Manolo for the Home

A house nearby to my own up until recently had the most atrociously painted electric purple door. I’ve nothing against electric purple doors, mind you. Rather, I am anti-DIY when DIY is done badly. If you’re going to attempt to fix or refresh your home, why not do it right the first time? And really now, painting a front door is not all that difficult, and it can add a lot of personality to an exterior for very little money.

So how does one paint a front door? First things first! Take off the door — as tempting as it is to glop on paint without taking off the door, you’ll end up with shite results. Corral any pets as necessary. Once the door is off, and keep in mind that it may be heavy so be careful, you’ll need to remove all the hardware, e.g. the hinges, the doorknob, a door knocker, or peepholes. Oh, and any screws that were holding those things on will need to come off, too.

Next step, prime! And when I say prime, I mean the whole thing, including the inside edges and surfaces that will be under hardware. Once that’s done and dry, check for things like cracks. If you see any, fill ‘em up with caulk and then prime over the caulk once it’s dry. Unfortunately, painting doesn’t come next — sanding does. But as much as sanding can suck, sanding with a fine grit sandpaper will make the finished door look polished and professional.

Finally, it is time to paint. Um, once you’ve rubbed off all the dust from all that sanding. I recommend using a roller on the flat bits of the door. Part of the reason that the electric purple door looked so awful was that there were brush strokes over brush strokes, and the door’s original color was showing underneath. Not very polished looking at all. As you paint, try not to let the paint pool or drip because, yes, it will dry that way. Finally, apply as many coats as you need (when the previous coat is dry) to get good coverage and a uniform hue.

Now that’s not so hard, right? As for the electric purple door, the owners of said door eventually did take it down and paint it correctly, and now it looks absolutely stunning.

(Image via)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 at 5:38 am by Never teh Bride and is filed under Color, Decorating, Exteriors, Just Because, Paint and painting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.