Six years. I have loathed my front door since the moment I saw it at the open house for the house. It was so dark, and depressing. However, it was a great, solid wood door. I didn’t want to totally get rid of it, but I wanted to improve upon it. I just wasn’t sure how to do it, because the last thing I wanted: sanding it before painting it. Yes, it had a super gloss coat of something on it? Oh yeah, pure awesome. I was kind of perplexed as to how to change the door, without costing me more time and money than I really had.
D.I.Y. Front Door Project
Honestly, I hated our shutters on the house, too. Green is a great color, but the green on the vinyl shutters on our home, were not a pretty green. Totally BORING, snooze-fest green. The color just didn’t do it for me. I researched how much it would be to buy new vinyl shutters to fit on our windows. No way was I dropping a huge amount on new shutters, so I had to figure out how to paint them.
I stumbled upon a great primer that allowed me to paint over the vinyl shutters, which would mean I was able to paint them any color I wanted to paint them! If you don’t remember that project, head over to check it out, I think you’ll enjoy the transformation of my vinyl shutters from boring green, to vibrant blue.
Multi-use primer
As luck would have it, that same primer can go on ANY surface, so you can update anything, really. Even dark, and glossy, front doors. I used a spray can version of the primer, but for the front door, I went with a regular can of primer paint. I’m not great with a spray can. If I used it in the house, I’d have a house speckled with white primer. Not a good scene. I also had NO INTENTION of removing the front door from the hinges. I wanted an easy, no stress Do-It-Yourself project!
The entire project took me two days to do, because I wanted the primer to really dry well before I put the color on it. Sunday afternoon I painted two coats of the primer on the door. Mama Sunflower loves to work hard, as long as it’s in the comfort of the A.C. circulating through the house. See why I didn’t remove the doors from the hinges?
After the primer dried (which should have been just overnight, but I ran into a few scheduling issues, so the door was primer white for about a week,) I put the first coat of blue onto the door. I had no issues at all. Worked like a charm over the Zinsser Bulls Eye 1-2-3 Primer. I was thrilled. The first coat dried, and I did a second coat. Perfection.
Final thoughts on my DIY project
Personally, I do think I need another coat, to just go over some of the white streaks that came through in the little nooks of the door. However, it can wait until the kids are back in school, and I have more time. Right now, it works.
Now my shutters match my front door, and at some point, in the near future, I hope, my garage door will also match. The garage door is a battle. Sanding. Cleaning. UGH. Plus, it has a lot more little nooks and crannies to paint, so I’m considering getting a paint sprayer to tackle that huge door.
