, these bright green beauties are now adding their own splashes of color out front.

Next on my list, spruce up the entry mat.  I know they are not that expensive, and I could easily buy a really cute one, but this one is in really good shape, just faded.  I have seen some great ideas for using spray paint to refresh old entry mats, so I am going to give it a try.  Plus, I have several cans of half-full spray paint just waiting to be used.  What have you been working on this summer?  Any front door painting or entry mat spraying going on at your house?