Plum Front Door

I am so so happy about this transformation with a little paint. Our front door was painted a boring pale grey green when we bought it. I don't have a picture that shows the whole door, but here is one to see its color.

I had been thinking of painting it a nice vibrant color for over a year. I had yellow, aqua/teal, saffron in mind. But I couldn't get hubby to agree on any of these colors. Though I wanted to go bold with it, something was pulling me back. I was afraid they may look too bright, like punching in your face bright. It will be our first attempt to paint front door so we brainstormed and decided on using colorful but subtle shade. So I brought some paint chips in muted shades of Teal, Red, Brown, Purple, Plum and Musturd yellow. I taped them to the door and looked at them from the walkway and them from the road. Plum was the winner. It went well with the exterior colors of the house and in future, if I can ever convice my husband to get the exterior painted in grey tone, it will look even better. So I went to Lowes and asked for a sample size since I only had to paint the outer side. Inside was white so I plan to paint it with fresh coat of white later some day. But the sample didn't get the right color, it looked more like chocolate brown than the plum/purple/brown mixed shade I wanted. The guy at the counter said it happens with samples that the colors won't come out right, so he suggested I try a quart. I didn't have a choice though I don't need the whole quart for this project (at $12). So I had him make a quart and the color came out perfect. It was paint and primer in one so I didn't have to worry about priming the door first.

Next, Washing the door. I started with wiping off with a wet rag, but boy, was that door dirty. I finally had to use a hose to spray water, scrub and wipe couple of times to make it better. I have to admit, I never washed that door in 3 years. May be once with just water. An my daughter touhces it everyday. Ewwww.... Now that I know, I will clean it more often.

I washed it in the morning and let it dry till evening. After work I started painting the first coat, took about 1.5 hours. Let it dry for couple of hours with door open, then shut the door for night. Long summer days really helped here. The color looked so good, it motivated Mr. to paint the 2nd coat next day. I had to do some touch ups after the 2nd coat dried to cover the unpainted nooks due to my so-not-precise taping.

I used an angled brush, but it had thicker bristles so it left streeks during first coat and showed the old color. It took a little work to get nice coverage. I think a better paint brush would have helped, but that's all we had on hand. For a bigger paint project, I will invest in a nicer brush.

But look at that beauty.

Now everytime we get in and out of the car, we adore that Once Boring, Now Rocking door. Next, we need to update those old handles and paint the trim white to make the door color really pop. For now, I am happy with this.